Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive closed

Jeanne Merrill’s shoulders slumped as she pulled up to the shuttered entrance of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive with an SUV filled with vacationing New Englanders eager to see alligators in their natural habitat.

The gates were locked. A sign zip-tied to the chainlink fence read “Property CLOSED until further notice due to extensive hurricane damage and safety concerns.”

The 11-mile drive along Lake Apopka’s north shore has been shut down since mid-September, when Hurricane Irma caused a levee to breach, bowled over trees and flooded nearly three-quarters of the 20,000 publicly owned acres that are lush with birds, reptiles and other wildlife.

“We had to bring Ian to see alligators,” Merrill’s brother-in-law Ross Therrien said of his 6-year-old

grandson, frowning in a back seat. But not all the news around the popular wildlife drive is bad.

The St. Johns River Water Management District, which supervises and manages the wildlife drive, approved an agreement Tuesday that will give Apopka control of a 71-acre parcel near the drive’s entrance off Lust Road.

The district acquired the property in 1999 in a larger land deal for about $3.3 million as part of its effort to improve the water quality in Lake Apopka.

The city, in partnership with Florida Audubon, intends to turn the vacant land into a gateway birding park to boost ecotourism, Apopka Mayor Joe Kilsheimer said.

An opening date has not yet been set.

District officials consider Apopka’s planned use of the land as “compatible” with its conservation mission, agency spokeswoman Danielle Spears said.

The agreement also calls allows the district to use city-owned reclaimed water facilities nearby.

Spears said the wildlife drive will stay closed to visitors indefinitely while the district repairs the hurricane-related damage that made the drive unsafe.

Irma dumped a foot of rain, and the levee — which had separated Lake Apopka from the former farmlands on the north shore — breached, spilling water onto trails, north shore roads and parking areas. She said the district used more than 640 tons of dirt and other material to plug the 357-foot levee breach.

Water levels in some areas have dropped half a foot in the past two months but are still two feet higher than they should be.

“There are areas where we haven’t even been able to assess the damage yet because of high water,” Spears said.

A popular venue for wildlife photographers and birding enthusiasts, the crushed-rock wildlife drive opened in 2015 and drew more than 80,000 visitors in 2016 to glimpse alligators, bobcats, otters and hundreds of species of birds.

District statistics showed the drive may have easily drawn more than 100,000 visitors this year — if not for Irma.

Amber Thomas, her husband, Chris Bateman, and their dog Phantom also drove 90 miles from Zephyrhills to Apopka on Wednesday to enjoy the wildlife drive.

“You can’t help what Mother Nature does,” Thomas said with a shrug.

She vowed to return when the drive reopens.

Merrill, of Sorrento, and her entourage from New Hampshire, meanwhile, headed south on Binion Road to Magnolia Park, hoping to catch a glimpse of gators there.

Spears said the district will continue to post weekly updates on the status of the wildlife drive weekly at sjrwmd.com.

STEPHEN HUDAK/STAFF The gates to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Trail, a drive-through loop featuring big alligators, a menagerie of bird species and other natural wonders, are closed and chained shut.

COURTESY OF ST. JOHNS RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT Repairs are underway in areas of the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Lake Apopka North Shore that Irma damaged.

COURTESY OF ST. JOHNS RIVER WATER MANAGEMENT A floating barrier is installed to minimize additional Hurricane Irma damage to a levee at the St. Johns River Water Management District’s Lake Apopka North Shore.