Did the Collier family make land available to create Big Cypress National Preserve?
In 1974, Collier family members and entities conveyed 76,800 surface acres to the federal government representing the initial tract establishing the Big Cypress National Preserve. Fourteen years later, in 1996, the Colliers completed an exchange of 83,000 surface acres with the Department of the Interior, adding to the Big Cypress National Preserve and creating the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge.
