Natural Central Florida: a haven for wildlife

Much of the sunshine state remains more or less as it was a thousand years ago, with nature accessible to all

Over the years I have enjoyed some great drives across America. Yet one of my favourites is a seven-mile one-way street.

Black Point Wildlife Drive on Florida’s Merritt Island snakes along a series of dykes, originally created to help with mosquito control. Today, it provides a wildlife viewing experience that attracts ornithologists and photographers from across the nation to see birdlife such as the roseate spoonbill.

You can find a vast array of wintering waterfowl, and manatees in the springtime, plus a pervading sense of tranquility – occasionally interrupted with a reminder that this is humanity’s main connection with the Cosmos.

The island is shared with the Cape Canaveral space launch site.

In the early 1960s after President Kennedy said that he wanted an American on the moon by the end of the decade. Nasa took over Merritt Island – yet naturalist Allan Cruickshank campaigned for much of the island to be retained in its natural state as a national wildlife reserve refuge.

A “memorial trail” has been named in his honour: a five-mile circular hiking loop.

Central Florida is a haven for wildlife. Further west, Central Florida’s Polk County is home to more than 550 freshwater lakes – best enjoyed from your own kayak – and 25,000 acres of unspoiled recreational parks.

The Healthy West Orange Boardwalk, as it’s officially known, provides a perfect, wheelchair friendly trail to the shore of Lake Apopka.

At first sight this looks like ancient wilderness at its most accessible and alluring – but what you’re seeing is the result of heroic efforts by concerned citizens to restore the original ecology.

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