Hidden Treasures of the Nature Coast

When ancient cartographers decided to avoid exploring and mapping places that looked particularly foreboding, they simply inscribed “Here be dragons” on the blank map. I imagine, many years ago, those ancient cartographers would have labeled great sections of Florida’s Nature Coast with this description. 

Ironically, there is truth in this lamentation. The largest alligator I have ever seen was swimming leisurely near the junction where the Chassahowitzka River meets the Gulf of Mexico.  

Florida’s Nature Coast is a place of legends and a place of modern-day wonders and hidden treasures. Stretching from just north of Tampa Bay to the Big Bend of Florida’s Gulf Coast, it is deep, true, and powerful nature. Devoid of white sand beaches and barrier islands, it is a land of coastal marsh, spring-fed rivers, seagrass beds, and hidden pathways known only to the creatures of feather, fin, and fur. 

A coast protected by perception

It is that lack of white sand beaches and barrier islands that has saved it from the fate that befell areas across the Panhandle or from Tampa Bay south. Developers have been slower to develop a land of no-see-ums, floods, hurricanes, turbid waters, and swamp angels. But as white sand beaches disappear under pavement and condos in other places, the bulldozers will soon be at the gates of Eden. The Forgotten Coast will not be forgotten much longer. 

But there is hope. Or as the famed naturalist Wallace Stegner observed in his landmark book of the same name, there is “a geography of hope” here. There is a chance for us to save these large, landscape-scale ecosystems as they are. Many do not need to be restored, simply conserved. There are large places we have not broken yet.  

Florida’s Nature Coast is incredibly unique to Florida’s Gulf Coast—it is comprised of one of the largest, intact, coastal marsh systems left in Florida, the Gulf, or perhaps America. Vast expanses of pristine and ecologically healthy seagrass beds thrive just offshore. Numerous spring-fed rivers flow into the Gulf through the Nature Coast. And one of America’s last, true, great undammed rivers, the Suwannee River, is the heart and soul of this place. 

Awe-inspiring Nature Coast

All this natural wonder creates numerous hidden treasures for the adventuresome explorer to immerse themselves in. 

Because there are no dams on the Suwannee River, Gulf sturgeon call the river home. As they travel from the Gulf up and down the river, these ancient, huge fish jump and leap into the air at regular intervals. My wife and I paddled out from Manatee Springs State Park, near Chiefland, Florida, hoping to see a sturgeon, and we were gifted by one literally jumping across the bow of my wife’s kayak. Powerful, raw, slightly terrifying nature right there on the river. 

Ecotourism, adventure tourism, recreational fishing, paddling, hiking, camping, hunting, and wildlife viewing are welcome in the Nature Coast and are starting to drive a growing sustainable economy based on preserving natural resources.  

Generational fishermen are now raising world-class clams in the waters around Cedar Key, considered one of the clam capitols of America. And while hurricanes set back the progress made, the fishing folk of Cedar Key define resilience.

And, of course, many of the program priorities in NWF’s Gulf Program and within their Florida campaigns are connected to the Nature Coast. Sea turtles, manatees, climate adaptation, coastal preservation and public lands preservation all converge in conservation efforts within this region. 

Working to conserve a hidden treasure

NWF works across many of Florida’s beaches to protect nesting areas and habitats for sea turtles. This work ensures that hatchlings can find their way from coastal dunes to Gulf waters guided by the gentle light of the stars and moon, and not be disoriented by human light pollution. Once those precious hatchlings reach the Gulf, they find safety and security in the seagrass beds of the Nature Coast. Without safe and pristine places, like these beds, to feed and grow, the turtle populations will not continue to recover.  

Few places in the Gulf are more essential to manatees than the numerous spring-fed rivers that flow into the Gulf along the Nature Coast, like the Weeki Wachee, Chassahowitzka, Homosassa and Crystal. These crystal clear rivers provide critical manatee habitat and winter refuges that protect manatees from cold stress as the Gulf waters cool.

NWF’s work to protect manatees and their food sources, like seagrass, from coastal pollution helps ensure these gentle giants can continue to roam the waters of the Nature Coast, thrilling natives and tourists alike with their serene presence and timeless travels into the Gulf, and into the rivers and springs that shelter them from cold winters. 

Long-term, true climate resiliency and adaptation are still possible in the Nature Coast. Vast, intact landscapes provide opportunities for coastal, marine, aquatic, and upland ecosystems to gradually adapt to climate change as climate zones shift inland and upward. NWF’s efforts to create coastal master plans in the southern Nature Coast prioritize the use of nature-based solutions to offset sea level rise and climate intensification, utilizing projects like living shorelines, living seawalls, and habitat preservation. 

The Nature Coast presents a world-class opportunity to protect large, landscape-scale ecosystems as they are. With this work, we can show future generations that we had the grace and wisdom to protect wild Florida as it was, is, and can still be. NWF is doing valuable advocacy to ensure that this work gets done, that turtles and manatees are protected, and that climate adaptation and resiliency can truly work. Few places embody the hope for success of these endeavors like Florida’s Nature Coast. 

Joe Murphy is a former Wildlife Policy Specialist with the National Wildlife Federation and a lifelong, native resident of Florida’s Nature Coast. He contributed to this blog post as an NWF alumnus and supporter.