This is a Balanced Nature themed geocache on the Marsh Trails of the CREW.   CREW is located on Highway 850 between Immokalee and Bonita Springs, FL. The CREW Marsh trails are open dawn until dusk. Please bring plenty of water and you may need mosquito repellent for the hike.

This is a letterbox!  To get to the final you need to read all the directions and do a projection at the given coordinates.

Balanced Nature

Symbiosis:  The relationship between 2 different kinds of living things that live and depend on each other.  For example, cattle egrets and cattle.  The cattle graze and disturb insects in the soil  The egrets eat the bugs that the cattle have served up.  The egrets will also 'ride' on the cattle and pick the insects from the coat of the cattle.  Win/Win!!!

The Balanced Nature caches on this Marsh Trail of the CREW are themed to just remind everyone of what we all take for granted.  Nature must be balanced for the Earth to survive and the continuance of life here as we commonly know.  As we stroll through the CREW on the Marsh Trail, take some time and look at what the Earth and nature has to offer us.  Find the geocaches and look around to see if you can find the main theme to this cache.  You may see it here, or you may see it elsewhere on the trails.  Nature is all around, but…….. sometimes it hides.  Just like geocaches.  

Have fun, look around for the theme of this cache and enjoy the day.  

CREW (Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed) is a 60,000 acre watershed. A watershed is an area of land that absorbs rain and ground water and then drains it into a wetland. The CREW marsh is a 5000 acre wetland which holds onto the water it receives allowing the water to slowly sink into the ground. The marsh protects downstream areas from flooding during the rainy season and stores water for use during a drought. The plants in the marsh, dominated by sawgrass, filter the water, removing pesticides and other substances harmful to humans. After it is cleaned, the water through the force of gravity sinks into the ground through the spaces in the soil and bedrock ( rock that underlies the soil) recharging the underground aquifer. An aquifer is a permeable layer of bedrock that stores and conducts the water. The bedrock in the CREW marsh is composed of limestone which makes a good aquifer. This aquifer is the main source of drinking water for this part of Florida. Most of the 55 inches of annual rainfall the marsh receives comes in the summer and fall.