Two years ago, when developers rolled into Dunedin, Florida with the plan to demolish 44 acres of land, citizens and local government officials rallied to save an area full of native plants in a feat of grassroots environmental activism.
Over the course of those two years, residents of Pinellas County and private donors banded together to raise $10 million to buy the land in May 2021 — and now, they've opened the Gladys E. Douglas Preserve, ensuring the land will stay wild forever.
The nature preserve is named after the land's original owner, a philanthropist whose dying wish was to have the land preserved by city officials. It took some elbow grease (like a Facebook page devoted to the cause, Zoom meetings and strategy sessions, local fundraisers at breweries, online…
