J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area

Wedged between Florida's expanding Gold Coast to the east and south and orange groves and agricultural fields to the west is 60,348-acre Corbett Wildlife Management Area. For at least 2000 years before Europeans arrived, Indians inhabited this land, burying their dead in mounds, accumulating the remains of their meals in middens, and traveling by canoe, sometimes on man-made causeways. In the 1800s the Seminoles sought refuge from the U.S. Army in Hungryland Slough. Today you can hunt deer, feral hog, turkey, and snipe in designated hunting areas and explore pine flatwoods, cypress swamps, and a hardwood hammock on Hungryland Boardwalk and Trail. Nearby is Everglades Youth Conservation Camp, offering summer camps for kids and year-round programs for families and educators. Observe sandhill cranes, rare roseate spoonbills, wood storks and other wading birds and camp along semi-circular ponds and fish for bluegill, bass, and catfish.

The Friends of Corbett is a non-profit citizen's support organization established to support the J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area and Everglades Youth Conservation Camp and to promote the importance of this natural area to an increasingly urban population. The Friends is a diverse group that meets monthly to plan activities and projects and hosts an Annual Meeting and Barbeque. They welcome and encourage new members. For more information or to send your tax-deductible contribution, contact The Friends of Corbett, P.O. Box 16309, West Palm Beach, Florida, 33416-6309.

• View the Conceptual Management Plan for J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area.