April 25, 2024
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Prime Nature Properties
Here's a look at some of Florida's most significant conservation lands.
Art Levy | 12/1/2008
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- Point Washington State Forest — Once planned for development, this 18,000-acre Walton County tract includes wet prairie lands, cypress swamps and the world's largest population of Curtiss sandgrass.
- Big Bend Wildlife Management Area — This 68,000-acre swath along the coast of Levy, Dixie, Taylor and Jefferson counties includes seagrass beds, crucial to the state’s commercial and sport fishing industries.
- Annutteliga Hammock — On the surface, these 10,000 acres support a classic sandhill habitat. The springs below, including Weeki Wachee and Homosassa, help recharge the Florida aquifer and provide drinking water.
- Fisheating Creek Ecosystem — Formerly Lykes Brothers land, this 61,505-acre tract is home to dry prairie land, flatwood forests and many birds including the Florida scrub jay, the Florida grasshopper sparrow and the crested caracara.
- Talisman Everglades Ag Restoration Area —Purchased from the St. Joe. Co. in the 1990s, this 55,000-acre tract has been crucial to Everglades-restoration efforts.
- Model Lands Basin — South and east of Miami, these 14,000 help to buffer Everglades National Park and sea grass beds along Biscayne Bay.
- DuPuis Reserve — Located two miles from eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, these 22,000 acres include pine flatwoods, cypress swamps, wet prairies and freshwater marshes.
- Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park — These 50,000 acres include numerous creeks that flow into the Kissimmee River, a major source of the Everglades’ water supply.
- Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve —Located 13 miles from downtown Jacksonville, this 12,500-acre area has salt marshes, coastal dunes, hardwood hammocks and the estuaries of both the St. Johns and Nassau rivers.
