Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Cabinet on Tuesday approved spending nearly $118 million to conserve about 76,000 acres of land in North Florida. Using money from the Florida Forever program, the state will buy two conservation easements.
Such easements are intended to shield land from potential development while allowing property owners to continue such things as agricultural operations. The conservation easement on the larger property, 61,389 acres in Baker and Union counties, will cost $93.617 million. The land, which is used for tree farming and recreation, is owned by Weyerhaeuser Forest Holdings.
“While the area has historically been rural, it is experiencing some growing pressure from expanding development in both the Lake City and Jacksonville areas,” state staff members wrote in a description of the property. The state also will pay $24.326 million to Blackbottom Holdings, LLC, for a conservation easement on the other property, 14,743 acres in Baker and Bradford counties.
Also Tuesday, DeSantis and the Cabinet approved paying $5.933 million for a 1,745-acre conservation easement in Bradford, Clay, and Putnam counties. The purchase from Terwillegar-Tumlin Properties, Inc. will be made through the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Rural and Family Lands Protection Program. “The project is bordered by lakeside residential communities as well as various mixed pasture/forest/residential properties, much of which is projected to be developed by 2040 in (the University of Florida’s) development projections,” according to a news release from the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
