Ryan Ray
Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet on Tuesday OK’d a plan to buy still more conservation easements.
Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam approved the $6.6 million in deals at a Cabinet meeting.
The land, in Osceola County south of St. Cloud, will be set aside to forestall any development and preserve biodiversity.
Under the proposal the state would buy land within Adams Ranch, a fourth-generation cattle operation, and Camp Lonesome, another massive ranching area.
They will become “perpetual conservation easements” and the land will come under state management.
The land will be overseen by the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Florida Forest Service Rural and Family Lands Protection Program.
The state will spend $5.4 million for a 3,245-acre plot and nearly $1.2 million for another 528 acres.
Under the terms of the deal, active ranches can continue to operate on their land.
The approvals create the 23rd and 24th perpetual conservation easements in the state. About 18,000 acres are now being preserved.
The Department of Environmental Protection already monitors thousands of nearby acres through the Adams Ranch Florida Forever project.
New state-managed land in Camp Lonesome will neighbor federal- and county-owned easements already in the area.
Capital correspondent Jim Rosica contributed to this report.
