The Ocala – St. Johns – Kissimmee Critical Linkage

The Ocala – St. Johns – Kissimmee Critical linkage overlaps with the upper and middle St. Johns River Basin; a landscape blanketed in marsh, sawgrass and cypress domes, with peat rich soils that manage and filter surface waters. Numerous tributaries and streams stemming from Florida’s longest river, create a veiny network of east coast waterways in this still rural region between central Florida development and Atlantic coast beach towns. The St. Johns River’s journey tells a story of east coast culture, one intertwined with the diverse landscapes the river runs through and the culture that has blossomed from its banks through history. Emerging from the sawgrass marshlands of Blue Cypress Lake in Indian River County, the blackwater of the river moves slowly for over 300 miles. In total the river drops less than 30 feet, or an inch per mile, and in the southern extent experiences reverse flows twice a day in response to the incoming Atlantic Ocean tide. In Brevard County, the marsh morphs into a navigable riverway, meandering north through east coast ranchlands as it moves through a mosaic of springs, streams, tributaries and lakes in the Middle St. Johns Basin. Beyond the critical linkage, the river widens and ends its journey with the Atlantic Ocean just before the Florida-Georgia border. 

32% of unprotected land within the critical linkage, and much of the already protected adjacent lands, consist of a mosaic of Florida ranchland. Ranchlands critical role as corridors for wildlife and habitat connectivity and are especially important in this region to support the St John’s River hydrologic system to upland ecosystems and the urban areas from the center of the state to the coast.  

With the Orlando metropolitan area consuming most of the middle of the state and development between Orlando and Tampa fragmenting opportunities for an expansive corridor, this eastern region of the state provides the most viable north-south connection for the Florida Ecological Greenways Network and Florida Wildlife Corridor, hence it’s designation as priority one land. However, current and projected development pressures have sounded the alarm for the long-term viability of this linkage. Across all critical linkages, or priority 1 FEGN land, 14.7% of the network is unprotected and under threat by 2070. According to Florida 2070, approximately 62% of the Ocala-St. Johns -Kissimmee Critical Linkage is threatened by development , making it the most threatened linkage. Approximately 23.5% of that threat might be realized by 2040, according to current zoning and future land use plans for Osceola, Orange, Seminole, Volusia and Brevard Counties. In addition, road networks with little to no crossing opportunities for wildlife add challenges for the linkage. Additional toll roads planned across the region may offer new connections between our human communities, but ultimately create barriers for wildlife and fragment natural communities and the success of the FEGN in this region as well as the rest of the state. A viable Ocala – St. John’s – Kissimmee Critical Linkage will be dependent on close collaboration between conservation groups and developers to ensure corridor compatible planning is done to minimize negative impacts to the network as much as possible in the future.  

Unprotected Land Cover Map for the Ocala – St. Johns – Kissimmee Linkage

The future of the linkage is dependent on the protection of currently unprotected land within this FEGN / Florida Wildlife Corridor priority one region. This map provides a breakdown of the types of unprotected land cover in the Ocala – St. Johns – Kissimmee linkage.