The Lake Wales Ridge National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is a unit of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) Complex and is administered by and co-managed with Pelican Island and Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuges, colloquially termed the Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex (PIC) (Figure 1). Lake Wales Ridge NWR (Figure 2) is one of the first refuges of its kind in the National Wildlife Refuge System (Refuge System) to target community level conservation - specifically scrub habitat, a unique vegetation type largely restricted to the Central Florida ridge systems occurring on the remnants of ancient beach and sand dune systems from Ocala National Forest to southern Highlands County, Florida.