Florida Trail gains 15 miles in Panhandle with Nokuse Plantation addition

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Florida Trail gains 15 miles in Panhandle

Hikers will enjoy 15 more miles on the Florida National Scenic Trail with the late March announcement of a route through Nokuse Plantation, the land that M.C. Davis purchased for conservation.

Davis signed an agreement with the Forest Service that will enable a portion of the Florida Trail to move through a wilderness corridor in the heart of Florida's Panhandle.

Once the new trail is constructed on Nokuse Plantation, hikers will enjoy a 15-mile walk in the woods paralleling Lafayette Creek in southern Walton County. This new segment of the 1,400-mile Florida Trail closes a major gap between State Road 81 and U.S. 331, connecting lands of the Northwest Florida Water Management District with 56 miles of existing Florida Trail in Eglin Air Force Base.

"We see this agreement as a major step forward in the completion and protection of the Florida Trail," said Deborah Stewart-Kent, Executive Director of the Florida Trail Association. "This partnership increases our ability to connect people to the land and to Florida's Footpath Forever."

The Florida Trail is one of 8 National Scenic Trails in the United States.

Davis views the easement across Nokuse Plantation as one piece in a greater puzzle for natural connectivity.

"For successful preservation of the habitats of the Gulf Coast Plain, large blocks of biologically diverse lands need to be connected and restored," Davis said. "Only then can we ensure the return of wilderness to pass along to future generations."

After decades of agriculture, silviculture (tree farming) and road construction, the land at Nokuse Plantation was scraped barren in places, permitting the growth of cogon grass and other exotic plant species. Natural land restoration is underway with the goal of re-establishing biodiversity.

With lands encompassing more than 53,000 acres, Nokuse Plantation is an active member of the Gulf Coast Plain Ecosystem Partnership, a public/private partnership that cooperates on conservation projects and management of more than a million acres in northwestern Florida and southern Alabama containing the majority of the world's remaining old-growth longleaf pine ecosystem. The easement across Nokuse Plantation is also a key part of the Northwest Florida Greenway, a project with a goal of connecting Eglin Air Force Base to the Apalachicola National Forest via a corridor of natural lands that provide wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation opportunities as well as a buffer zone between military testing and training opportunities and local communities.

"The Nokuse addition to the Florida National Scenic Trail adds significantly to the linkage of protected natural communities in this region and increases our ability to access the area for recreation and reflection," said Deborah Keller, The Nature Conservancy's Northwest Florida Greenway Program coordinator. "Where we choose to protect habitats and how those landscapes are linked to other protected habitats ultimately determine the long-term health of an ecosystem."