Florida Central Ridge

The Lake Wales Ridge, which Florida State Parks calls the highest and oldest ridge in Florida, runs about 100 miles from Clermont in Lake County to Venus in Highlands County (Florida State Parks, Lake Wales Ridge).

FDEP's Florida Forever plan describes the high, sandy Lake Wales Ridge as stretching from the Orlando area to the Lake Okeechobee region, and its Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem project spans Highlands, Lake, Osceola and Polk counties (FDEP Florida Forever 2025). The two pages describe the ridge with different end points.

FDEP publishes the 71 geomorphic provinces described in the Florida Geological Survey's Special Publication 59, the Florida Geomorphology Atlas of 2022, as an open dataset (FDEP Florida Geomorphology Provinces). A separate, dated 1973 report in the USGS publications record describes the Lakeland Ridge area as about 300 square miles in northwest Polk County (USGS).

The Florida Forever plan says the ridge was originally covered with a mosaic of scrub, flatwoods, wetlands and lakes (FDEP Florida Forever). Florida State Parks says Lake Louisa State Park near Clermont lies within the eastern boundary of the Green Swamp Area of Critical State Concern and the northern boundary of the Lake Wales Ridge (Florida State Parks, Lake Louisa).

Florida State Parks says these ridges began forming millions of years ago as sea levels rose and fell while most of Florida was under water, and that the dunes were once islands (Florida State Parks).

The same page says the dunes are some of the oldest habitat found in Florida. FDEP's Florida Forever plan makes a parallel point about the plants and animals: because of its many unique species, Central Florida Ridge scrub may be among the oldest of Florida's upland ecosystems (FDEP Florida Forever 2025).

At Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek Preserve State Park, some rain collects in small ponds that dot the landscape between several ridges, and Florida State Parks says old-timers called the area tub-hills because of the many, mostly clear water bodies (Florida State Parks). The preserve's dry habitats include some of the highest elevations in Florida.

Sandy soils on the ridge let rain seep down into the deep Floridan aquifer, and Florida State Parks calls the Lake Wales Ridge area a primary recharge locale for the aquifer (Florida State Parks).

Central Florida receives about 50 inches of rain, according to the Florida State Parks page, and most of it percolates quickly through the sand, though some collects in the many small ponds between ridges (Florida State Parks).

For the Lakeland Ridge, a different ridge area in northwest Polk County, the 1973 USGS record states that growth of industry, phosphate mining, citrus production and population raised groundwater pumpage from about 11 billion gallons in 1950 to 27 billion gallons in 1970 (USGS, 1973). These are dated figures: the record is a 1973 Florida Bureau of Geology report (Report of Investigations 64), and it gives no later figures.

FDEP's 2025 Florida Forever plan counts 41,222 acres acquired out of a 69,497-acre Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem project, with 28,274 acres still to buy (FDEP Florida Forever 2025).

The two plans list project acres of 68,798 and 69,497, acquired acres of 41,071 and 41,222, and remaining acres of 27,727 and 28,274 (FDEP Florida Forever 2024, 2025). The 2024 plan lists a 2023 assessed value of $258,910,199 for the remaining acres, and the 2025 plan lists a 2024 value of $295,398,172.

The 2025 page says the Land Acquisition Advisory Council added the Lake Wales Ridge Ecosystem to the Conservation and Recreational Lands priority list on December 6, 1991, sponsored by The Nature Conservancy, while its summary box gives 1992 as the year added to the priority list, and the page does not reconcile the two (FDEP Florida Forever 2025). The page counts 75 rare elements in the project, including a scrub mint population that may be a new species.

Florida State Parks says about 85 percent of the original dry uplands habitat on the Lake Wales Ridge has been lost to agriculture and development (Florida State Parks), and the Florida Forever page says the scrub has almost completely been converted to citrus groves and housing developments.

No: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge has not been opened to the public because of the potential impact on its very high density of endangered and threatened species (USFWS visitor page).

The refuge was established as the first national wildlife refuge designated for the recovery of endangered and threatened plants (USFWS Lake Wales Ridge NWR). It is made up of four tracts in Polk and Highlands counties and, according to the Service, contains 23 listed plants, at least four listed animals and more than 40 endemic invertebrates, along with Florida scrub and sandhill.

The Service says the refuge made it a partner in a larger system of scrub preserves located throughout the central Florida ridge system (USFWS). It is managed as part of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge Complex, and the refuge's listed contact is (772) 581-5557 at 4055 Wildlife Way in Vero Beach (USFWS). The ridge itself can be walked at the state parks below.

Catfish Creek near Haines City is free for day use, Lake June-in-Winter near Lake Placid costs $2 per vehicle and Lake Louisa near Clermont costs $5 (Catfish Creek, Lake June-in-Winter, Lake Louisa).

All three list hours of 8 a.m. to sunset, 365 days a year (Florida State Parks).

Florida State Parks describes Lake June-in-Winter as a quiet 845-acre preserve best suited to visitors seeking a remote wilderness experience, home to the Florida scrub-jay, Florida scrub lizard, Florida mouse, gopher tortoise and eastern indigo snake, and its fee listing says exact change is required for the Iron Ranger (Florida State Parks).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, using the Florida State Parks ridge and park pages, FDEP's 2024 and 2025 Florida Forever project sheets and geomorphology dataset, the USFWS refuge pages and the 1973 USGS Lakeland Ridge record.