FLORIDA — In an unprecedented move, an additional 38,848 acres are being preserved to protect Florida’s ecosystem with the help of 12 major landowners who have agreed to sell their development rights to the state.
The landowners are selling conservation easements to the state for more than $97 million, which will place restrictions on future development. The landowners will retain ownership and agricultural use of the land in exchange for selling the property’s development rights, ensuring the land, wildlife and agriculture are protected forever.
Dean Saunders, the founder of SVN | Saunders Ralston Dantzler, based in Lakeland, brokered half of the conservation easements that were approved last week. Of the 38,848 acres sold to the state, Saunders brokered 18,427 acres totaling about $45 million.
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“Florida is currently seeing a mass migration with over 1,100 people moving to the state each day. The state is facing pressures to balance the conservation of its natural and working agricultural land and the much-needed development to accommodate the newcomers,” said Saunders. “Conservation easements have proven to be a great tool to protect land from development and preserve critical habitats, wetlands and wildlife.”
An eighth-generation Floridian, Saunders has been a leading force behind Florida’s conservation efforts. As a state legislator in the 1990s, he introduced legislation now known as the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. For the last 25 years, he has been representing ranchers to secure conservation easements from the state on their land.
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“Conservation easements are cost-effective for taxpayers because it costs less money to buy rights than the property and the state doesn’t have to pay to manage the land,” said Saunders.
State environmental groups are attempting to acquire connecting conservation lands spanning the length of the Florida to form the Florida Wildlife Corridor. The corridor would be a designated network of connected lands that creates crucial linkages for wildlife habitat, such as the Florida panther and the black bear, that inherently roam rather than remain in a fixed territory.
“We have a record number of panthers living in Florida,” Saunders told Patch. “And they need a lot of space to roam. By selling the development rights of agricultural lands to the state, we’ve been able to conserve a lot of land needed for these panthers to roam.”
Up until now, Saunders said it was an uphill battle to convince the state to purchase development rights, although he said the cost is significantly less than purchasing land outright.
“Gov. Jeb Bush (1999 to 2007) vetoed funding for it and, after the Great Recession, conservation funding was not a priority of the Scott (Gov. Rick Scott 2011 to 2019) administration,” he said.
That’s despite the fact that in 1990 Florida voters agreed to spend $300 million a year to purchase conservation lands.
“For the last 32 years, the people of Florida prioritized conservation acquisitions but, during the recession, the funding wasn’t consistent,” said Saunders. “It’s important to provide consistent funding, so agencies can respond accordingly.”
Under the DeSantis administration, Saunders said the state has taken leaps forward in protecting environmental lands.
“Last year is the first year we’ve had substantial funding. Gov. DeSantis is more focused on conservation. In 2022, the Legislature appropriated an additional $300 million for the Florida Forever program,” he said.
Founded in July 2001, Florida Forever is one of the largest public land acquisition programs in the United States. With about 10 million acres managed for conservation in Florida, more than 2.6 million acres were purchased through the Florida Forever and its predecessor, Preservation 2000, for a host of ecosystem benefits including water quality and quantity, resiliency from storm impact, habitat and species protection and outdoor recreation.
Since 2019, the state of Florida has invested $600 million for land acquisition through the Florida Forever Program, including $300 million specifically for the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and acquired nearly 175,000 acres, which is almost four times more than that of the previous four years.
“Agricultural easement programs have never enjoyed this level of funding before. We are truly a national leader and a model, I think, for other states to follow,” Saunders said.
As a result, more major landowners are considering selling development rights to their property while still maintaining ownership.
At its March 13 meeting, the board of trustees for Forever Florida approved a wish list of priority lands it hopes to acquire and preserve.
At last week’s governor and cabinet meeting, DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet agreed to outright purchase or purchase the development rights for more than $103 million to conserve nearly 40,000 acres across the state through the Florida Forever and Rural and Family Lands Protection programs. Nearly all the property is within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
“I want to thank the Florida cabinet for supporting our great state’s continuing land conservation legacy,” said DeSantis. “Acquiring these key properties will forever benefit water quality, wildlife habitat and corridor linkages, and it will support Florida’s tourism and family agriculture sectors for generations to come.”
Among the properties are:
Fisheating Creek Ecosystem Florida Forever Project along the Florida Wildlife Corridor in Glades County, which will connect this property to other conservation lands in the region, including the Fisheating Creek Wildlife Management Area and Platt Branch Wildlife Environmental Area. This area is designated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Primary Dispersal/Expansion Area for the endangered Florida panther.
Avalon Florida Forever Project in Jefferson County, which will provide long-term surface and groundwater protections in the Red Hills region, including the WacissaSpringshed and Wacissa River. Also within the wildlife corridor, the forests on this property provide habitat for the Florida black bear, gopher tortoise, southern fox squirrel, Bachman’s sparrow and yellow fringed orchid. This property is also located in the Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape, a component of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program.
Bluefield to Cow Creek Florida Forever Project in St. Lucie County, which will further the environmental and hydrological health of the Florida Everglades Ecosystem and provide and enhance the habitat of numerous rare and imperiled species. This region of the state is included in the Indian River Lagoon – South Restoration Plan, which is a component of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and is also within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
The acquisition of 497 acres within the Longleaf Pine Ecosystem Florida Forever Project in Marion County, which will preserve one of the largest tracts of old growth longleaf pine in Florida, some of which are estimated to be more than 300 years old. It also provides critical habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker, gopher tortoise, sand skink, Florida sandhill crane, wood stork and Florida scrub-jay. The property will be managed by the Florida Forest Service as part of Indian Lake State Forest in partnership with the Ocala National Forest.
The governor and cabinet also approved the acquisition of permanent agricultural land conservation easements over more than 18,000 acres of working agricultural lands through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Rural and Family Lands Protection Program, including:
More information on the acquisitions can be found here.
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