Lake Tibet, Windermere: The 438 Acres on the Southwest Shore That Stayed Wetland

Before the state bought it, the flatwoods and scrub on Lake Tibet's southwest shore were slated for residential development. The South Florida Water Management District's land assessment for the Tibet-Butler Preserve is specific about what happened instead: the property was acquired under the Save Our Rivers program to protect a locally significant wetland resource. It took state money and a formal acquisition. The 438 acres that were headed toward streets, roofs, seawalls and lawns are trails, wetlands and wildlife habitat.

They sit on some of the most coveted freshwater real estate in Central Florida. The Butler Chain of Lakes — thirteen interconnected waters stretching through Windermere and southwest Orange County — holds more than 5,000 acres of surface water and 32 navigable canals. The water is clear and the navigation runs end to end. Isleworth and Bay Hill are on it. In 1985 the chain became the first lake system in Florida to receive the Outstanding Florida Waters designation, recognized for water quality and wildlife habitat at a time when much of the surrounding land was converting to houses.

The preserve holds several landscapes in a short distance. Dry, sandy scrub gives way to pine flatwoods, which shift into cypress and bay swamp, which open out to lakeshore wetland at the water's edge. Nearly 300 of the 438 acres are classified as wetlands. Trails cross that sequence, from the scrub down to the water's edge. The Vera Carter Environmental Center runs programs on the property, and the site is part of the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail.

A protected shoreline buffers the lake from what is happening on the land beside it. Runoff crosses that ground before it reaches the water, and soil and vegetation hold and filter what moves through. Water leaving the Butler Chain runs south toward Reedy Creek, the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee and eventually the Everglades.

Most people who reach Lake Tibet arrive by water or through a gate. The preserve is one of the few places on the Butler Chain where a visitor can walk to the water's edge without doing either. There are no docks and no boat slips along that stretch of shore, and no houses behind it.