Scrub Oak Preserve

Hours: Sunrise to Sunset
Amenities: Hiking, Biking, Horseback Riding, Wildlife Viewing

Scrub Oak Preserve encompasses 150 acres purchased through the Volusia Forever Program in 2008. The Preserve is an important bear corridor to Blue Spring State Park and the Lake Beresford area. Porous scrub soils also make it an important recharge area for Blue Spring.
The Preserve includes 70 acres of scrub habitat that was dominated by mature oaks and sand pines at the time of purchase. This scrub area has undergone extensive habitat restoration including timbering, mechanical treatment and prescribed fire. The goal of these ongoing land management activities is to remove the tree canopy, reduce vegetation height and create open sandy areas for Florida scrub jays and other scrub flora and fauna that depend on these desert-like conditions. Scrub jays from adjacent sites have already moved into the restoration area.
The Preserve has a one mile loop trail which allows visitors to experience scrub and all its unique adaptations to survive in this hot, dry habitat. Some of the plants hikers will observe are rusty lyonia, tarflower, shiny blueberry and scrub olive. Wildlife that has been observed on site includes Florida scrub jays, Florida black bear, gopher tortoise and osprey.