An $8.25 million deal to purchase a conservation easement that would preserve 4,808 acres of land north of Tallahassee has been finalized, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection announced Friday. Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state Cabinet approved the deal with Gem Land Co. in September.
“These types of acquisitions are essential to further conserve our water, our wildlife and the unique natural landscapes people associate with our state,” Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Shawn Hamilton said in a prepared statement Friday.
Conservation easements generally are intended to preserve land from development while allowing current landowner to continue agriculture activities. Money for the deal came from the Florida Forever program.
Florida Forever is Florida’s premier conservation and recreation lands acquisition program; a blueprint for conserving Florida’s natural and cultural heritage. View the Our Lands. Our Legacy Story Map for highlights of the program.
Florida Forever replaced Preservation 2000 (P2000), and is one of the largest public land acquisition programs in the United States. With approximately 10 million acres managed for conservation in Florida, more than 2.6 million acres were purchased through the Florida Forever and P2000 programs.
Since the inception of the Florida Forever program in July 2001, the state has purchased more than 907,412 acres of land with approximately $3.3 billion. For more information, review Frequently Asked Questions about the Florida Forever program.
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This is needed as the amount of poorly controlled development moving north of Bradfordville is exponential. The thrust is for high-density development to replace green space. The developers are ignoring drainage needs, adjoining neighborhoods, and need for road traffic controls, to name a few.
Nice, I hope there will be outdoor recreation activities there since we the people paid for it.
If the whole warming globes and rising sea levels were real, as the Green Elites insist… then all coastal governments would ban any new construction within 5 miles of any waterway. And would be working of a plan to require by law that all existing people and structures within that designated area be evacuated.
Then again, the Green Elites would have to be included in that… so… there you have it.
@ Hawkins
That’s an excellent. idea. Seriously. Right up until the greedy coastal county governments (I’m looking at you, Franklin and Gulf) see that their cash cow tax base disappears, then you’ll see what politics can do.
The Governor and Florida Forever needs to see about getting with Citizens Insurance and start purchasing the Property along the Coast Lines after a Hurricane rolls through and destroys the Homes. Citizens pays the Property Claim and the State Government pays the Balance for the Land. Do this for Property that is within One Mile of the Coast. After X-Number of Acres are purchased, it is turned into a State Park or Preserve. This will save the Tax Payers on High Insurance Rates down the road because those High Dollar Homes will no long be built on that Land.