Preserving and utilizing our local park systems is essential to the Jacksonville community and the Timucuan Parks Foundation is doing exactly that.

Dr. T Sack, a gastroenterologist who has been a part of the board of the Timucuan Parks Foundation for five years now, said, “The Timucuan Parks Foundation’s goal is to preserve our wilderness lands and help the city to develop them so they can be accessible for hiking, picnicking and bicycling and canoeing and kayaking.”

Dr. Sack has dedicated his time to supporting several medical and environmental groups with the mission of bettering people’s lives in our community. Dr. Sack said “When you join a nonprofit board of directors you meet really neat people, and that’s probably the nicest reason to join a board”. Dr. Sack loves the connection that people from different jobs and professions make when they come together to support one cause, like the Timucuan Parks Foundation.

One of the foundation’s main goals is to promote people to support state and city land by promoting the parks for the use of visitors and Florida residents. “Having people have places near their home that they can go to on the weekend and go walking with a dog or go bike riding or go fishing just enhances their lives. And so if we can make people’s lives more pleasurable, more fun, that’s worthwhile.” said by Dr. Sack while emphasizing the importance that preserving nature has on us and our need to not only protect, but also utilize the diverse ecosystems around us in the city of Jacksonville.

The Timucuan Parks Foundation focuses on a group of preservation parks which according to Dr. T Sack are “A band of parks that really is around the core of the city.” These 40 parks, especially located around the downtown area in Jacksonville, are kept as areas where the wildlife will remain as preserved land forever to ensure the future of recreational areas in our community.

It is essential to preserve the land under the Timucuan Parks Foundation in order to conserve the rich history the land has gone through. The history of some of the Northeast Florida Land includes 10,000 years of the inhibition of indigenous people including the Timucua people many years before French and Spanish explorers reached Florida. This history is especially important to Florida and remembering the groups of people and their cultures that our homes came from.

Preserving recreational areas from our state and city land in Florida is also essential for protecting our environment. Groups like the Timucuan Parks Foundation make an effort to upkeep our natural land by not allowing companies or the government to use it in ways that would damage the ecosystems. Dr. Sack and the rest of the timucuan parks foundation strongly believe in preservation, for this reason and Dr. Sack said “we want to preserve this wilderness and not have some future government sell it off to raise money to pay salaries or sell it off.”

Another incentive to going out and enjoying the parks and natural areas provided by the Timucuan Parks Foundation or any other outdoor space is the many health benefits they provide us. Dr. Sack highlighted this by saying “It’s good for the health of my patients to go out in nature, to have fun walking with their families, to burn off some calories, and to just enjoy the relaxation of being in nature.”

“We have an enormous number of parks in Jacksonville that people aren’t aware of. I really want people to go out and enjoy them, and go for a walk.” – Dr. T Sack

There are many ways to get involved with the Timucuan Parks foundation. They provide community service opportunities which allow volunteers to maintain and build trails. Dr. Sack said,”The Timucuan Parks Foundation has a great website to contact us and learn about really fun opportunities to get out in the woods, meet our parks and do some neat work to help promote our parks.”