South Venice Lemon Bay Preserve

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The South Venice Lemon Bay Preserve comprise 222 acres of protected land along Lemon Bay. This land has been acquired incrementally since 1999 through both the county’s one percent sales tax for infrastructure and the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program. Florida Communities Trust, a state program, awarded 40 percent of the acquisition costs of a 20-acre tract within the Protection Priority site.

The preserve is nestled in the densely packed suburb of south Venice, is a refuge for several protected animals and plants. This preserve contains a variety of coastal habitats including tidal swamp, tidal marsh, coastal hammock and upland communities such as mesic and scrubby flatwoods.

The preserve supports a variety of species such as gopher tortoise, Florida scrub-jay, bald eagle, river otter and an assortment of snakes, including the eastern coachwhip. A variety of plants are also represented, specifically, visitors may see various mangroves, cord grasses, oak species, lupine, palafox, coontie and Curtis’s milkweed. Boardwalks afford visitors access across the recreated and restored wetland slough.

Sarasota County’s Neighborhood Environmental Stewardship Team (NEST) program invites you to explore ways you can make your neighborhood a better place for people, wildlife and our water resources. NESTs are voluntary associations of people – neighbors, civic groups, student organizations and others – who want to better understand and improve environmental conditions in their watershed. Sarasota County can help you create your own NEST, or you can join one that already exists, based on your ideas and interest.

Sarasota County Green Map
updated 09/2015 by SCGM Transition Team Member