Wetlands like the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve were once considered a nuisance to progress, and many were drained and filled for agricultural and developmental purposes. People later began to realize that wetlands are valuable for important environmental and economic functions such as flood control, water purification, and recharge of the aquifer, a natural underground storage space for water. In 1976, the citizens of Lee County voted to provide funds to purchase the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, and the South Florida Water Management District also contributed through the Save Our Rivers program. Efforts by members of the Six Mile Cypress Basin Development Review Board who served between March 1983 and March 1993 helped preserve the slough by protecting the quantity and quality of water in the slough’s watershed.