A thunderstorm rolls across the expanse of eastern Collier County delivering South Florida's most precious natural resource, water. Historically, as this rainfall trickled toward the Gulf of Mexico, its fate was decided by slight natural contours in the land. Now the water is channeled through man-made canals and ditches. While the growth and development that brought these canals is the economic lifeblood of Collier County, the unhindered flow of fresh water is the ecological lifeblood. Finding a middle ground between man's influences and nature's ways will determine how this place many call paradise today will look in generations to come.