"Father of the Fahkahatchee"

"Father of the Fahkahatchee". Mel Finn. Georgia native, adopted son of Florida, U.S. Army Air Corps veteran, U. of Miami graduate, attorney, founder of the Florida Nature Conservancy, member of Tropical Audubon, South Florida Orchid Society and self-trained field biologist, he criss-crossed the cutover Fahkahatchee, identified 45 varieties of orchids, nine found nowhere else., Mel was the Fahkahatchee’s voice, dogged, persistent, abrasive, whatever it took; he badgered nature groups, led chest-deep field trips, wrote appeals to preserve this once mightiest of South Florida cypress strands. An ailing heart took him before his dream was realized but he had made his point. Florida funded acquisition, a buy-back program still underway., Today, because of Mel Finn’s vision and persistence, you enjoy the recovering Fahkahatchee, main artery in the circulatory system of Southwest Florida. Outgrowth of Mel’s dream, a wilderness greenway now stretches fifty miles from the southeast corner of Lee County to the waters of Florida Bay , Gulf of Mexico. Greenway links are Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Fahkahatchee State Reserve and the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge., Mel, you made believers out of the rest of us and , were a pioneer in Florida’s land conservation efforts. , Friends of Mel Finn , 1998.