MARCO ISLAND, Fla.- Conservationists and Collier County leaders break ground on a project to bring back some of Southwest Florida's protected habitat.

Hundreds of acres of mangroves on Marco Island have died off, but Wednesday brought new hope for the trees that are home to both birds and some of the areas smallest sea creatures.

"It's the leaves of these mangrove trees that really fuel the coastal food web that we have here. The leaves fall into the water and they're fed upon by small microscopic critters like worms and crabs and shrimp and things like that, and then fish come along and feed on those and then so on up the food  chain," Rookery Bay Reserve Director Gary Lytton said.

Mangroves can't survive in the standing water along San Marco Road, so conservationists have pushed to dig a new tidal channel that would allow water to move in and out of the area known as Fruit Farm Creek with the rising and falling tides.

"And then the mangroves should restore themselves to a large extent.  They produce millions of floating seeds and we should see a massive regrowth of mangroves probably by August or September of this year," Robin Lewis with the Coastal Resources group said.

In phase two of the project supporters of Rookery Bay hope to be able to install culverts under San Marco Road, reviving additional acres across the roadway.

The project is estimated to take several years and a million dollars to complete, so Rookery Bay is looking for public support.

They've only raised about a quarter of the money through donations and a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

If you'd like to donate to the project, or find out more, click here.