Former Mayor Roy Gold leads a free monthly tour through Coral Springs’ historic Sandy Ridge Sanctuary
Coral Springs, Florida – Residents and visitors will have another opportunity to explore one of Coral Springs’ important natural areas this weekend when former Mayor Roy Gold leads his monthly tour of Sandy Ridge Sanctuary.
The free guided walk is scheduled for Saturday, October 3, beginning at 9 a.m. Gold will take participants through the 38-acre sanctuary, sharing the history of the property and explaining how the land became part of the city’s effort to preserve environmentally sensitive areas.
Sandy Ridge Sanctuary is located at 8501 NW 40th Street. The park includes a winding trail that takes visitors through a landscape that features a large city-created bog and a man-made lake stocked with fish.
For Gold, the tour is also a chance to revisit a piece of Coral Springs history in which he played a role. The land that is now Sandy Ridge Sanctuary was among the properties targeted for preservation as development rapidly changed the city during the 1990s.
Gold and the Coral Springs Parks and Recreation Department conduct guided tours of the sanctuary on the first Saturday of every month at 9 a.m. The length of each tour can vary considerably. Depending on the interests, ages and abilities of the people taking part, walks can last anywhere from about 30 minutes to 1.5 hours.
The sanctuary is particularly important for wildlife. Sandy Ridge is a state-registered gopher tortoise preserve and provides habitat for gopher tortoises as well as other native Florida species.
Over the years, the city has moved several gopher tortoises to the sanctuary after development destroyed parts of their natural habitat. The property also contains a variety of native plant life, including Florida Slash Pines, oak trees and Bald Cypress.
The story of how Sandy Ridge was preserved goes back to a period when Coral Springs was developing at a rapid pace. Gold became concerned about how quickly natural areas were disappearing and brought an idea to residents around 1994.
Following a citizen-driven effort, the city created a $7.5 million bond issue specifically aimed at purchasing environmentally sensitive land that remained within Coral Springs. The effort later received another $2.5 million through state grants, bringing the total funding available for land purchases to $10 million.
That money helped the city acquire four properties that became part of its network of preserved natural areas. They included Red Lichen Sanctuary, Pine Flats Preserve, Cypress Gateway and Sandy Ridge Sanctuary.
The preservation effort changed the future of the Sandy Ridge property in particular. Before voters approved the 1994 bond issue, the land had been planned for development that would have brought 195 zero-lot homes to the site.
The property’s former owner was Charlie Bosco, an orchid producer who was known for pioneering the use of orchids as wrist corsages. Instead of becoming another residential development, however, the land was ultimately preserved as a natural area.
Today, Sandy Ridge offers residents a chance to see a portion of the natural environment that remains within the developed community. The monthly tours also provide a closer look at the plants, wildlife and landscape that make the sanctuary different from a typical city park.
Gold’s upcoming tour will give participants an opportunity to experience the property while learning about the decisions that helped protect it more than three decades ago.
People interested in volunteering or arranging a tour can contact Louis Goldstein at 954-345-2112.
