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Chassahowitzka WMA

Bordered on the west by the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge and in the midst of one of the fastest growing regions in the nation, the 33,919-acre Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area is part of a nearly unbroken crescent of protected public lands stretching 200 miles from Pasco County to the Apalachicola River. Here you can hunt deer and waterfowl or hike along trails through rare sandhill and scrub communities.

"Most likely nearly all of Florida's Gulf coast once appeared like that, before modern developers diked, ditched, drained and filled ….." -Archeologist Jerry Milanich

A driving tour will take you from upland pinelands, through transition zones to deep within the largest and most pristine hardwood swamp south of the Suwannee River. You might come across a family of wild turkeys, see a gopher tortoise sunning outside his burrow, or glimpse an elusive black bear.