Disney Wilderness Preserve celebrates 20 years

Disney publicity photo of the Disney Wilderness Preserve

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Disney Wilderness Preserve the Nature Conservancy is hosting an open house on April 27.

The preserve, located south of Disney World, has more than 1,000 species of plants and animals. The preserve was created in the 1990s when The Walt Disney Company donated 8,500 acres to The Nature Conservancy.

“We learned everything we know about wetlands restoration there,” Tricia Martin, director of conservation for The Nature Conservancy chapter in Central Florida said in a press release. “It was the first project to take on the challenge of transforming an entire degraded landscape back to a healthy, functioning ecosystem—one right at the head of the Everglades.”