"Nora Egan Demers, Ph.D., is the founder of the San Carlos Park/East Mullock Drainage District-Habitat Restoration Project. In 2006, Dr. Demers was a part of Estero Bay Watershed where she learned that a lot of trash and fertilizers from the lawns in San Carlos Park end up in the canals that lead to Mullock Creek and pollute it. As a researcher and biologist she decided to do something about it. The purpose of the project is to keep the fertilizers from the lawns from entering canal water and restoring natural habitat for native species. To start off the project Dr. Demers decided to create a demonstration site on one of the major canals in San Carlos Park. First, she had to find support from sponsors for this project. Many organizations decided to help. They included: Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, Southwest Florida Watershed Council, Whitaker Center, Eagles Connect at FGCU, ShoreSox, Florida Division of Forestry and Center for Civic Engagement at FGCU. Thanks to the sponsors Dr. Demers was able to complete around $20,000 worth of work up until November of 2009, excluding any labor that was done by volunteers.

The actual work on the demonstration site started in 2009. The site is located behind three backyards of residential properties located next to the canal in San Carlos Park. It is a middle-class, non-gated community of renters and home owners. Before any intervention, the project site was filled with invasive exotic plants like melaleuca and Brazilian pepper, which kept many native animal species, especially butterflies, from thriving in the area. The first step in the project was to take down or uproot all invasive plants. Then the ShoreSox were installed to prevent the degradation of the canal’s shoreline. Once that step was completed, volunteers from the Florida Gulf Coast University colloquium classes were helping in the project. First, all of the shorter exotic invasive plants had to be removed before planting, and then students planted native, draught resistant plants. Volunteers continued coming weeks after the initial planting to spread mulch and water the plants.

As the native plants grow and native animals come back to their natural habitat we can expect prettier surroundings and cleaner water with no herbicides and fertilizers, the benefits of which will increase the property value. Dr. Demers hopes to raise community awareness of the importance of her project and gain more support for it. She is also attempting to find more sponsors to increase the spectrum of the project and be able to increase her demonstration site and also start habitat restoration on other canals. "