The Forest Along Venice's Waterway Trail Took Eight Years to Plant. Here's How to Walk It.

In June 2018, the strip of old railroad land east of the Intracoastal Waterway had 259 trees on it, and volunteers held a ribbon-cutting for four newly planted live oaks at its northern entrance, according to the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Today Venice Area Beautification Inc. counts more than 5,000 trees and 20,000 native plants along the same corridor.

The number that tells you the most is the bird count. When work started on land that was "all railroad tracks and rubble," there were fewer than 10 bird species there, project manager Phil Ellis told the Venice Gondolier. VABI now reports more than 100 species documented by Venice Audubon since November 2018. That jump says a lot about the project, because the Venice Urban Forest was designed for wildlife first, and its builders always meant for people to follow.

A Forest Planned Around What Animals Eat

The corridor runs nearly two miles from the Venice Train Depot south to Center Road, alongside the paved Venetian Waterway Park trail. The Gondolier describes it as sitting between the waterway park and the Seaboard district. Plenty of people have biked past it for years without knowing someone planned what grows there.

Greg Vine, one of the forest's founders, put the design idea this way in the Gondolier's account of the soft opening:

"The whole forest is a butterfly garden and a frog habitat — a grocery store."

The idea is a food chain. Butterflies and frogs come to habitat built for them, animals that eat butterflies and frogs follow, and larger animals follow those. Ellis told the paper that otters and bobcats have also been seen on the land.

Even the names went through a round of local negotiation. Vine said he first pitched the project as a "frog bog" because the phrase brought in donations. Sarasota County objected to "bog," so the official name became "frog habitat." Vine says there's still a frog bog inside it, a patch meant to be a swamp, which he described as "where frogs are doing their thing."

VABI lists the forest's built habitats as frog, pollinator and hummingbird areas. It describes the corridor as habitat for native wildlife and migratory birds that also filters and absorbs stormwater. When Gulf Coast Community Foundation funded the final phase, the plan named the trees to be bought and planted, including 400 slash pines, 200 red cedars and 10 longleaf pines, all chosen to support migratory songbirds and native wildlife, SRQ Magazine reported.

Eight Years, Three Phases and Three Hurricanes

A forest planted for habitat takes years to show results, and this one lost a lot of ground along the way. VABI splits the project into three periods:

The third phase took the longest. Hurricane Ian destroyed about 125 trees, according to SRQ Magazine's report on the $100,000 Gulf Coast Community Foundation grant that paid for Phase 3 irrigation and new trees. VABI says Helene and Milton then knocked down more trees, and volunteers replanted after each storm.

Jon Thaxton, the foundation's senior vice president of community leadership, gave the credit to VABI's volunteers, who he said "have not been deterred by rain, heat, or hurricanes." The Florida Urban Forestry Council gave the project its Outstanding Project award in 2020. The council's account of the work also names partners including Venice Audubon Society, Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast, Florida Native Plant Society, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Sweet Bay Nursery and Florida Native Plants Nursery.

The county took convincing too. Vine told the Gondolier it took about three years from the first pitch just to get Sarasota County on board. What changed minds, Ellis said, was a painting by Venice artist Bill Farnsworth showing how the forest would look 20 to 25 years later. "With that picture, it went from 'We don't know' to 'Wow, we want that,'" Ellis told the paper.

That painting matters for anyone walking the trail now. The forest it pictured is still about two decades from maturity, and the slash pines and red cedars are still growing toward it.

A Grand Opening, Not a Finish Line

VABI set the official grand opening for Saturday, Nov. 14, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. at 308 E. Venice Ave. The organization billed the event as a celebration of "eight years of community vision, environmental restoration, and volunteer dedication." The City of Venice listed it on the municipal calendar. VABI's own invitation called the day "the beginning of the Venice Urban Forest's next chapter."

The forest was already partly open before that date. At an earlier soft opening covered by the Gondolier, Farnsworth helped ceremonially open the gate for visitors. That stretch covered two-thirds of the forest, and county approval for it was still pending at the time.

At that event, Ellis said the forest as planned was about 95% complete and well under budget. VABI President Bill Willson joked that the forest would keep growing anyway. The same article listed what was still left to do. The county had committed to building an entrance and parking at the south end off Center Road. Vegetation will need ongoing care and sometimes replacement. A section of the corridor running toward the bypass, near the new site for the city's Solid Waste and Fleet operations, had not yet been improved.

"Hopefully, we're going to be able to do this for a very long time," Ellis said. For a project built to feed wildlife, there's no point where the work is complete. VABI framed the grand opening as the start of a stage where more people walk the forest while the trees keep filling in.

Walking It From the Depot End

The forest was built for slow walking, and the practical details reflect that. Here's how to start from the north end:

1. Park near the old depot. The City lists the historic Venice Train Depot as one of the east-side parking areas for the Venetian Waterway Park. For an April 2026 bird walk, Venice Area Audubon told participants to meet at a small dirt lot at the forest trailhead. To get there, drive west on Venice Avenue from U.S. 41, stay right and take the side road instead of the bridge, continue past the depot to the end, make a U-turn under the bridge, and the lot is just past the Venetian Waterway Park trail.
2. Leave the pavement. Audubon describes the forest path as a level dirt path. The forest is narrow enough that Audubon capped that walk at 15 birders.
3. Use your phone as the guide. VABI's free Forest Walk runs in your phone's browser with no app or account. It shows map markers and pop-ups about the native plants, wildlife and habitats around you, so you can stop and continue at your own pace.
4. Look for the built habitats. VABI's overview points to the frog, pollinator and hummingbird habitats, along with birds, wildflowers and butterflies.
5. Know which rules apply where. Sarasota County posts hours of 6 a.m. to sunset for the paved Venetian Waterway Park trail on the east side, allows leashed dogs, and lists a restroom. Those rules cover the county trail next to the forest.

The pavement next to the forest goes much farther than the forest does. The county says the east-side Venetian Waterway Park trail, 3.8 miles long, is a segment of The Legacy Trail. It connects to the main trail near the depot and runs south to Shamrock Park. That makes it easy to combine a bike ride with a walk, either by parking at the depot for a slow pass through the forest or by riding south toward Shamrock Park.

The forest still depends on volunteers. VABI's volunteer form has a Venice Urban Forest team you can select, and the office takes questions at [email protected].

At Megan Finke Group, we pay attention to the places that shape a Venice morning, like a dirt path that holds more than 100 bird species a few steps from downtown. If you'd like help finding a home within easy reach of the depot end of the Waterway trail, or want to talk about the parts of Venice you already enjoy, we'd love to hear from you. Schedule a Consultation.