Today's nominee for Florida's Special Places was written by Audubon of Florida's Executive Director Eric Draper. Read about his trip to the wonderful Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park:

Our trip to Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park started on Saturday morning when Jerry and Linda Lorenz, Megan Tinsley and I boarded one of Audubon’s Tavernier Science Center’s research boats for a short trip along Florida Bay.   It was my first trip to this park – one of 53 once proposed to be closed.   My companions were perfect for the trip.  Jerry runs the science center.  Linda is a nurse with a deep knowledge of plants.  Megan works for Audubon and advocates for Everglades restoration.  (see image of boat casting off)

Lignumvitae Key is only accessible by boat.  We arrived to find a tour boat at the dock and its passengers just returning from the park.  I talked to the boat captains Diana Smith and Kiriane Kulkaski of Robbies.com.

Diana and Kiriane bring regular groups on the Happy Cat and charge $20 for trips to Lignumvitae and $35 for trips that include Indian Key State Park.   Diana says business is good and getting better.  She has no idea why the park was considered for closing.  The Happy Cat is part of the keys based tourism economy.

We paid our fee and entered the park to find the Matheson House built in 1919.  The house gave a sense of how people once lived in the Keys.  Significant in the house were pieces of lignumvitae wood – extremely dense and heavy.  The wood was once used for propeller shafts for steam ships and may have been heavily harvested.

The best part of the tour was a walk through the tropical hammock.  Lignumvitae State Park is managed as a botanical park and it does not disappoint.  Although the only birds we saw were White-crowned Pigeons – a Florida Keys treat.  We did see excellent examples of lignumvitae trees and a Lignumvitae Key Snail. Jerry gave us an excellent talk on the value of the island for migrating birds. Once, most of Florida’s Keys were canopied with tropical trees – providing a destination and resting area for songbirds on their way north.

Close this park?  No way!  It is one of Florida’s very special places and provides an experience unmatched any place in Florida.  How much did the 20 or more visitors who rode the Happy Cat that day spend.  That is a part of our economy we need to hold on to.