WATER & COAST
Spring Hammock Preserve
Seminole County · Central Florida
Fifteen hundred acres of old-growth hammock and floodplain forest between Longwood and Lake Jesup, some of it never cut.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The preserve covers about 1,500 acres of low wet ground between Longwood and Lake Jesup, and the mix of habitat in it is unusually wide: hydric hammock and floodplain forest on the mucky parts, upland hardwood and pine flatwoods where the sand rises. A number of the plants and animals here are rare or sitting at the edge of their range, which is what happens where two kinds of country meet. Parts of the preserve are genuine old-growth forest, never logged, and the Old-Growth Forest Network has recognized it, which is a rare thing this close to Orlando. Bald cypress of considerable age stand in the swamp, relatives of the Senator that grew at Big Tree Park next door. Boardwalk and trail carry visitors through the wettest parts without damaging the ground. Soldiers Creek runs through it, and the Environmental Studies Center on the site runs school programs. The Cross Seminole Trail passes along the edge
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