Re-Wilding the Quad Parcels at the Celery Fields

Recent News:

On January 23, 2025, we began Re-Wilding the Quad Parcels with a groundbreaking attended by all three partners: Sarasota Audubon, Big Waters Land Trust, and Sarasota County – as well as community investors, stakeholders, staff, volunteers and neighbors.

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Wildlife. Environment. Community. We have a unique opportunity to enhance and improve the Quad Parcels at the Celery Fields, creating wildlife habitat and low-impact public access for all to enjoy. This transformation will also protect the Celery Fields from urban expansion, creating an effective and appealing buffer to this nationally and internationally recognized birding haven vital to our water quality and flood protection.

This ambitious plan, undertaken in partnership with Big Waters Land Trust (formerly Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast), is a huge win not only for our wildlife and birds – more than 240 species of birds have been recorded here – but for people as well. This special public-private partnership will be a community conservation success story that lives on for endless generations.

The Vision. Together we will transform three, permanently protected Quad Parcels to be a point of pride for Sarasota County and its residents as well as a special place for the public to enjoy the outdoors: A safe haven for wildlife, additional birding trails with a broader range of habitats where birders can encounter an even greater variety of birds, a destination for kids to discover and explore, an improved and expanded water storage and filtration system for flood prevention and improved water quality. This will be a place where people can connect with nature, and each other, while deepening their sense of community.

Join us in making this vision a reality. Together we will ensure that generations today, tomorrow, and beyond enjoy this natural space forever.

What’s happening now: We officially broke ground on the southeastern parcel on January 23, 2025 and began Phase One of our Quads Parcel Re-Wilding. The SE parcel is located at the corner of Apex Road and Palmer Blvd. Click here to access our newsletters and be up to date with all the latest events and information.

Phase 1:

The southeastern parcel will add trees and other selected plantings to the parcel to attract and support local and migratory birds and wildlife that depend on woodlands habitat for foraging and nesting. The design plan includes a pollinator meadow and plantings that target 5 imperiled bird species and 2 bat species. The completed design includes public access with ADA foot paths and a boardwalk to a pond with an overhanging viewing platform.

 

 

Phase 2:

The SW parcel is the welcome mat for the Quad Parcel re-wilding. As it will be the arrival point for visitors to this area of the Celery Fields, it will feature more areas for public use: a parking lot, restrooms, ADA paths, a children’s natural play area and open green space.

 

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The Partnership

Sarasota Audubon Society (SAS) and Big Waters Land Trust (formerly Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast), along with Sarasota County, have an ambitious plan to create an effective and appealing buffer for one of Florida’s premier recreational and environmentally sensitive areas. This is a huge win not only for wildlife, as more than 240 species of birds have been recorded here, but for people as well. This special public-private partnership will be a community conservation success story that lives on for generations to come.

Sarasota Audubon Society’s and Big Waters Land Trust’s (BWLT) partnership is longstanding. For more than 15 years, SAS and BWLT have partnered for the protection of Snowy Plovers on Siesta Key. Part of the Florida Audubon Beach Nesting Birds’ program. BWLT manages the Conservation Easement while SAS monitors and protects the birds that nest on the property. Now we are working together to design and fundraise to create new habitat and public access at the Quad Parcels at the Celery Fields.

Thanks to the support of the community and the many strategic partnerships that both SAS and BWLT have independently forged, we have a proven track record of community projects that provide for the enjoyment of nature, safeguarding of our water supply, and expansion and enrichment of wildlife habitat.

SAS and BWLT will continue to make conservation history for our region, ensuring that the Quad Parcels at the Celery Fields are enjoyed by all for endless generations.