GTM Reserve - Guana River and the Guana Wildlife Management Area

GTM Reserve features nine miles of rustic trails through pine flatwoods, hardwood hammocks, scrub, and wetlands. The Guana River Wildlife Management Area to the north contains even more trails. The reserve is home to many endangered and threatened species including Indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, the Anastasia beach mouse, and peregrine falcons. Marine life includes bottlenose dolphins, northern right whales, and three species of sea turtles.

There are numerous other animals, especially birds that can be seen in the area. You may see ducks, egrets, and spoonbills. Birders may view peregrine falcon migration from the tower on the beach side of A1A during the first two weeks of October. At the dam entrance, look for shorebirds, rails, ducks, and loons. Bobolinks like the fallow area leading to hiking trails in the fall and spring when the hammocks are thick with songbirds.

The reserve contains 17 known significant historic or pre-historic cultural sites. There is an early 19th-century Minorcan coquina block well, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as the Wright's Landing site which is thought to be where a 17th-century Spanish mission once stood. Another site contains a prehistoric burial mound.

You can enjoy a wide variety of recreational activities from hiking and biking backwoods trails to fishing and boating to hunting the Wildlife Management Area's deer, ducks, and hogs. Guana River Wildlife Management Area has remained a popular hunting site over the years. Various licenses and permits are needed for hunting including archery users or waterfowl hunters. Boating and fishing are also extremely popular, especially around the Guana Dam for redfish, spotted sea trout, flounder, or black drum.

Picnic throughout the reserve, or check into one of the many programs including a Birds, Botany and Breakfast walk offered September through May or an environmental adventure day for kids. Those programs require reservations and fees.

Open 8 a.m. to sunset.

For more information, call the GTM Reserve at: 904-823-4500 or visit the GTM Reserve website: http://www.FloridaCoasts.org/GTM

Guana River Wildlife Management Area:
http://myfwc.com/RECREATION/guana_river/visitorinfo.asp