County will hear land preservation plan
By JOHN GUERRA | Highlands News Sun
The Highlands County Board of County Commissioners will meet March 4 to discuss the future of land preservation in Highlands County. The proposed Ridge to River program will be the focus of the 2 p.m. meeting in commission chambers on Commerce Street.
According to county Natural Resources staff, the county’s Conservation Trust Fund (CTF), created to buy land for preservation, is not keeping up with growth and inflation. Natural Resources officials outlined the situation in a letter to commissioners in January.
The fund, created from development mitigation fees, has collected $249,373 over several years. The county has used the CTF money to acquire, enhance, maintain, and manage Natural Resources and publicly-owned lands.
According to a letter to county commissioners from Natural Resources Manager Dawn Ritter and staff, the county has spent $447,694 to acquire the 55-acre Grassy Lake Scrub to protect the sand skink species.
However, the CTF doesn’t collect enough money to keep up with future land preservation, she wrote.
Inflation and the fast pace of development mean “funding sources established for the CTF are lacking.”
Ritter and her staff believe they have found a way to move more money into the fund and the county’s land preservation efforts.
Ritter and Natural Resource Specialist Samuel Eriksen recently joined forces with experts from the North Florida Land Trust to begin laying the foundation for such a program. The county is paying the land trust $68,509 for the project. The land trust has helped other counties write land preservation funding programs.
“To provide growth to the CTF that will meet the population needs, the Ridge to River Conservation Plan should be implemented,” Natural Resources staff wrote commissioners.
The North Florida Land Trust – which has helped save more than 41,580 acres worth $97.3 million since its inception in 1999 – will help the county develop a plan to preserve vulnerable lands, water sources, wildlife habitat, and other of the county’s natural resources.
The program won’t be ready for voter approval for a couple of years, but the Land Trust and county staff have begun gathering input from interested parties and stakeholders. Once they have enough information, they will then write a plan and manual for preserving those lands. The county commissioners will oversee the progress of the program study.
“The Ridge to River Conservation Plan is an important intermediary stage for the future of our county and allows us to attain great insight into what residents’ value regarding conservation,” Ritter wrote the commission.
The Land Trust and county staff have met with land owners, environmentalists, and other stakeholders to get their initial input in recent weeks. Ritter and North Florida Land Trust officials will update the commissioners on the Ridge to River study at the March 4 meeting. Once the county commissioners give the go-ahead, the Land Trust will hold public workshops in the upper, middle, and lower county to get citizen input.
“Highlands County is fortunate to be home to many diverse water bodies and ecosystems to include the scrub/sandhill ridges and the Florida Wildlife Corridor,” Ritter wrote. “With our lands quickly developing, it is imperative that the county hears the residents and implements a plan based upon their desires.”
County will hear land preservation plan | Highlands News-Sun | midfloridanewspapers.com