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Paul E. Holton Eco-Preserve and Certified Arboretum

The Holton Eco-Preserve and Certified Arboretum is located on the 12 and a half acre grounds of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fort Myers. The centerpiece of the Preserve and Arboretum is a pond circled with a collection of trees native to Southwest Florida, such as the Cocoplum, the Red Maple and Sweet Acacia.  Several varieties of Oak are among the collection: Water Oak, Willow Oak, Southern Live Oak, and Beach Sheoak. Beyond the pond is a wooded path which runs through a designated wetland. Trees in the woods are mostly Bald Cypress and Slash Pines.  Our mission is to maintain a natural oasis in a developed area, with an assortment of bushes and flowering plants but mainly of trees native to southwest Florida or compatible with this area without being invasive. 

This land was gifted to our campus in 1997 by Paul E. Holton, founder of Holton Foods, Chicago. 

For two decades it has been an Eco-Preserve. It inspired a curriculum for children called “Earth Wonders,” which focuses on the 7th principle of Unitarian Universalism: “respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.”  We are grateful to be accredited as a level 1 arboretum as trees are crucial to this web, providing habitat and sustenance to wildlife and releasing life-sustaining oxygen into the air.  We wish to use this opportunity to offer the wider community around us a space to meditate, work on scientific projects, and participate in educational ventures directed toward the young.