Scout and Gather Scrub Oak Acorns to Grow Sprouts for Habitat Restoration

The acorns we gather will be potted later in the following weeks to grow scrub-oak sprouts, and then planted in summer 2019 to help restore a damaged habitat for endangered species like the Florida Scrub-jay.

Please wear sturdy footwear, long pants, long sleeves, and a hat. Please bring a  hiker’s water bottle or similar.

 We’ll have plenty of cold drinking and all the items needed.

So we can plan properly, please let us know that you're coming by registering on this webpage (see button at top).

This workday is part of Project Acorn ... a multiyear effort by the Ridge Rangers to gather and pot scrub-oak acorns, maintain the sprouts, and plant the resulting baby oaks in damaged scrub oak habitat on the Lake Wales Ridge.

The FWC Carter Creek Unit is part of the Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife and Environmental Area. The most distinctive natural community on the Lake Wales Ridge is scrub, home to one of the rarest collections of plants and animals in the world. Healthy scrub has the appearance of a miniature forest with trees seldom taller than 10 feet and open patches of sand. The WEA contains 20 of 22 federally listed plant species known to occur on the Lake Wales Ridge.