Virginia Svoboda
Park Here
Park Here
????A purist might say you can’t improve upon nature, so there is no way to make a state park “better.”
????Don’t tell that to visitors to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park who remember struggling with children in strollers on the old pockmarked gravel and limestone paths that once rambled through its 230 acres.
????In fact, few disabled visitors could traverse the Tampa" target="_blank">Tampa" target="_blank">Hernando County park until the old trails and bridges were replaced recently with paved trails and wheelchair-accessible, gently ramped elevated boardwalks.
????The new boardwalks also provide improved, unobstructed views of the park’s many animals, creating natural habitat perimeters (the chain-link fence around the hippo area was removed, for example) and better photography opportunities.
????That’s not all. There’s a new viewing area for watching white-tailed deer and Key deer (Homosassa Springs participates in the Big Pine Key rescue program, recently providing a new home to a dozen injured Key deer) and a considerably improved manatee care center. Now it’s easier for park staff to care for the gentle creatures that are so prevalent in the natural springs for which Homosassa Springs is famous.?
????“People love to come and see the manatees,” says park manager Art Yerian, “but we also have endangered whooping cranes. There are only five other places in the world that you can see the whoopers in captivity. And in our spring, where we have an underwater observatory (aka, the Fish Bowl), you can sometimes see hundreds of thousands of fish.”
????Birds of prey and grey and red fox habitats were moved and expanded; the otters are also moving to a new habitat. AmeriCorps volunteers will build a new birding trail this spring. There’s a new wild turkey exhibit and a songbird aviary next to the boat docks at the park’s U.S. Highway 19 entrance.?
????Families will appreciate the refurbished children’s education center and the new strollers for transporting young guests. Construction began in January on a new wheelchair-accessible picnic pavilion being added to the visitor’s center. It will include a playground.
????For details on visiting the spiffed-up state park, go to www.homosassasprings.org/Homosassa.cfm.
????Don’t tell that to visitors to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park who remember struggling with children in strollers on the old pockmarked gravel and limestone paths that once rambled through its 230 acres.
????In fact, few disabled visitors could traverse the Tampa" target="_blank">Tampa" target="_blank">Hernando County park until the old trails and bridges were replaced recently with paved trails and wheelchair-accessible, gently ramped elevated boardwalks.
????The new boardwalks also provide improved, unobstructed views of the park’s many animals, creating natural habitat perimeters (the chain-link fence around the hippo area was removed, for example) and better photography opportunities.
????That’s not all. There’s a new viewing area for watching white-tailed deer and Key deer (Homosassa Springs participates in the Big Pine Key rescue program, recently providing a new home to a dozen injured Key deer) and a considerably improved manatee care center. Now it’s easier for park staff to care for the gentle creatures that are so prevalent in the natural springs for which Homosassa Springs is famous.?
????“People love to come and see the manatees,” says park manager Art Yerian, “but we also have endangered whooping cranes. There are only five other places in the world that you can see the whoopers in captivity. And in our spring, where we have an underwater observatory (aka, the Fish Bowl), you can sometimes see hundreds of thousands of fish.”
????Birds of prey and grey and red fox habitats were moved and expanded; the otters are also moving to a new habitat. AmeriCorps volunteers will build a new birding trail this spring. There’s a new wild turkey exhibit and a songbird aviary next to the boat docks at the park’s U.S. Highway 19 entrance.?
????Families will appreciate the refurbished children’s education center and the new strollers for transporting young guests. Construction began in January on a new wheelchair-accessible picnic pavilion being added to the visitor’s center. It will include a playground.
????For details on visiting the spiffed-up state park, go to www.homosassasprings.org/Homosassa.cfm.