Highlands Hammock State Park: from nationwide park rejection to conservation triumph

White egrets tiptoe by means of brown cypress swamps, and gopher tortoises meander throughout the roadway in direction of pine flatwoods, all undisturbed by early-bird guests. Hikers tread throughout marsh boardwalks and into an historical hydric hammock the place uncommon Florida panthers, scrub-jays, and pine snakes cover amongst a cover of air vegetation and sabal palms. 

With the mystique of the Everglades, the tranquility of Biscayne Bay, and the ambient isolation of Dry Tortugas, Highlands Hammock State Park was a robust however in the end unsuccessful contender for nationwide park designation.

“Being on the Lake Wales Ridge, it’s an endemically rich part of Florida with extremely rare species,” says Dr. Hilary Swain, emerita government director of close by Archbold Biological Station. “Highlands Hammock epitomizes how ecosystems work; it’s a place where you can see a constellation of habitats.” 

Millennia-old leaf prints and an Ice Age-era big tortoise shell mark the early archaeological data of the Florida Park Service’s first state park, a house to extra uncommon, threatened, and endangered species than its contemporaries. The historical past of Highlands Hammock State Park is greater than the origin of the Florida Park Service; it’s a century-old love letter to Florida’s typically ignored inland ecology. 

(The historical past of the Florida panther, an emblem of reverence and revulsion.)

History of Florida Park Service’s first state park

“A confluence of extraordinary things led to Highlands Hammock,” says Swain. “A tremendous ecological history, the serendipity of an extremely wealthy and very perceptive botanist, and immediate eligibility of Civilian Conservation Corps money.”  

Located in Sebring, the historic core of Highlands Hammock State Park was privately owned within the mid-1800s. Two giant parcels, known as Hooker’s Hammock and Eiland’s Hammock, had been standard leisure areas. Locals petitioned for nationwide park nomination in the course of the Great Depression, however the bid for federal designation failed as a result of hammocks’ small dimension.  

Swain explains that Margaret Shippen Roebling flew over the hammocks in 1930 and fell in love with their pure magnificence. The rich Roeblings bought the land, funding and fundraising for its improvement and preservation, earlier than opening it as a public park in 1931 referred to as Highlands Hammock.

“Even though Highlands Hammock was privately built, I don’t know that it would have survived more than a few years,” says Dr. David J. Nelson, professor of historical past on the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Bainbridge Campus. “The fact that this incredible hammock is preserved into the 21st century—and that the Florida Park Service even exists—is thanks to the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).” 

Author of How the New Deal Built Florida Tourism, Nelson explains that President Roosevelt established the group in 1933 to protect America’s public lands. The Roeblings donated Highland Hammock to the state, which allowed the CCC to finish and broaden current park infrastructure whereas concurrently creating the adjoining Florida Botanical Garden and Arboretum.  

Nelson says the historic hammock itself was largely preserved, however the CCC carried out ‘nature improvement’ which consisted of eradicating harmful wildlife like snakes and bobcats and changing native flora like palmetto timber with nonnative species together with Australian pine timber.

“The moment the Florida Park Service was created in 1935, there was only one state park ready to open: Highlands Hammock,” Nelson says. “But when World War II hit, the garden was shut down before completion and denuded of all plant life by the time the war was over.”  

With Nelson admitting that state park preservation views have developed because the CCC period, Swain believes Highlands Hammock State Park additionally owes its longevity to ongoing assist from the general public, philanthropists, and lawmakers.   

“In the 1980s and 1990s, there was recognition in Florida that extraordinary biodiversity and wonderful ecosystems were losing habitat at an alarming rate,” says Swain. She explains that land acquisitions have since expanded the park to incorporate parts of the Lake Wales Ridge, such because the Florida scrub habitat, which homes among the state’s rarest endemic species, together with the Highlands tiger beetle, the medusahead airplant, and the Florida sand skink. 

(Florida enacts sweeping legislation to guard its wildlife corridors.) 

Endemic ecology in contrast to another Florida state park

“Only when you get into the big, deep hydric forests are you fully immersed in the system, a feeling of being in another world,” says Swain. “A cathedral-like habitat.” 

Eight of nine trails, some interconnecting and none exceeding a half-mile, start on the 3-mile one-way Hammock Road that loops by means of the park’s historic core. Though brief in size, adjoining trails showcase the park’s 4 distinctly completely different environments. Visitors might even see a Sherman’s fox squirrel scurry up a stay oak tree on the primitive Ancient Hammock Trail solely minutes after watching alligators float by means of the submerged forest beneath the Cypress Swamp Trail’s boardwalk. 

Beyond wildlife viewing, Swain believes one of the best ways to understand the endemic ecology is to note how the surroundings adjustments from scrub habitat to pine flatwoods to moist hammock techniques, particularly after intervals of prescribed burns and seasonal flooding.  

“It’s impressively accessible for the public, too,” says Swain. “They can still feel the magic of coming to Florida that someone from the 1920s would have experienced. 

Well-maintained trails, flat paved roadways, wide boardwalks, and guided tram tours allow visitors of most mobility levels to explore some of the park’s 15 distinct natural communities. A five-year-old can reasonably navigate most trails, including the Hickory Trail catwalk, while wheelchair users can access Cypress Swamp and Fern Garden Trails’ boardwalks. 

(Why Florida’s greatest family attractions are in the wild.)

How to experience Highlands Hammock

“The CCC made 800 state parks,” mentioned Dora Rogers, a volunteer on the park’s Civilian Conservation Corps Museum. “This program should be important to anyone who’s ever been to a state park.”

Daughter of Pennsylvania CCC member Lawrence Rogers Sr., Rogers welcomes guests inside this unique CCC construction to study Highlands Hammock’s historical past earlier than becoming a member of the park’s standard tram tour.

“You can see a gator on the trail, but you’ll see 50 gators when you take a tram tour,” says Rogers. Available from late autumn by means of spring, guided tram excursions take guests nearer to wildlife and CCC buildings which can be inaccessible from the mountain climbing trails. 

Along with year-round pedestrian, bike owner, and car entry to Hammock Road, the park additionally options extra equestrian, unpaved biking, and scenic driving trails. Bicycle leases can be found on the Hammock Inn retailer. Kids can take part within the free Junior Ranger Program on the ranger station.