U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge

Refuge Facts Refuge Objectives ■ Established: 1990. ■ Protect, restore and manage ancient scrub habitats. ■ Acres: 1,965 (Currently four tracts). ■ Work in partnership towards the ■ Located in Polk and Highlands recovery of unique, threatened and Counties, FL. endangered endemic plants and ■ Location: Lake McLeod Tract (30 animals. acres) located one mile south of the ■ Increase public understanding and community of Eagle Lake on appreciation through outreach, Gerber Dairy Road. environmental education and ■ Snell Creek Tract (135 acres) compatible recreation. located five miles east of Davenport on SR 531. Management Tools ■ Prescribed fire to restore and ■ Carter Creek Tract (629 acres) maintain the scrub ecosystem. located ten miles southeast of Avon Park on Arbuckle Creek Road. ■ Mechanical chopping of overgrown scrub prior to prescribed fire. ■ Flamingo Villas Tract (1,171 acres) ■ located five miles east of Sebring on Mechanical/chemical control of SR 98. exotic plants. ■ Administered by Everglades ■ Fencing and signing to protect Headwaters NWR Complex. sites. ■ Law enforcement to provide site Natural History protection. ■ First refuge established specifically for recovery of endangered and ■ Public outreach and education threatened plants. to build public understanding, photo: USFWS photo: appreciation, and support. ■ Contains 23 listed plants, more than 40 endemic plants, and four ■ Partnerships. threatened wildlife species. ■ Research relative to best ■ The ridge is an ancient beach and management practices for species sand dune system formed one to recovery. three million years ago. The sandy, nutrient poor soils support a unique Public Use Opportunities community of plants and animals. None at this time. Many of the plants are found Calendar of Events nowhere else in the world outside March: Greater Lake Wales Ridge photo: USFWS photo: the Lake Wales Ridge. Birding Festival. ■ Today, about 85% of the original October: Scrub Appreciation Day. scrub habitats have been lost to development. The refuge is part of a network of scrub preserves owned by the state of Florida, The Nature Conservancy and others. Financial Impacts of Refuge ■ Refuge is an unmanned satellite of Everglades Headwaters NWR Complex. ■ The refuge is currently being acquired and it will be some time before sites are opened to the public. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Questions and Answers How is the Lake Wales Ridge NWR Why was the refuge established? being preserved? The Lake Wales Ridge NWR is home Since the mid-1980s, the U.S. Fish to plants and animals found nowhere and Wildlife Service, the State of else in the world. Unfortunately, 85 Florida, The Nature Conservancy, percent of the original ridge habitat and other government and private has been lost to citrus production and entities have invested more than $75 residential development. million in purchasing 19 scrub parcels. During the late 1980s, a group of In 1994, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife scientists conceived the purchase of Service purchased its first scrub a system of sanctuaries that would tract on the ridge, establishing the protect the best remaining parcels of country’s first national wildlife refuge habitat to ensure the survival of the for endangered plants. The Service plants and animals of this vanishing is currently purchasing four tracts ecosystem. The State of Florida, The that may eventually total about 2,400 Nature Conservancy, and the Fish acres. and Wildlife Service are working in partnership to ensure the long The State of Florida has made the term protection of the native plants, Lake Wales Ridge NWR one of their animals and natural communities of highest priority purchases and is this unique region of central Florida. purchasing 10 tracts. The Nature Conservancy, Archbold Biological What makes the Lake Wales Ridge Station and Bok Tower Gardens are NWR unique? private conservation landowners The 2.3 million year old scrub involved in the project. As land ecosystem of the Lake Wales Ridge management programs were being NWR is Florida’s oldest natural developed mangers from the private, system. The ridge formed when sea state and Federal agencies recognized levels were much higher than today. the need to coordinate and share During this period all that remained information, planning, and problem above sea level of the Florida solving across the landscape. To this peninsula was a series of islands, end, the Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem similar to the way the Bahamas Working Group was established in appear today. Isolated from other 1991. populations the plants and animals on these isolated archipelagoes evolved In 1996, the working group began in response to their environmental developing an ecosystem management conditions. plan that includes fire management, species inventory and monitoring, Today, the seas have receded and development of GIS data sharing, the sandy hilltops along the central and an ecosystem-wide community Florida ridge are home to 23 of the education and outreach plan. nation’s rarest plants, four rare animal species, and four globally rare plant communities. In addition, scientists estimate that fully one- third of the species in the region including a variety of arthropods have evolved only here.