Mallory Swamp is a large basin or bog swamp in southeastern Lafayette County and northeast Dixie County in the Big Bend Region of Florida. Mallory Swamp includes cypress swamps, titi thickets, peat bogs, and upland habitats. It is part of the Mallory Swamp-San Pedro Bay-California Swamp system in Dixie, Lafayette, and Taylor counties. That system is the largest basin swamp in Florida, covering more than .Larson p. 2 Mallory Swamp is the largest wetland in the San Pedro Bay geomorphological province. The California Swamp is in Dixie County to the south of Mallory Swamp, close to the Gulf Coast. The Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge includes part of the California Swamp.Williams, Scott, & Upchurch p. 2
In the 1950s through the 1970s land owners attempted to convert the Mallory Swamp-San Pedro Bay swamps to pine plantations. One study estimated that more than of wetlands in Mallory Swamp were being converted to pine platantions per year. Hundreds of miles of drainage ditches were dug throughout the area. The flood retention capacity of the swamp was reduced by the drainage. Attempts to restore the hydrology of the swamp began in the 1990s.Larson p. 34 In 1997, the Sam Shine Foundation acquired of the Mallory Swamp that had been converted to pine plantation and started a restoration project. A separate tract of was also acquired. The land was later sold to the State of Florida and the larger parcel was placed under the Suwannee River Water Management District and is operated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as the Mallory Swamp Wildlife Management Area. The tract became the core of the Lafayette Forest Wildlife and Environmental Area.
The Mallory Swamp Wildlife Management Area includes about in southeastern Lafayette County, southwest of Branford, Florida. The area is open year-round for hunting (in season), fishing, camping, hiking, biking, horseback riding, and wildlife viewing. An ATV trail is open April to mid-September. The Lafayette Forest Wildlife and Environmental Area operated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has more than 2,000 acres of swamps, marshes, flatwoods and hardwood hammocks that are being restored for wildlife habitat and recreation. The Lafayette Forest is a Florida Forever project to protect a tract on the east side of the Mallory Swamp Wildlife Management Area. As of 2026, the state has acquired of the tract. The goal of the project is to preserve wetlands and restore the naturally hydrology of the tract.
The Mallory Swamp fire in May 2001 burned , including all of the wildlife management area. It was started by a lightning strike on May 12 and burned for the rest of the month before being contained. The burn helped clear the wildlife management area for a project to restore natural water levels and native vegetation.
The Suwannee River Water Management District, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Dixie County initiated a $2,000,000 project to raise water levels in Mallory Swamp in 2013. The project closed off ditches where they drained out of the swamp and injected the water flowing out of the swamp into wells to restore levels in the Floridan aquifer.
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