Lyonia Preserve in Volusia County, Florida

Photograph: Trail at Lyonia Preserve.jpg by Quxyz · CC BY 4.0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Volusia County attraction

Lyonia Preserve

Volusia County · Atlantic Coast

360 acres of restored scrub in the middle of Deltona, beside the regional library.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

In the 1990s this ground was slated for a shopping center. The Volusia County School Board turned it to education and conservation instead, and another 240 acres alongside it were set aside for teaching. What makes it worth the walk is the Florida scrub-jay, a bird that lives nowhere on earth except Florida scrub and is in trouble because that habitat has mostly been built on. Audubon Florida counts the birds here every year. The jays are curious and will come close, which is a rare thing with a wild bird. Gopher tortoises live here too, digging the burrows that dozens of other species shelter in. Three sand trails run through the preserve, of four-tenths of a mile, 1.2 miles and 2.4 miles. There is almost no shade, so go early and carry water. The Lyonia Environmental Center at the trailhead is a museum and activity center explaining the scrub and why it has to be cut or burned to stay alive. Controlled burning is difficult here because of the neighboring buildings, so crews cut instead

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official Website ↗

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