Public access is allowed only in the area west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road. The area east of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road is designated a "No Trespassing" area due to the use of heavy equipment in site restoration activities.
Region: Northern Palm Beach County
Size: 6,645 acres
Hours: Daily from sunrise to sunset
Location:
South side of Indiantown Road (State Road 706), east and west of Seminole Pratt Whitney Road (State Road 711).
Public Use Facilities:
None at present; hiking, photography, wildlife viewing, and other passive recreation activities are allowed on the site. There are no restroom facilities or drinking water on the natural area.
Site Information:
The natural area is located just south of the John C. and Mariana Jones Hungryland Wildlife and Environmental Area and is part of the watershed of the Loxahatchee River. It contains five native Florida ecosystems: mesic flatwoods, wet flatwoods, wet prairie, depression marsh, and dome swamp. The lands that make up the site were acquired in a series of acquisitions during the period 1999-2010. State Florida Forever matching funds for three of the acquisitions were provided by the Florida Communities Trust. Extensive site restoration activities are in progress to remove invasive nonnative plant species, restore historic sheet flow of water across the site, and restore the pine flatwoods/wet prairie mosaic community in the agriculturally-altered northeastern portion of the site. The natural area is part of the Northeast Everglades Natural Area.
Plants:
Plant species observed on the site include bushy bluestem, vanillaleaf, fragrant flatsedge, slim spikerush, button rattlesnakemaster, Carolina redroot, alligatorlily, swamp hornpod, American white waterlily, and bog white violet.
Wildlife:
Animal species observed on site include Florida applesnail, olive-green swamp grasshopper, eastern newt, bluespotted sunfish, chicken turtle, green-winged teal, solitary sandpiper, tree swallow, white-tailed deer, and round-tailed muskrat.
Links:
Coastal
