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Realtors breathlessly describe living in Pelican Bay as a luxury lifestyle. Many places in Naples can make that claim. For Pelican Bay, it’s only part of the story.

What makes Pelican Bay unique is that it is nestled alongside a pristine mangrove forest and a protected marine refuge. The rest of the story is that few outside Pelican Bay know of its contribution to the larger community of Collier County — its citizens, taxpayers, tourists — or of its strong commitment to preserving an unusual wetlands and nature preserve.

Pelican Bay is a model community on Florida’s island coast and proof that it is possible to both enjoy and protect the environment. Its developers — working with federal, state, regional and county government — were intent on not doing to this 3-mile-long stretch of marsh, forest and estuary what had been done to neighboring waterside communities.

There, to the north and south, mangrove forests were torn out and replaced by sea walls and canals. Buildings were constructed at water’s edge and close together with little regard for public access and even less foresight about controlling the eventual pollution in their bays from undertreated runoff.

A large section of the land that would be developed as Pelican Bay was declared as the Pelican Bay Conservation Area by the county government to ensure it not be developed or otherwise altered in any way that would harm the sea bottom and the grasses, a move backed by every conservation and preservation agency.

To assure that human habitats would not disrupt the refuge, its planners separated the high-rises from the forests and bays by a wide berm, and a civic conscience came into being. Twenty years later, when two mangrove die-offs occurred, Pelican Bay formed the Mangrove Action Group to find the cause and solution. They were joined by Collier County’s Natural Resources Department, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Rookery Bay staff and the University of Miami.

The Clam Bay Restoration and Management Plan was conceived, and Pelican Bay residents and Westinghouse Inc. financed the work of bringing the mangroves back from near extinction.

In 1995, Collier County created a Natural Resources Protection Area (NRPA) with an overlay of protections for marine and wildlife survival. Pelican Bay’s conservation area became the first NRPA in Collier County and remains its only coastal one.

Today, this exquisite estuary, with a dozen different habitats spread over 570 acres, is lushly vegetated with mangroves and is a home and nursery for over 300 species that include sea turtles, gopher tortoise, clams, oysters, birds (180 species), fish (73) and snakes (12).

Pelican Bay’s commitment to this NRPA dictates all its practices. Every pond and creek, every marshland and copse is treated as precious. Recycled water is used to irrigate. No tree or shrub may be replaced without approval of its variety. All surface water is treated before it is released to help assure that the water in Outer Clam Bay, Inner Clam Bay, Upper Clam Bay and the pass is free of man-made pollutants. Such conservation benefits every taxpayer and tourist in Collier.

But Pelican Bay’s contribution to the county does not stop with the preservation of one of the last undeveloped coastal barrier resource areas between Bonita Spring and the Everglades. Along its west side are nearly three miles of wide sand beach made for fun. However, getting to them without hurting the estuary or forest is another matter.

With that in mind, Pelican Bay constructed two bridges that span the forest from berm to beach for the use of its residents who walk or take a tram to the water. Then, it donated a chunk of land at both the north and south ends of its property to the county so that the public would have equal access to the Gulf of Mexico.

The county constructed a similar boardwalk, bridge and tram system to reach the beach on the donated land to the south where it has access to the pass, a natural playground enjoyed by thousands of tourists, citizens and residents who swim, tube, splash and snorkel, paddle, fish and wade in shallow waters that teem with birds and fish. There is no other place quite like it along this coast.

Collier County taxpayers do not pay for Pelican Bay’s stewardship. In addition to their ad valorem property taxes, its owners assess themselves to assure the welfare of their common land and the Eden in its midst. They spent $2 million of their own money on beach renourishment, paid to bring the mangroves back from near extinction 10 years ago, pay for the plantings and lighting that beautify their boulevards, pay for water treatment and for many of their roads.

The conservation area and Pelican Bay are proof that people and houses can exist in harmony with mangroves and wood storks, that kayakers and people at play in the water can have fun without hurting oyster beds and sea grasses.

The challenge now will be to educate others that this fragile balance between nature and human use should not be altered to benefit special interests. Rather, we must all be vigilant to preserve this unusual resource for the enjoyment of future generations of Collier County.

Findlater has lived in The Heron at Pelican Bay for seven years. She is a retired ABC television executive.

Click on the dolphin to see a Clam Bay Species List