WILDLIFE & CONSERVATION
Citrus Wildlife Management Area
Citrus County · Gulf Coast
Nearly 50,000 acres of sandhill west of Inverness, holding about sixty active red-cockaded woodpecker colonies.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
This is one of the seven large tracts that together make up the Withlacoochee State Forest, and on its own it runs to nearly 50,000 acres across Citrus and Hernando counties, just west of Inverness. The state wildlife commission manages it in cooperation with the Florida Forest Service. What makes it matter beyond its size is the quality of the sandhill on it. Sandhill is one of the scarcest communities left in Florida, and this one supports around sixty active colonies of red-cockaded woodpecker, a bird that will nest in nothing but old living pines with heart rot. Eastern indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, fox squirrels and white-tailed deer live on the same ground. It is open land rather than a park: the uses permitted are hunting, fishing, wildlife viewing, camping, hiking, biking, picnicking and horseback riding, and a Florida license is needed to fish. Anyone planning to walk or ride here should check the hunting seasons first, because this is a working wildlife management area and the calendar governs it
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