Recreation

The Kissimmee Chain of Lakes Region in Orange, Osceola and Polk counties is rich with recreational opportunities. The Chain of Lakes is renowned nationally as an anglers� paradise. The ongoing acquisition of wetlands and associated upland areas around the lakes and their tributaries protect water quality and provide natural flood water storage. Much of the 52,000 acres owned by the District in the Upper Kissimmee Basin was purchased as part of the Kissimmee River Restoration. That land allows lakes Cypress, Hatchineha and Kissimmee to fluctuate in a more natural manner, mimicking the historic flows that nourished the river and its abundant habitat years ago.

Nearly all of this land is open to the public and to recreational activities that are compatible with the land's primary purpose of water-resource protection.

Lock Closures

The navigation locks in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes and two navigation locks in the Kissimmee River � S-65A and S-65D � are scheduled for renovations in spring and summer of 2010. This work will make the locks inoperable from April 1 through October 30, 2010. The locks, which have been in service since the early 1960s, will be completed dried out and rebuilt to ensure additional decades of reliable service. For more information and updades on the scheduled work, please contact Bill Graf at the Orlando Service Center of the South Florida Water Management District at (407) 858-6100, ext. 3837 or wgraf@sfwmd.gov

Snail Kites

The Everglades snail kite has flocked to Lake Toho as a key nesting site, which is currently the most productive snail kite nesting area in Florida. The snail kite (Rostrhamus sociabilis plumbeus) is a Federally endangered raptor that inhabits flooded freshwater and shallow lakes in peninsular Florida and Cuba. The historical range of the snail kite covered over 2,480 square miles in Florida, including the panhandle region but is not restricted mainly to the watersheds of the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, Loxahatchee Slough, the Kissimmee River and the Upper St. Johns River. Lake Toho has become a primary nesting area for the kites in recent years and is a focal point for conservation of the species.

Bald Eagles
	The Upper Kissimmee Basin is rich with American Bald Eagle habitat. An area of Osceola and Polk on and near Lake Kissimmee supports the densest population of Bald Eagles in the continental United States. Only Alaska has regions with greater densities of American Bald Eagle populations.