Region: Central Palm Beach County
Size: 27 acres
Hours: Daily from sunrise to sunset
Location:
1 Corrine Street, Ocean Ridge, FL 33435 (not a mailing address). The natural area is accessible by boat, by bicycle, and on foot. Vehicle parking is not available. The path leading to the natural area is located on the west side of Ocean Boulevard (A1A), 1/2 mile south of the Ocean Avenue Bridge. The boater access inlet is located 1/3 mile south of the Ocean Avenue Bridge within Lake Worth Lagoon.
Public Use Facilities:
Site facilities include bicycle rack and a kiosk with educational exhibits near Ocean Boulevard and an accessible concrete path along Corinne Street to a boardwalk through existing mangrove wetlands and a created upland hammock area. From the hammock area an accessible nature trail leads to a two-story covered observation tower, a kiosk with educational exhibits, and a shallow day-use boat basin with two floating concrete docks that provide slips for nine small boats less than 30 feet long. There are no restroom facilities or drinking water on the natural area.
Site Information:
The natural area contains two native Florida ecosystems: maritime hammock and mangrove swamp. More than 9,000 red mangrove seedlings were planted by volunteers to restore and enhance the mangrove community after invasive nonnative plants were removed. Another 1,000 trees and shrubs and 4,000 grasses and upland plants were added to create the maritime hammock.
Plants:
Red, black, and white mangrove trees dominate the landscape at Ocean Ridge. These trees play an important role in the life cycle of many animal species. Wading birds nest in the branches, and juvenile fish and small crustaceans hide among the mangrove prop roots just below the water line. Other plant species present on the site include coralbean, necklacepod, gumbo limbo, satinleaf, and dune sunflower.
Wildlife:
Animal species observed on the site include crablike spiny orbweaver, mangrove tree crab, blue land crab, white ibis, yellow-crowned night-heron, little blue heron, osprey, red-bellied woodpecker, West Indian manatee, and common raccoon.
Links:
Coastal
