A: The Disney Wilderness Preserve, with its Conservation Learning Center, was established in south Osceola County as a wetlands mitigation project. The property was purchased by Disney and donated in 1993 to the Nature Conservancy to offset lands impacted by the development of Walt Disney World. Immediately work began on returning the drained ranchlands to their original habitat. The area opened to the public in 1999 and includes self-guided nature trails from which guests might spy such creatures as bald eagles, sandhill cranes, red-cockaded woodpeckers, storks, bats, and tortoises as well as plants native to cypress swamps, freshwater marshes, and longleaf pine forests.