Talk on the Wild Side
with Will Elliott

Transcription

Vikki Locke

I am Vikki Locke with C2 Communications and this is Talk on the Wild Side where we have conservation talks about career paths you might be interested in, and it’s brought you by the Florida Wildlife Federation. Joining us today is Will Elliott. Hey Will.

Will Elliott

Hi.

Vikki Locke

Will is the General Manager of Collier Environmental Services, and if you know the Ave Maria area then you know Will, because you’re responsible for the thriving natural habitats in that area. Why don’t you explain a little bit about the work that did there?

Will Elliott

What we did there, as part of the development, when it was done we had to restore lots and lots of areas and in town specifically, there were some old vegetable fields. And they are areas where they would just pump water out of the fields into holding areas and they’d just become completely infested with Brazilian pepper. So we would go in, take that out, and it was a lot of beautiful Cypress stones out there, and the Brazilian pepper, we had to cut that out and remove it. Once we had all that done, then there were five wetlands that were restored. They were contoured, leveled, we would put in marshes and all that stuff was done and eradicated everything invasive or exotic. And then went in and replanted it. If you drive down the boulevard today you can see we got trees that are 12, 13 feet tall. That work was done, I think it was completed in July of 2007. It was a lot of work.

Vikki Locke

That must be a great of pride, though.

Will Elliott

It is. Driving down the boulevard we’ve got five wetlands you can see and they’ll be there forever.

Vikki Locke

What is with the Brazilian pepper? Where did it come from? And where is it wreaking havoc?

Will Elliott

Well, actually years ago people liked it. They called it Florida Holly and they liked it when it had the red berries, but what they didn’t realize is it is a class 1 exotic. It is extremely aggressive and it will outcompete and take over any area that gets it so when you see pepper usually see a big long line of it or a big clump. It out-competes near vegetation and also exhibits what they call allelopathy, it prevents anything from growing underneath it, so it’s just solid Brazilian pepper. It’s one of the worst exotic plants growing down here.

Vikki Locke

It takes over.

Will Elliott

It takes over everything. It’s a tough one.

Vikki Locke

Why don’t you tell us how a kid gets excited about soil science.

Will Elliott

I used to work Summers, I had an uncle who had peaches, prunes, and rice, and I go up and work Summers for him, and I like being outside I like working in the field, and I just decided, if I knew how the soil worked, I could grow anything I wanted. So I went to school and got a degree in Soil Science. I have a BSS, that’s why people say I talk so much. It is work. If you understand the soil, you’ve got a pretty good understanding of how mother nature works.

Vikki Locke

So, can you grow anything?

Will Elliott

I grow a lot of different stuff, I’ve grown walnuts, almonds, peaches, prunes, a little bit of rice, kiwis, avocados, pineapple. I used to work on a 15-acre pineapple plantation in Oahu. I have pineapple plants in my backyard right now.

Vikki Locke

So would you say working with your uncle is what kind of drove you to study what you studied out at the beginning?

Will Elliott

It was. I started working for him in the summer between 7th and 8th-grade email and you’ve got big plans of what are you going to do. He always encouraged me: “you’ve got a knack for this, you’ve got a knack for this,”  and I finally took him to heart and applied to school, and I’m glad I did. I enjoy it.

Vikki Locke

What advice do you have for other people that, same thing, they love being outdoors, maybe they like growing and maybe they don’t necessarily want to be a full-time farmer, what would you suggest?

Will Elliott

Anything when you’re dealing with some natural areas. We’re restoring and mitigating all these natural areas and bringing them back to their native state and we keep it that way, and it is, there is a great sense of pride any time I drive by.

We started doing this in 2006 and we’ve done, just our company itself, I think we’re at select 14000 acres that we’ve restored throughout Southwest Florida. You’re outside and you’re actually working with mother nature and we’re putting it back in its native estate and that always feels good.

Vikki Locke

So what’s your goal? What do you hope to achieve in the next 10-15 years?

Will Elliott

We expand. We do we offer more and more, we try to get better at what we do and continue to branch out down here in this area. We’ve been brought to that area where we work. We work all over Southwest Florida now and just keep it going. Do it better. Need more people, restore more property because it’s good for the environment. We need it. We need properly functioning wetlands down here.

Vikki Locke

And staying that you need more people, is there a website that you can give us where anyone interested can contact you about maybe joining forces?

Will Elliott

You can go on collierneviro.com, which is my website. I’m always happy to talk to people. Something we do summer interns, we currently don’t have one. You can go in there and there’s a link you can reach out to me.

Vikki Locke

That’s fantastic. Thank you so much for being with us today and thanks to the Florida Wildlife Federation for sponsoring Talk on the Wild Side and keeping the wild in Florida since 1936. You can learn more at floridawildlifefederation.org.