First acquired in 1977, Big Lagoon State Park is a 705-acre (2.85 km2) Florida State Park located on the northwestern Florida coast, approximately 10 miles (16 km) southwest of Pensacola on Gulf Beach Highway. It encompasses the northern boundary of Big Lagoon as it snakes toward Pensacola Bay to the east. Wild Grande Lagoon and its minor tributaries lay within the boundaries of the park, as does the alligator-inhabited Long Pond, a man-made freshwater pond.
The park is a 'gateway site' for the Great Florida Birding Trail. It features nine distinct natural communities including estuarine tidal marsh, mesic flatwoods, wet flatwoods, and is dominated by scrubby flatwoods. The park features a number of threatened and endangered species such as the Large-leaved Jointweed, Gopher Tortoise, migratory shorebirds such as Snowy Plover, Least Tern among some twenty other listed species.
From Big Lagoon, the Florida Park Service manages two neighboring state parks - Perdido Key State Park to the southwest and Tarkiln Bayou Preserve State Park to the north.
Read more about Big Lagoon State Park: Recreational Activities, Gallery, References and External Links
Famous quotes containing the words big, state and/or park:
“I do esteem individual liberty above everything. What is a nation for, but to secure the maximum of liberty to every individual? What do you think a nation is?—a big business concern?”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one’s parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of their child rearing as “self- control, combined with dutiful affection to parents, and kindliness to kindred.””
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“Borrow a child and get on welfare.
Borrow a child and stay in the house all day with the child,
or go to the public park with the child, and take the child
to the welfare office and cry and say your man left you and
be humble and wear your dress and your smile, and don’t talk
back ...”
—Susan Griffin (b. 1943)