Nature Preserves to Visit

Nature Preserves

Green Cay
12800 Hagen Ranch Road, Boynton Beach
(561) 966-7000

Visitors can explore 100 pristine acres and 86 species of trees, shrubs, grasses and aquatic vegetation and try interactive exhibits.

An elevated boardwalk will provide panoramic views of

hundreds of species of wildlife, and interpretive signs will explain a variety of things such as bird species and the green film on the water.

The 9,000-square-foot nature center will include a turtle pond, frog habitats, an alligator hole and murals depicting what the land,

previously the Green Cay Farm, looked like decades ago.

Green Cay was designed to naturally filter several million

gallons of highly treated water each day from Palm Beach County's Southern Region Water Reclamation Facility.

Arthur R. Marshall-Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge Nature Preserve, Boynton Beach
10216 Lee Road, Boynton Beach
(561) 734-8303

The most robust part of the Everglades, this 221-square-mi refuge is one of three huge water-retention areas accounting for much of the Everglades outside the national park. These areas are managed less to protect natural resources, however, than to prevent flooding to the south. Start from the visitor center, where there is a marsh trail to a 20-foot-high observation tower overlooking a pond. The boardwalk through a dense cypress swamp was closed after damage from Hurricane Wilma in 2005. There's also a 5 -mi canoe trail, best for experienced canoeists, since it's overgrown. Wildlife viewing is good year-round, and you can fish for bass and panfish.