Florida State Preserve System

Florida's preserve system is the set of protected lands and waters created under Chapter 258 of the Florida Statutes, which joins the state park system with 43 aquatic preserves on state-owned submerged lands.

For the parks, section 258.037 makes it the policy of the Division of Recreation and Parks to acquire typical portions of the original domain of the state, accessible to all of the people, to conserve those natural values for all time, and to provide for the perpetual preservation of historic sites and memorials of statewide significance (s. 258.037, F.S.). The Florida Department of Environmental Protection counts 175 state parks, trails and historic sites covering more than 815,000 acres (DEP Division of Recreation and Parks); the state parks system guide in the recreation section covers those parks in detail.

For the water, sections 258.35 through 258.394 and 258.40 through 258.46 are cited as the Florida Aquatic Preserve Act of 1975 (s. 258.35, F.S.). DEP's Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection manages the resulting preserves, and its program page groups three more categories with them: three National Estuarine Research Reserves, the coral reef areas and one state buffer preserve (DEP, Florida Aquatic Preserves).

An aquatic preserve is an area of state-owned submerged land that the Legislature has set aside forever because of its exceptional biological, aesthetic and scientific value.

That is the legislative intent stated in section 258.36, enacted by chapter 75-172 (s. 258.36, F.S.). DEP counts 43 designated preserves covering over 2.9 million acres of submerged lands, protecting seagrass meadows, oyster and hard-bottom habitats, mangrove forests, salt marshes and coral reefs (DEP, Florida Aquatic Preserves).

The agency's history notes that prior to the 1960s industrialization and urbanization posed threats to the coastline, estuaries and wetlands, that the number of preserves grew significantly through the 1980s and 1990s, and that new preserves have been named as recently as 2024 through the legislative process (DEP). The history note on section 258.39, the section that draws the preserve boundaries, ends with an amendment by chapter 2024-180 (s. 258.39, F.S.).

Florida law bars oil and gas wells and mineral excavation inside an aquatic preserve, allows dredging or filling only by permit for listed uses, and allows a sale or lease of the submerged land only in the public interest.

For every Florida aquatic preserve, section 258.42 puts the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund in charge of maintaining the preserves and sets the limits (s. 258.42, F.S.). No further sale, lease or transfer of sovereignty submerged lands may be approved unless it is in the public interest, and the statute declares aquaculture to be in the public interest, so aquaculture leases can be authorized. Bulkhead lines may not be moved waterward except for public road and bridge projects with no reasonable alternative that are shown not to be contrary to the public interest.

Further dredging or filling is barred except by permit for a short list of uses: minimum dredging for public navigation projects and for marinas, piers and docks, maintenance dredging of existing channels, alterations the trustees find necessary to enhance the preserve or public health, public utility installations, and properly marked oil and gas transportation facilities (s. 258.42). No dredging seaward of a bulkhead line may be done just to supply fill. There may be no drilling of gas or oil wells, although the state may still lease the oil and gas rights and permit drilling from outside the preserve if the board approves, and no excavation of minerals except the dredging of dead oyster shells approved by DEP.

Section 258.39 declares submerged lands in a long list of counties, from Nassau and Duval to Monroe and Escambia, to be aquatic preserves, and the DEP list includes inland rivers such as the Wekiva River.

Section 258.39 lists Nassau, Duval, St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia, Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie, Charlotte, Pinellas, Martin, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Collier, Lee, Citrus, Franklin, Gulf, Bay, Okaloosa, Marion, Santa Rosa, Hernando and Escambia counties, and excludes privately held submerged lands landward of established bulkheads and certain privately held submerged lands in Monroe County (s. 258.39, F.S.). DEP's list of 43 runs alphabetically from Alligator Harbor, Apalachicola Bay and Banana River to the Wekiva River and Yellow River Marsh (DEP).

The two lists use different names for the reef area: DEP calls it the Kristin Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve (DEP), while the statute calls it the Kristin Jacobs Coral Reef Ecosystem Conservation Area (s. 258.39). The statute places it in state waters from the St. Lucie Inlet to the northern boundary of Biscayne National Park.

Florida has three National Estuarine Research Reserves, at Apalachicola, Guana Tolomato Matanzas and Rookery Bay, and DEP groups four areas, two of them aquatic preserves, under a reef tract of almost 350 miles.

DEP says the three reserves belong to a national network of 30 protected areas set up for long-term research, education and stewardship where fresh water meets the sea (DEP, Florida Aquatic Preserves). By DEP's description, the reef tract reaches north from the Dry Tortugas to the St. Lucie Inlet, a distance of almost 350 miles, and it is the only coral reef system in the continental United States; more than 40 reef-building coral species grow on it. DEP groups four areas under it: the Cape Florida and Coupon Bight aquatic preserves, the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and the Kristin Jacobs Coral Aquatic Preserve.

The DEP list of aquatic preserves also includes a Rookery Bay Aquatic Preserve and an Apalachicola Bay Aquatic Preserve that share names with two of the research reserves; the state and national designations are listed separately (DEP).

The St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve sits along the coast of St. Joseph Bay, roughly 5 miles southeast of Port St. Joe.

DEP places it south of U.S. Highway 98 and along State Road 30-A, with Panama City about 35 miles to the northwest and Tallahassee about 100 miles to the northeast, amid urban residential development, pine plantations, St. Joseph Bay and the Gulf (DEP, Florida Aquatic Preserves). It is the one area DEP lists under its State Buffer Preserve heading, and the same DEP list carries a separate St. Joseph Bay Aquatic Preserve for the bay's submerged lands.

For questions about any preserve, the program sits in DEP's Office of Resilience and Coastal Protection; for state parks the division office is at 3900 Commonwealth Blvd, Tallahassee, FL 32399, phone 850-245-3029 (DEP Division of Recreation and Parks).

Last verified: October 19, 2026, by reading Florida Statutes sections 258.037, 258.35, 258.36, 258.39 and 258.42 on Online Sunshine, together with the DEP aquatic preserve program and parks division pages.