Benches provide visitors with a comfortable place to rest and observe nature.
A banana spider’s web glistens in the morning sun.
Boardwalks and gravel trails make getting around
in the 4.6-acre preserve an easy task for nature lovers of all ages.
BELOW: Steve Bass (in green) leads the Oct. 12 tour.
Photos by Cheryl Blackerby/The Coastal Star
By Cheryl Blackerby
The lush green 4.6-acre slice of Old Florida is incongruously wedged between The Carlisle assisted living facility on East Ocean Avenue and the Intracoastal Waterway. Drivers have to look closely to see the preserve’s entrance, almost hidden in trees and shrubs.
The Lantana Nature Preserve is a secret garden of tranquil trails shaded by sea grapes, towering sabal palms and oaks. Red and white mangroves line the waterway, their tangle of knee-high roots marching out to sea, creating fish nurseries.
About 40 visitors including a few master gardeners gathered around Steve Bass, former manager of Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, for an Oct. 12 tour arranged by the Friends of Lantana Nature Preserve. Bass planned the planting of the land in the mid-1990s, which turned a barren, garbage-strew site, with no vegetation except for a few invasive plants including Brazilian pepper and Australian pines, into a natural Florida landscape.
Resident Ilona Balfour remembers the days when the land was an eyesore and an embarrassment. “The town began dumping nasty stuff like tires and refrigerators and leftover asphalt and concrete,” she recalled.
The tour showed the astounding transformation from dump to preserve in only about two decades.
“A detailed plan was created, spotting individual plants for installation,” Bass said. “It was important to plant the species at elevations, which we had learned from managing the hammock at Gumbo Limbo, that were appropriate for their best growth.”
The Ziff estate in Manalapan donated many of those first plants.
The traffic noise on East Ocean Avenue receded to a hum, and the ocean breezes ruffled the fronds of sabal palms. Foxes and spotted skunks roam the preserve at night. During the day, wooden benches offer vantage points for admiring wading birds and butterflies.
The preserve is a true coastal hammock. The word “hammock,” said Bass, probably came from Spanish explorers who slept on hammocks hung from trees. The Lantana hammock is a semi-tropical forest in a perfect botanical location, sandwiched on land between the ocean and Intracoastal.
“When the canopy trees get tall, this will be spectacular,” he said. On the tour, he pointed out a giant swallowtail butterfly with a 5-inch wingspan, a banana spider weaving its sticky web, an aptly named paradise tree, the bright purple “beauty berries,” and wild coffee.
The visitors listened closely as Bass tossed out fascinating facts; for example, that most of Florida’s trees, except paradise trees, don’t have trunk rings because their growth is continuous, so it’s difficult to tell their ages.
The preserve has finally become what its original owners intended. Around 1910, the 12 acres were sold to Lantana for $10 for use by the town’s residents. The Carlisle was built on 7.35 acres of the land. Vocal residents who wanted a natural retreat preserved the rest.
Today, volunteers help maintain the preserve at 400 E. Ocean Ave., just east of the Lantana Bridge.
Dr. Paul Arena, ecology and environmental science professor at Nova Southeastern University, is the chairman of the Lantana Nature Preserve Commission and a resident of Lantana.
“I made it my mission to make sure this rare treasure of coastal habitat is protected. I am adviser of the Nature Club and for the last six years have been volunteering to remove invasives, clear trails, and plant one of the few native butterfly gardens in South Florida,” he said. “The town has made significant budget cuts the last few years and less time is spent on maintaining the preserve, making the hard work of volunteers even more critical to its health and survival.”
Comments