By Audubon
Published December 17, 2024
This article is from Audubon Florida
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Today, the Florida Cabinet approved the purchase of land and conservation easements to protect 85,778 acres of Florida’s most important wildlife habitats and rural ranchlands for $318,386,613. These conservation lands cover 134 square miles, or 2.5 times the size of the City of Miami, and constitute the largest increment of conservation land and easement purchases ever proposed on a single Cabinet agenda. House and Senate leaders in the Florida Legislature included strategic appropriations for conservation land acquisitions and easements in Florida's budget—an important investment in Florida's economy, ecology, and quality of life. Many of the proposed acquisition projects are part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
Purchases under the Florida Forever program: Five land ownerships and two proposed conservation easements totaling 23,113 acres. Tracts protected range in size from 113 acres to more than 12,000 acres. Counties where conservation land and easements will be purchased under the Florida Forever Program are: Bay, Duval, Polk, Volusia, Walton and Santa Rosa counties.
Purchases under the Rural and Family Lands Conservation Easement program: 13 tracts, ranging from 417 acres to 11,731 acres. Total acreage protected under easements: 62,665 acres. These lands are located in: DeSoto, Dixie, Glades, Highlands, Levy, Madison, Martin, Okeechobee, Osceola, and Polk counties.
All of the 20 conservation land projects on the Cabinet agenda have conservation significance. Some selected examples of the most ecologically valuable tracts to be purchased or protected by easement are:
- A 12,243-acre portion of the Bear Creek Forest Florida Forever Project in Bay County to be purchased outright. This tract is a crucial linkage in the Florida Wildlife Corridor and will provide habitat and important water resource protection for the fragile St. Andrews Bay Watershed, which provides water recharge for public water supply systems, and contributes vital clean fresh water to the estuary. Wildlife species protected include the pine-woods aster, flatwoods salamander, gopher tortoise, Florida black bear, and Bachman’s Sparrow.
- A 764-acre conservation easement in the Green Swamp Area of Critical Concern in Polk County. Heavy development pressure is encroaching on the Green Swamp—this is an area vital to water recharge as well as wildlife habitat situated between Tampa and Orlando.
- A 11,713-acre tract on the Waccasassa River surrounding the Devil’s Hammock Wildlife Management Area in Levy County. The tract would be protected by a Rural and Family Lands easement, and link to other publicly owned properties in the Florida Wildlife Corridor. Protecting this tract from development will preserve the fragile river system which is associated with springs that are vital to the estuaries in the Florida Big Bend area.
- 26,409 acres in the northern Everglades comprised of six ranches to be protected by Rural and Family Lands conservation easements. Protection of these ranches under easement works towards the completion of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge.
- A 5,874-acre ranch in Martin County west of Interstate 95 within the Florida Wildlife Corridor. This ranchland property will eventually be subject to intense development pressure; the Rural and Family Lands easement will prevent urbanization and allow harmonious ranch operations and wildlife habitat to coexist into the future.
- A 1,265-acre property in Duval County previously approved for a major urban development is proposed for a fee title purchase. This tract is located between Cary State Forest, Four Creeks State Forest, and the Thomas Creek Conservation Area within the Northeast Florida Timberlands and Watershed Reserve, a major Florida Forever acquisition project. The development entitlements on the tract would have allowed more than 1,600 homes, creating severe impacts on a much larger area of conservation land previously purchased. The property contains significant habitat for the Florida black bear and Red-cockaded Woodpecker.
“Audubon is grateful to the Legislature for funding these acquisitions, and to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services for striking such savvy deals for taxpayers,” says Audubon Florida Executive Director Julie Wraithmell. “These projects don't just preserve habitat for wildlife and keep working lands in production, they also help ensure Floridians have clean drinking water, healthy watersheds and coasts, and support property values and our vibrant economy. Land conservation enjoys tremendous bipartisan support from Floridians and we are thankful to the Governor and Cabinet for their support of this impressive group of projects today.”
Florida Forever is the State of Florida’s iconic land conservation program that identifies resources of state significance for protection based on scientific criteria and with a transparent process accountable to taxpayers, local communities, and landowners alike. Prioritizing properties based on values important to Florida’s economy and ecology—like protecting water resources, habitat connectivity, recreational opportunity, resilience, and more—the Department of Environmental Protection delineates large landscape-scale project areas to protect these assets and works over many years to acquire the parcels within each project boundary, piece by piece from willing sellers.
The Rural and Family Lands Protection Program is an agricultural conservation easement program under Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Its primary mission is the protection of agricultural lands.