Guana River State Park

Guana River State Park is a state park, located on San Pablo Island, a barrier island on Florida's First Coast. It has recently been designated as the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), and is the 25th National Estuarine Research Reserve in the United States. [http://www.dep.state.fl.us/COASTAL/sites/gtm/] The park is located on portions of San Pablo Island along State Highway A1A, between St. Augustine and Jacksonville. Located both in St. Johns and Duval Counties, the park is a federal/state partnership with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection as the state program administrator.

Within its convert|60000|acre|km2 are beaches, sand dunes, salt marshes, mangroves, tidal wetlands, tidal creeks, oyster bars, estuarine lagoons, maritime hardwood hammock, freshwater depression marshes, pond pine flatwoods and shell mound forests.

Biology

The GTMNERR is an important calving ground for the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale and is also home to other aquatic and amphibious wildlife, like porpoises, manatees, sea turtles, gopher tortoises, American alligators, indigo snakes and river otters. The reserve is home to peregrine falcons, bald eagles, and the endangered Anastasia Island beach mouse ("Peromyscus polionotus phasma"). Other birds that can be viewed are diving and wading birds, brown and white pelicans, wood storks, and roseate spoonbills. The reserve also contains the northern most extent of mangrove habitat on the east coast of the United States

Latitude 30.02332706365836Longitude -81.32672309875488

Recreational activities

Activities include hiking, fishing, boating, picnicing, and wildlife viewing.

Amenities include over nine miles (14 km) of nature trails and an unspoiled natural setting. The reserve also contains seventeen archaeological sites, shell middens at Shell Bluff Landing and Wright's Landing, as well as a prehistoric earthen burial mound. Guana continues to be a community gathering for fishing, canoeing, and other aquatic activities.

References

* [http://www.abfla.com/parks/GuanaRiver/guanariver.html Guana River State Park] at [http://www.abfla.com Absolutely Florida]
* [http://areas.wildernet.com/pages/area.cfm?areaID=FLSPGu&CU_ID=1 Guana River Reserve] at [http://www.wildernet.com Wildernet]
* [http://www.dep.state.fl.us/COASTAL/sites/gtm/ GTMNERR]
* [http://www.dep.state.fl.us/COASTAL/sites/guana/info.htm Guana River Marsh Aquatic Preserve]
* [http://nerrs.noaa.gov/GTM/welcome.html Guana Tolomato Matanzas Reserve, Florida]
* [http://www.magazine.noaa.gov/stories/mag192.htm The Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve]