Drew Dixon
A leading land conservation organization is praising the Legislature for approving some $268 million for land protection in the 2025-26 budget.
The bulk of that allocation, $250 million, is going to the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program (RFLPP). Another $18 million is being earmarked for the Florida Forever program. The Florida Conservation Group (FCG) is lauding the funding.
“We are so appreciative that the legislature recognizes the need for funding the state’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program,” said Julie Morris, Executive Director of the FCG. “With our land base losing ground to so much development, we’ve got to preserve both our agricultural and natural lands to balance out that growth and keep parts of Old Florida intact.”
The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) oversees the RFLPP, which was established in 2001 to purchase land to set aside for conservation.
For most of this century, there wasn’t much funding backing that program. But Wilton Simpson, a former Senate President, earmarked more funding for it in 2022. In his current position as Agriculture Commissioner, he has been more aggressive about land acquisitions.
Just this month, the state used the RFLPP program and the Florida Forever program for substantial acquisitions to preserve land in North Florida. Most notably, last week the state secured a vast 78,000 acres of land in several counties for conservation.
The FCG said the bullish actions on land protection are necessary if the state wants to continue both agricultural growth and wildlife conservation.
“Sprawling suburban development and small acreage ‘ranchettes’ are spreading inland from the coasts into Florida’s interior, pushing farming and ranching into increasingly isolated operations,” an FCG news release said this week. “By 2040, an estimated 1 million additional acres of rural land including ranches could be developed if the state doesn’t protect those lands before they’re converted to intensive uses.”
