Price's Scrub State Park
IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape)
Pine flatwoods at Price's Scrub State Park, July 2020
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Location	Marion County, Florida, US
Nearest city	Micanopy
Coordinates	29°27′49″N 82°16′40″W / 29.46361°N 82.27778°W / 29.46361; -82.27778
Area	962 acres (3.89 km2)
Governing body	Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Price’s Scrub State Park is a 962-acre Florida state park located in Marion County, Florida.^[1] The park has relatively high biodiversity with several natural communities, including its scrub, and is important in the proposed regional connection of conservation lands.^[1] The park is a part of the proposed Northwest Marion Greenway.^[2][3] This corridor would connect Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park to Goethe State Forest and could be used for recreational activities, particularly horseback riding.^[4][5]

The location of the park is along Interstate 75.^[4] Micanopy is one mile north, Ocala is 21 miles southeast, and Gainesville is 12 miles north, approximately.^[6] Although it is located in Marion County, the park is contiguous with and south of Alachua County.^[6]

The park lands were acquired by the state in 2002.^[1] The purchase contract was negotiated for $1.97 million.^[4] The purchasing funds came from the Greenways and Trails Florida Forever program.^[6] The Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Greenways and Trails manages the land under a lease that expires after 50 years, in May 2053.^[6]

The park has a 9.5-mile trail network.^[2][3] The trails in the north are more shaded with rolling hills, and the trails in the south are more sandy and open.^[2][3][7] Possible activities include horseback riding, hiking, birdwatching and cycling.^[2] Bicycling may be difficult in the sandy areas.^[7] Amenities include a grassy parking lot, picnic tables, portable toilets, and a watering trough for horses.^[2][3][7]

The ecosystems are diverse,^[4] containing at least fifteen natural communities including upland mixed forests, depression marshes, scrubs, scrubby flatwoods, wet flatwoods and sinkhole lakes.^[1][6] In the northern part of the park, there is a moderately large sinkhole lake, called Water Lily Pond.^[1]

There are canopies of sand pines and pond pines and has an understory of saw palmetto, fetterbush, gallberries, broom sedge, and saltbush among other flora.^[5][7] Almost 70 species of birds have reported at the park.^[7]

Additionally, there is archaeological significance at the park as it contains part of a stagecoach route that went from Ocala to Micanopy in the 19th century.^[4] It also contains prehistoric archaeological sites.^[1]

• List of Florida state parks

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Price's Scrub State Park.

• Official page at Florida State Parks