Being an avid enthusiast of Walt Disney World and having gone to the theme parks numerous times in the past 25 years, you would have thought I would've already known about this spectacular nature preserve that Disney helped create. Alas, this has recently been called to my attention and I'm eager to share this find with my fellow Floridians and visitors to the Sunshine State alike (and eager to make the trip over there myself).
In December 1992, The Walt Disney Company purchased the 8,500 acre Walker Ranch located southeast of the Walt Disney World® Resort in Poinciana, Florida (just south of Orlando). Disney, along with the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority and The Nature Conservancy, turned it into a natural preserve to restore the land and protect the headwaters of the Everglades ecosystem along one of the last undeveloped lakes in central Florida – Lake Russell.
This article appears in Dec 30, 2009 – Jan 5, 2010.