Park Hours: 8:00 am - Dusk

The Leon M. Weekes Environmental Preserve is a fragment of a once extensive community called Florida Scrub or Scrub Pinelands. Florida Scrub is one of the oldest habitats in peninsular Florida. (Watts, 1971, 1975, 1980). This community consists of species that are specialized to live in periodically burned areas with high, well-drained, nutrient-poor soils. Moreover, this community contains a large percentage of organisms that occur nowhere else in the world. Technically, these species with restricted ranges are called endemics. Since most of Florida's current citizens are transplants from elsewhere in the world, they are not aware of many native plants. The LMWEP can become an eminent example of one of Florida's native ecosystems and how the remnants of that community continue to function.

Periodically the Fire Department assists the Recreation Department in conducting a controlled burn in the preserve. This assists nature in reducing the amount of vegetation and undergrowth similar to natural fires started by lightning.

This park consists of nature trails (handicap accessible), information kiosk, parking lot, playground, and gazebo.

Leon M. Weekes

1926 - 2014

From volunteering for various local non-profit organizations to serving as mayor of Delray Beach, Leon M. Weekes was frequently involved in public service.

Born in Atlanta, he moved to Delray Beach in 1953 with his wife, Harriett. He opened his own insurance agency and later took an active role in city government. He served as a Delray Beach commissioner from 1970 until 1978, when he was elected mayor. Weekes was Delray Beach’s mayor from 1978-1982.

We had the grand opening of the Leon M. Weekes Environmental Preserve on April 15, 1999. The Preserve is located between Linton Boulevard and Lindell Boulevard, west of Old Dixie Highway. The land was originally owned by the Simon family, and was purchased in 1988 by Palm Beach County and the City of Delray Beach for $700,000. The primary purpose of this acquisition is to preserve the site's high quality scrub and scrubby flatwood communities including species such as gopher tortoise, Curtiss' milkweed, common wild pine, large-flowered rosemary, scrub palmetto, scrub hickory and nodding pineweed.