Deep in the Picayune Strand State Forest in Collier County, a unique type of research is underway.
"We are trying to listen for the biological sounds – so the sounds that the wildlife is making,” Charley Vance, a student with Florida Gulf Coast University, told NBC2.
Vance and professor Win Everham have set up seven audio recorders across the forest.
“(These) will capture every sound in this environment,” Vance said. "There's incredible value with studying sound on a landscape.”
“We're sticking our fingers – and our ears – into different places to see if we can feel or hear how well the recovery is happening,” Everham said.
That recovery Everham mentions is the Picayune Strand Restoration Project .
The state has been working for years to remove roads and plug canals in the area after a failed development on the land decades ago.
“I'm really, really excited and honored to have a little tiny piece of what I think is a beautiful project,” Everham said. “Humans fixing stuff we broke.”
FGCU’s piece of that is to listen to what wildlife is there as the land is restored, to find out how it changes from dry season to wet season, and to learn how well it responds to things like hurricanes or wildfires.
“We don't have to be out here all the time,” Vance said. “We can set these units, check them, and collect them when we're done. This provides an immense wealth of data.”
Amazingly, the research team can identify what animals are in the forest simply by listening to the audio recordings.
“And I'd like to think our data helps guide, maybe we can do this differently,” Everham said of the restoration work.
For Vance, there’s an emotional, even spiritual connection to the research.
“Not many places in the world where you can just go and enjoy the natural sounds of the environment. The natural quiet,” he said. “It's a rapidly draining resource."