PARKS & OUTDOORS
Monticello Ecological Park
Jefferson County · Panhandle & Emerald Coast
About twenty-eight acres of old-growth forest inside the city limits, at 960 South Water Street.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
That is the unusual part. Protected old-growth standing within the boundary of a small rural town is rare anywhere, and what is here is upland forest of mixed hardwood and pine that is believed never to have been cut, though no record exists to prove the age of the trees. A spring-fed stream runs through the park with wetland alongside it. A short loop trail carries walkers round, with an elevated boardwalk over the wet ground and the stream so that neither is trampled. The understory has invasive species in it and the city works at keeping them down, which is the ordinary condition of a small urban preserve rather than a failing. It is a twenty-minute walk rather than a day out, and it is the kind of place a person moving to Monticello would use two or three times a week rather than once a year, which is a different sort of value from a big park an hour away
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