Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Lakeland

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
Lakeland City Hall Police DepartmentPhoto: Mjrmtg · CC BY-SA 3.0
BOutdoors
Outdoors in Lakeland

Few parks or trails are on the map in Lakeland

14% of Lakeland’s land is conserved, about 276 acres. 78% of residents live within a half mile of a park. 0.3 miles of mapped trail cross Lakeland, 0.1 per square mile of land.

Ahead of 62% of U.S. towns · #44 of 264 in Georgia. What drives it

Conserved land
14%
276 acres · of 3.1 sq mi of land
Trails
0.3 mi
0.1 per sq mi of land
Park land
45 ac
15 acres per 1,000 residents
Near a park
78%
of residents within ½ mile
Lakes & rivers
1

What kind of outdoors town is Lakeland?

Read from the map. The page puts what stands out first.

Outdoors grade

How much outdoors does Lakeland have?

On conserved land, trails, park land and how close residents live to a park, Lakeland is ahead of 62% of U.S. towns, #44 of 264 in Georgia. Conserved land holds the grade up; trail miles pull it down.

B
OutdoorsA character grade: shown, never part of Lakeland’s overall grade.
All U.S. towns we grade (21,298)Ahead of 62%
LessMore
Georgia towns of 2,500+ (264)Ahead of 84%

Few Georgia towns conserve much land (a typical one, 2%; the U.S., 4%), so Lakeland’s 14% is ahead of 96% of Georgia towns, while its trails per square mile lead 29% of them.

NoteFew parks or trails are mapped in Lakeland. OpenStreetMap is mapped by volunteers and coverage varies from town to town, so a town with unmapped parks scores low on them.
How sure. Graded on any three of the four inputs instead, the letter would range from B− to A−. Trails and many small parks come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by volunteers, so coverage varies from town to town; the half mile is a straight line from each census block, so a river or highway in the way isn’t counted against it.

PAD-US, OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors), Census 2025 Gazetteer and 2020 blocks; details in Sources below. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →

The map

Conserved land, trails & bike routes

Tap a number to zoom to a park. Tap a layer to hide it.

Easements protect land from building but are usually private.© OpenStreetMap contributors · USGS PAD-US
Who protects it

276 conserved acres

14% of Lakeland’s land. Who manages Lakeland’s conserved land, from the USGS Protected Areas Database. Approximate, because parcels can overlap.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service259 ac
Land trusts & nonprofits101 ac
Town or city44 ac
National Wildlife Refuge · 259 acUnknown Easement · 101 acLocal Recreation Area · 24 acLocal Park · 20 ac
Good to know

Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors. 101 acres are conservation easements, usually private land. The walks above are places people visit.

The biggest protected parcels
Parcel (PAD-US)Managed byAcresPublic access
Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge
National Wildlife Refuge
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service259Restricted
Lakeland Lanier Rec Facility
Local Recreation Area
Town or city24Open
Lake Irma Park
Local Park
Town or city15Open
Roquemore Park
Local Park
Town or city5Open
Trails & water

1 lakes & rivers

Lakes & rivers tap for directions
Biking & sports

0.0 miles of bike routes

Bike lanes are often missing from the map in smaller towns, so that number is likely low.

Courts & fields
4Tennis
4Baseball
3Basketball
1Soccer

Includes school and college facilities, which aren’t always open to the public.

History along the way

1 place on the National Register

The country’s official list of places worth saving (National Park Service).

History →
Lanier County Auditorium and Grammar SchoolBuilding · listed 1986
About it
When to get out

April is the best month for walking in Lakeland

NOAA’s 1991–2020 normals for the town and the daylight at its latitude. Outlined months have long days, highs of 59 to 86 °F and little rain for the place.

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Daylight (h)10.311.011.912.913.714.114.013.312.311.410.510.1
High (°F)636773798690929187807165
Rain (in)4.33.84.53.43.05.95.75.54.23.22.53.5

November is the driest month (2.5 in) and July the warmest (highs of 92 °F). 5.9 inches fall in June, the wettest month. Summer highs reach 92 °F, too hot for the outline. The climate in Lakeland →

Questions about parks and trails in Lakeland

How much of Lakeland is conserved land?

14% of its land, against a typical 2% for a Georgia town and 4% nationally (PAD-US). Conserved doesn’t always mean open to visitors: easements are usually private land.

Is there public land near Lakeland?

8,014 acres of parks and open public land lie inside Lakeland or within 10 miles of it (PAD-US), 45 of them inside the city line.

How much outdoors does Lakeland have?

Ahead of 62% of U.S. towns on the Outdoors grade, #44 of 264 in Georgia. The grade combines the share of land that is conserved, miles of mapped trail per square mile of land, park acres per 1,000 residents and the share of residents within a half mile of a park. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.

Trail talk

Conditions, parking and favorite walks from Lakeland neighbors.

Town Square →
Share a tip
Sources

Where this page comes from

Conserved and public land: USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US), service updated July 2026. Parks, trails, playgrounds, beaches and other places: OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL), map data as of 2026-10-28. Land and water area: Census 2025 Gazetteer. Residents near a park: 2020 Census blocks. National Register: National Park Service. How TownRatings grades the outdoors →