Scrub Habitat Near Tampa

Scrub is a fire-shaped shrub community on well-drained sand, dominated by evergreen oaks, Florida rosemary or both, and it is the habitat Hillsborough County protects at three nature preserves near Tampa.

In the UF/IFAS Florida Land Steward account, scrub stands on well-drained sand with a layer of evergreen oaks or Florida rosemary, or both, and pines over it in some stands but not in others (UF/IFAS, Scrub and High Pine). Its shrub list names myrtle oak, sand live oak, Chapman's oak, Florida rosemary, rusty lyonia and saw palmetto, and it calls sand pine the primary diagnostic overstory element. Nearly all of its soils are quartz-sand entisols that drain excessively and carry few nutrients. On the county side, the Golden Aster Scrub page calls the Gibsonton preserve's ridge endemic and imperiled scrub habitat (Hillsborough County, Golden Aster Scrub).

Six types appear in that account, set apart by soil, fire history and location: oak scrub, rosemary scrub, sand pine scrub, slash pine scrub, scrubby flatwoods and coastal scrub. Outside the coast, fire is what holds scrub in place, with high-intensity burns arriving infrequently, perhaps once every 10 to 100 years. Shorter intervals favor oak scrub and scrubby flatwoods, longer ones favor sand pine scrub, and more than a century without fire may turn a stand into xeric hardwood hammock. UF/IFAS adds that scrub now survives as fragmented relicts cut off from a once larger landscape that readily burned. In Hillsborough County, the county calls the Balm Boyette scrub and scrubby flatwoods some of the largest intact and contiguous patches remaining (Hillsborough County newsroom).

Hillsborough County keeps three scrub preserves open sunrise to sunset: Golden Aster Scrub in Gibsonton, Alafia Scrub in Riverview and Balm Boyette Scrub, with entrances in Lithia and Wimauma.

Golden Aster Scrub Nature Preserve, at 12181 East Bay Road in Gibsonton, covers 1,181 acres with a ridge of endemic and imperiled scrub surrounded by pine flatwoods and pockets of wet prairie, hardwood swamp and freshwater marsh (Hillsborough County, Golden Aster Scrub). The county names the Florida golden aster and the Florida scrub-jay among its rare species, and its 3-mile loop is described as much of it sandy and sunny. Hillsborough County bought the land through ELAPP in 1995.

Alafia Scrub Nature Preserve, on Elbow Bend Road in Riverview (number 10243), is the small one at 80 acres, with hammock, scrub, creeks, ravines, shoreline and tidal marsh inside it (Hillsborough County, Alafia Scrub). Its marked trails are a 0.8-mile loop and a 1.3-mile loop, and a scenic overlook on the Alafia River sits a half-mile from the trailhead. Its ELAPP purchase dates to 1998, and the Florida Communities Trust helped pay for it.

All three preserves list (813) 672-7876 as the contact, and the same number is the county line for a lost hiker. Pets are allowed at each preserve, according to the amenity lists on the Hillsborough County location pages.

Balm Boyette Scrub Nature Preserve holds more than 800 acres of intact scrub, but Hillsborough County gives two different totals for the whole preserve: 5,723 acres on its location pages and 4,933 acres in its 2025 plan release.

The county location pages state that the Balm Boyette Scrub Nature Preserve is 5,723 acres and that it is home to more than 800 acres of intact scrub habitat (Hillsborough County, Balm Boyette South). The May 23, 2025 release asking for comment on the preserve management plan says Balm Boyette encompasses 4,933 acres within the Alafia River watershed, about 5 miles southeast of Riverview, with 11 separate habitats (Hillsborough County newsroom, May 23, 2025). Neither page explains the gap, so both figures are reported here as published.

The 2025 release also calls the Balm Boyette scrub and scrubby flatwoods some of the largest intact and contiguous patches remaining in Hillsborough County. The county updates the preserve management and land use plan every 10 years and took public comment from May 24 to June 24, 2025, including a meeting at Riverview Public Library.

Visitors pick an entrance by activity. Hikers use the West entrance at 13998 Balm Boyette Road in Lithia, where a 2 mile hiking trail runs through scrub habitat (Hillsborough County, Balm Boyette West). Mountain bikers use the South entrance at 15102 County Road 672 in Wimauma, best known for its 25 miles of mountain biking trails. Both Balm Boyette entrances are open sunrise to sunset, and the county hiking guidance warns that many trails hold standing water in the rainy season.

The Florida scrub-jay and the gopher tortoise, both listed as Threatened, are two scrub animals Hillsborough County names at its preserves, along with the indigo snake named on the Balm Boyette page.

Hillsborough County lists the Florida golden aster, Florida scrub-jays, indigo snakes and gopher tortoises as protected species at Balm Boyette, many of which cannot survive without scrub (Hillsborough County, Balm Boyette). The Golden Aster Scrub page names the scrub jay as well.

The FWC describes the Florida scrub-jay as the only bird species endemic to Florida and lists it as federally Threatened (FWC, Florida scrub-jay). Scrub-jays live in sand pine and xeric oak scrub and in scrubby flatwoods, breed from March to June, and build nests 3 to 10 feet off the ground in shrubby oaks. The FWC says the birds fare best among plentiful oak shrubs averaging 3.28 to 6.56 feet, and it notes that fire suppression leaves scrub too dense and tall for them. The FWC puts the population decline at 90 percent in the past century and calls prescribed burning an essential element of scrub-jay conservation, the same tool Hillsborough County lists first among ELAPP management duties.

In Florida the gopher tortoise carries a Threatened listing, and state law protects the animal and its burrow alike (FWC, gopher tortoise). More than 350 other species use its burrows, which is why the FWC calls it a keystone species. Before land clearing or development, tortoises have to be moved, and an FWC permit is required to capture and relocate them. Hillsborough County names gopher tortoises among the protected species at Balm Boyette (Hillsborough County, Balm Boyette).

The Florida golden aster was listed as endangered in 1986 when only nine clusters were known, all in Hillsborough County, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its removal from the list due to recovery on March 4, 2024.

The Service describes the plant as a yellow daisy-like perennial herb that grows in the open, white sandy soils of Florida scrub and adjacent sandhill (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, March 4, 2024). After listing, habitat was acquired and plants were propagated, reintroduced and planted on new sites, and introduced plants spread in Manatee, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Highlands and Hardee counties. By 2024 there were 30 populations across five counties east and southeast of the Tampa Bay area, and 25 of them grow on lands protected for conservation.

One detail is out of step on the county side: the Hillsborough County Balm Boyette page, last modified in 2025, still lists the Florida golden aster among the protected species of the preserve (Hillsborough County, Balm Boyette). In 2024 the Service determined the aster no longer requires protection as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act; the county page does not say which protection it means, and this guide does not assume a state listing it could not confirm. Golden Aster Scrub Nature Preserve in Gibsonton carries the plant's name and lists it among its rare species.

Hillsborough County protects scrub by buying land through ELAPP, the county environmental lands program that manages more than 63,400 acres, and it lists prescribed burning first among the program's management duties.

The timeline for the Jan K. Platt Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program on the county site starts in January 1987, when the Board of County Commissioners approved an Environmentally-Sensitive Lands Ordinance providing $21 million over four years (Hillsborough County, ELAPP). County voters approved up to $100 million in bonds over 20 years in 1990 and up to $200 million in bonds in November 2008. ELAPP is voluntary and citizen-based, with volunteer committees, and it is not a regulatory program; lands are identified for it because of their environmental significance.

ELAPP management duties listed by Hillsborough County are prescribed burning, invasive species control, wildlife inventory, trail maintenance, feral animal control and habitat improvements for endangered and threatened species. The site maps on the ELAPP page include Wimauma Scrub as site 12 among Important Sites and a Golden Aster Scrub and Kitchen Connection parcel as site 16 among Desirable Sites. Anyone who wants to nominate land in Hillsborough County can call (813) 672-7876.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the Hillsborough County, FWC, UF/IFAS and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service websites.