Spurlino Basis Discovery Middle
One thing thrilling has been brewing at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in Naples: The brand new customer expertise, which opened on February 4, 2026, immerses all ages in swampy goodness. With reveals like “Life Beneath the Floor,” “Defending Migratory Birds,” and lots of others, the brand new Spurlino Basis Discovery Middle shines a highlight on the Sanctuary’s animals and vegetation, from charismatic wading birds to ghost orchids, like by no means earlier than.
The renovated exhibit house is within the Blair Customer Middle, which welcomes 80,000+ annual guests to this outstanding, 13,000- acre wildlife sanctuary and serves as a gateway to the Western Everglades. With a beneficiant reward from the Spurlino Basis, Audubon has up to date the unique 1,600 square-foot discovery middle with new interactive reveals illustrating the historical past and ecology of the Sanctuary whereas inspiring curiosity and a conservation ethos in all guests. The immersive studying expertise is the proper complement to a stroll alongside the famend 2.25-mile boardwalk.
The opening of the Spurlino Basis Discovery Middle marks the completion of the primary section of building for a visionary Capital Marketing campaign campus transformation. This section included different customer expertise enhancements, equivalent to new navigational indicators for the parking zone, a brand new campus entrance, and 95 new wayfinding, interpretive, and academic indicators on campus and alongside the boardwalk.
Breaking Floor of Part Two
Strategic investments within the Sanctuary’s mission-critical services will enhance effectivity and broaden our conservation impression. Sustainably constructed with nature and folks in thoughts, the deliberate campus infrastructure enhancements will develop our group’s capability to conduct modern science and analysis, defend susceptible wildlife, educate and encourage individuals of all ages, and join conservationists with nature in new and significant methods.
The capital enhancements will maximize our management with new, state-of-the-art services to assist the necessary collaborations between our analysis and land stewardship groups, and the coverage and restoration selections they inform throughout the state. Positioned on the web site of the Chickee classroom, the Corkscrew Commons (which can embrace the Western Everglades Analysis Middle, the Land Stewardship Operations Middle, and extra) will deliver our training and conservation groups collectively in a centralized, public-facing house to bolster collaboration and lift consciousness of our work past the boardwalk.
Into the Future
Because the gateway to the Western Everglades, the 13,000 acres of untamed Florida habitat inside Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary maintain the important thing to learning, and saving, Florida’s vanishing wetlands. The brand new John “Jack” Hayworth Western Everglades Analysis Middle, about to interrupt floor in Naples, will present lab house for Audubon scientists learning ecology and wildlife whereas additionally offering house to host and collaborate with visiting researchers from all over the world.
The campus transformation underway presents a singular alternative to spend money on preserving the Everglades whereas additionally creating your legacy as a conservation champion. Recognition alternatives for areas like the brand new Outside Moist Lab and an interpretive wetland for kids’s packages, in addition to many others, could be reviewed right here: Audubon.org/corkscrew/vision
Thus far, now we have raised practically $17 million of the $20 million wanted to finish these enhancements. Be part of us!
This article originally appeared in the Spring 2026 State of the Everglades Report.
