Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve is a

Florida State Park There are 175 state parks and 9 state trails in the U.S. state of Florida which encompass more than , providing recreational opportunities for both residents and tourists. Almost half of the state parks have an associated local 501(c)(3) non- ...

just west of

Copeland, Florida Copeland is an unincorporated community located in eastern Collier County, Florida, United States. It lies at the junction of State Road 29 and Janes Memorial Scenic Drive (County Road 837). Copeland lies along the western border of the Big Cy ...

. It is located in the Fakahatchee Strand, a thread of forested

strand (swamp) A strand swamp or strand is a type of swamp in Florida that forms a linear drainage channel on flatlands. A forested wetland ecological habitat, strands occur on land areas with high water tables where the lack of slope prevents stream formation. S ...

Big Cypress Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National preserve, National Preserve located in South Florida, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami, Florida, Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain. The Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket ...

, a section of the Florida

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region A natural region (landscape unit) is a basic geographic unit. Usually, it is a region which is distinguished by its common natural features of geography, geology, and climate. From the ecological point o ...

off SR 29.

Flora

Plants found in the park include

royal palm ''Roystonea regia'', commonly known as the Cuban royal palm or Florida royal palm, is a species of palm that is native to Mexico, parts of Central America and the Caribbean, and southern Florida. A large and attractive palm, it has been planted ...

bald cypress ''Taxodium distichum'' (bald cypress, swamp cypress; french: cyprès chauve; ''cipre'' in Louisiana) is a deciduous conifer in the family Cupressaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States. Hardy and tough, this tree adapts to a wide r ...

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa ...

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes except ...

s, and

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

Fauna

Among the wildlife of the park are a number of threatened and endangered species: the

Florida panther The Florida panther is a North American cougar (''P. c. couguar'') population in South Florida. It lives in pinelands, tropical hardwood hammocks, and mixed freshwater swamp forests. It is known under a number of common names including Costa ...

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae ( storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", though it is not an ibis. It is foun ...

black bear Black bear or Blackbear may refer to: Animals * American black bear (''Ursus americanus''), a North American bear species * Asian black bear (''Ursus thibetanus''), an Asian bear species Music * Black Bear (band), a Canadian First Nations grou ...

fox squirrel The fox squirrel (''Sciurus niger''), also known as the eastern fox squirrel or Bryant's fox squirrel, is the largest species of tree squirrel native to North America. Despite the differences in size and coloration, it is sometimes mistaken for ...

, and

Everglades mink The American mink (''Neogale vison'') is a semiaquatic species of mustelid native to North America, though human intervention has expanded its range to many parts of Europe, Asia and South America. Because of range expansion, the American mi ...

. The park also is home to

white-tailed deer The white-tailed deer (''Odocoileus virginianus''), also known as the whitetail or Virginia deer, is a medium-sized deer native to North America, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru and Bolivia. It has also been introduced t ...

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight o ...

opossum Opossums () are members of the marsupial order Didelphimorphia () endemic to the Americas. The largest order of marsupials in the Western Hemisphere, it comprises 93 species in 18 genera. Opossums originated in South America and entered Nort ...

red-shouldered hawk The red-shouldered hawk (''Buteo lineatus'') is a medium-sized buteo. Its breeding range spans eastern North America and along the coast of California and northern to northeastern-central Mexico. It is a permanent resident throughout most of it ...

wild turkey The wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') is an upland ground bird native to North America, one of two extant species of turkey and the heaviest member of the order Galliformes. It is the ancestor to the domestic turkey, which was originally ...

owl Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

s, and

vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North a ...

Alligator An alligator is a large reptile in the Crocodilia order in the genus ''Alligator'' of the family Alligatoridae. The two Extant taxon, extant species are the American alligator (''A. mississippiensis'') and the Chinese alligator (''A. sinensis'' ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a fo ...

sandhill crane The sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis'') is a species of large crane of North America and extreme northeastern Siberia. The common name of this bird refers to habitat like that at the Platte River, on the edge of Nebraska's Sandhills on th ...

roseate spoonbill The roseate spoonbill (''Platalea ajaja'') is a gregarious wading bird of the ibis and spoonbill family, Threskiornithidae. It is a resident breeder in both South and North America. Taxonomy The roseate spoonbill is sometimes placed in its o ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same nich ...

s, and

osprey The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

can be seen in the park.

Recreational activities

Activities include plant and wildlife viewing. Amenities include Janes Scenic Drive, an 11–mile–long unpaved, gravel road, a 2,000 foot

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of bri ...

and guided tours.

Hours

Florida state parks are open between 8 a.m. and sundown every day of the year (including holidays).

Popular culture

The swamp, home of the rare Ghost Orchid (''

Dendrophylax lindenii ''Dendrophylax lindenii'', the ghost orchid (a common name also used for ''Epipogium aphyllum'') is a perennial epiphyte from the orchid family (Orchidaceae). It is native to Florida, the Bahamas, and Cuba. Other common names include palm poll ...

''), was featured in the novel ''

The Orchid Thief ''The Orchid Thief'' is a 1998 non-fiction book by American journalist Susan Orlean, based on her investigation of the 1994 arrest of horticulturist John Laroche and a group of Seminoles in south Florida for poaching rare orchids in the Fakah ...

'' by

Susan Orlean Susan Orlean (born October 31, 1955) is a journalist, television writer, and bestselling author of '' The Orchid Thief'' and ''The Library Book''. She has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1992, and has contributed articles to many ...

. The book was the source for

Charlie Kaufman Charles Stuart Kaufman (; born November 19, 1958) is an American filmmaker and novelist. He wrote the films '' Being John Malkovich'' (1999), '' Adaptation'' (2002), and ''Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'' (2004). He made his directorial ...

's screenplay for the movie '' Adaptation.'' The swamp is featured in an episode of

The Finder The Finder or The Finders may refer to: * ''The Finder'' (American TV series), an American procedural drama television series * ''The Finder'' (film), a 2001 Australian film * ''The Finders'', a 1993 novel by British author Nigel Hinton * ''Fi ...

, where the series protagonist Walter Sherman looks for a missing pilot who disappeared under mysterious circumstances. The pilot's remains and plane were found in the Fakahatchee.

References

External links

Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park
a
Florida State Parks
at Absolutely Florida {{authority control State parks of Florida Parks in Collier County, Florida Everglades