The 120-mile trail from Lake Monroe in Sanford to Lake Okeechobee in South Florida can give Floridians another car-free spot for bike and walks, and even help the endangered Florida Panthers, supporters say.
The Lake-to-Lake Regional Trail, Florida’s longest trail, is gaining momentum, but still faces hurdles that could result in a steep price tag.
Earlier this month, Osceola County commissioners voted unanimously to support the proposed trail and work with other local and state agencies to make it happen. The Seminole County commissioner voted to support it on May 13th, and the Orange County commissioner is expected to take on the issue in the future.
Paved trails from the lake to the lake take advantage of existing trails in Seminole and Orange Counties, need new counties through Osceola cattle ranch, take advantage of abandoned railways and suck on bridges on State Route 528, one of the state’s busiest highways.
Trails could boost efforts to pass through acres of undeveloped land, saving those assets, and give people access to natural Florida, trail advocates say.
“We’re a great fan of our efforts to help you,” said Dale Allen, former president of the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation.
“We’re lucky to be able to ride these cool, beautiful scenery,” he said.
The foundation estimates it is used annually by around 10 million people who use the state’s existing paved trails each year, including the St. John’s River to Sea loop, the coast to coast trails and the locally popular West Orange Trail.
However, while the lake-to-lake project will be expensive, there is no price estimate as there is still no exact route for the trail. And it still needs to go through a long bureaucratic process involving many agencies.
The proposal would require support from, for example, the Central Florida Highways Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The bridge alone costs millions of dollars, and state funding for trail projects is already competitive.
Brian Hatchings, a spokesman for CFX, which manages the SR 528, said in an email it was too early to determine if there was an appetite to support the bridge on the highway.
The proposed trail also needs to cross East Colonial Drive, one of the busiest roads in the area.
In 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that gave $50 million a year from the Florida Department of Transport budget and doubled the funding of the Suntrail program, which funds trails throughout the state.
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However, the project must win spots on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Greenways and Trail priority list and fund them.
“The biggest challenge is that these trails are popular,” Allen said. “Other communities are actively competing for these money.”
If trails are built, they will help protect undeveloped land. It could help the Panthers by creating a way they safely move north, said Kristen Novac, corridor implementation manager for the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation.
The state created a wildlife corridor in 2021 and built on decades of work to maintain an underdeveloped area inside Florida. It’s patchwork in many places, but it’s spread throughout the state, and now campaigns to protect and tie corridor lands, “which include 18 million acres of continuous wilderness and labor land for many of Florida’s 131 dangerous animals to survive.”
Conservatories hope that the Panthers can move so that existing animals can establish a second breeding population. The state, which is primarily located in southwestern Florida, has an estimated 120-230 remaining, with the main cause of death being vehicle collisions.
“Protecting these areas protects the pathway of the Panther,” Novac said.
The trail also helps to protect the natural lands of the region’s fast-growing areas, she added.
For example, sections of the proposed routes in Orange and Osceola County are currently not protected, but the trail project could mean that it has been purchased and saved, she said.
Central Florida is the second-largest metropolitan area in the country, and its growth continues to fuel it, according to 2023 data from the Census Bureau.
Despite the challenges, Allen believes that it will be possible to get the trail to get there in 10 years and sees many benefits.
“Where these lands are, how beautiful these lands are, and how beautiful these lands are, and the unique situations that are developing in Florida by trying to tie this together all this,” he said.
