PARKS & OUTDOORS
Withlacoochee State Forest
Sumter County · Central Florida
At 157,479 acres, Withlacoochee State Forest spreads across four counties, with a share of it in Sumter.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
The federal government bought the land between 1936 and 1939 through the Land Resettlement Administration, buying out worn farms during the Depression. The Soil Conservation Service held it until 1954, the United States Forest Service after that, and the Florida Board of Forestry took it over on a lease-purchase agreement in 1958. The forest is divided into seven tracts and wildlife management areas, among them Croom, Citrus, Richloam, Homosassa, Jumper Creek and Two Mile Prairie. Richloam alone runs to about 58,000 acres. Slash and longleaf pine cover the drier ground, with pond cypress and bald cypress in the wet ground and oak and maple along the river swamps. The Florida National Scenic Trail crosses the forest, and the paved Withlacoochee State Trail runs along its western edge on an old rail bed. Croom holds the off-road motorcycle area, one of the few places in the state set aside for that use. Hunting, horseback riding, camping and paddling on the Withlacoochee River are all allowed in season, and the forest headquarters near Brooksville issues the permits and the maps
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