His grandfather had trapped muskrats here during the Depression, living on a diet of turtle soup and hard tack. His mother had collected arrowheads from a shell midden on the eastern ridge—evidence of the Calusa people who’d called this muck home a thousand years before. The water itself was the real wealth, a slow, dark sponge that swallowed the spring rains and released them, drop by drop, through the long, blistering summers. It kept the wells of the town sweet. It kept the fires at bay.
“I got lost,” the boy whispered. “My dad said it was just a ditch. He said it was nothing.” wetland
Native species such as [Species A] and [Species B] are thriving and represent approximately 70% of the vegetative cover. His grandfather had trapped muskrats here during the
