Crews have been busy with backhoes, removing nonnative trees and plants, on Fullerton Island for an environmental-restoration project that soon will have picnickers and paddlers smiling.

Tall Australian pines and thick Brazilian pepper trees are being unearthed to make way for baby mangroves, blue trails and wetlands restoration in and around the 12-acre island, west of Burt Reynolds Park on the Intracoastal Waterway. The project also will include boat docks for motorized vessels, a water-taxi pick-up / drop-off station, a picnic pavilion and an observation tower. As for paddlers, a six-slip floating dock will be installed, and a series of shallow paths will be dug.

The cost of the project will run about $3.6 million. Restoration is expected to be complete by the summer of 2014.