"Landscapes of great wonder and beauty lie under our feet and all around us."  - Walt Disney

While Walt Disney is known for thrilling children and adults alike with cartoons and amusement parks, he also had a clear understanding that true wonder could be discovered right outside in nature.

Working with The Nature Conservancy, the State of Florida and a number of other groups the Walt Disney Company purchased this property to mitigate its expansion and transferred it to the Conservancy to create a natural preserve dedicated to wetlands restoration on an unprecedented scale. In 1995, 3,000 additional acres were added bringing the preserve to its current size of 11,500 acres.

The restoration of wetland and upland habitat has included the elimination of non-native, invasive plants and grasses, controlled burns among fire-dependent habitats and the mechanical removal of excessive shrub and tree growth. Land that was heavily logged and ranched for decades has been restored very near to its original state and once again resembles the descriptions left by the area’s first Spanish missionaries.

In 2012, regulators determined the restoration of The Disney Wilderness Preserve’s wetlands successful, making the project an unparalleled victory for conservation. The work done on the preserve is already improving the quality and quantity of water within the Greater Everglades watershed and has served as a springboard for the Conservancy’s effort to protect other ranches in the watershed and secure federal support for Florida conservation projects.

Today the preserve stands as a testament not only to Disney’s words, but to the power of cooperation, perseverance and innovative thinking. Perhaps most significantly, the preserve has become a national model for sustainable development and state-of-the-art conservation management.

For more information regarding the ongoing restoration and conservation efforts there just visit the Disney Wilderness Preserve website.

The preserve is open Monday to Friday April through October and all week from November through March. Park hours are 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily.

The Nature Conservancy’s Disney Wilderness Preserve
2700 Scrub Jay Trail
Kissimmee, FL 34759
Phone: (407) 935-0002
Email: visitdwp@tnc.org


Be sure to catch every Out There and Average Angler segment by tuning in near the :23s and :53s each hour during 'Your Sports' airing daily with new episodes starting at 6 nightly, exclusively on Spectrum Sports HD 1147!