St. Pete-area preserves

Pinellas County has caught the attention of USA Today as a destination that has nice green space despite being the most crowded county in Florida. (You would think Miami-Dade would have that top spot, but Pinellas is smaller geographically, so the population has to fit into less room. I think Miami-Dade is #2, though.) The article highlights Weedon Island Preserve and Booker Creek Preserve. Those are both great places, and if you get far enough into them on the trails, you'd never know you were surrounded by suburbia.

There is some debate about whether it makes sense ecologically to preserve "small" chunks of land like city and county preserves -- some people believe only large areas of land really work to help species. Whether small preserves are ecologically beneficial or not, though, I still think they are great for people's state of mind! I think we all need some "green time" now and then, and if you can get that down the street, that's great!

What do you think?