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Critical Pieces Added to Blackwater River State Forest in Florida Panhandle

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FLORIDA — June 19, 2008 — The Nature Conservancy was able to purchase more than 1,000 acres of critical holdings in the Blackwater River State Forest today thanks to the partnership efforts between The Nature Conservancy and Rayonier.

Last month, Rayonier set aside 14 key parcels from a public land auction to sell instead to The Nature Conservancy. Auction sale of the tracts could have allowed more intense use or residential development that would have fragmented the state forest. Development of the tracts could have resulted in important habitat being lost and could have made it much more difficult to manage the forest, especially with prescribed fire.

Blackwater River State Forest, nearly 190,000 acres in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties, is considered to be one of the most beautiful and healthiest longleaf pine and wiregrass forests remaining in the state, largely due to its regular maintenance with fire through high-level stewardship by the Florida Division of Forestry.

Learn more about the Conservancy's conservation work in the Florida Panhandle.

“Rayonier has been a great conservation partner over the years and we thank them for graciously agreeing to sell these important tracts to us,” said Jeff Danter, Florida director of The Nature Conservancy.

The sites are part of a larger conservation area that spans from the Gulf of Mexico through the Conecuh National Forest in Alabama. Such large connected areas play an important role in protecting water quality and habitat values for wide-ranging species, such as the Florida black bear, and for migratory bird species on their annual trek between South and North America. 

Conservation lands, like Blackwater River State Forest, enhance the economy in various ways. They provide ecotourism and recreational opportunities like hunting, fishing, swimming, canoeing, hiking, birding, camping and horseback riding.

The state’s military economy depends in part on conservation lands as well. “The Nature Conservancy's acquisition of lands within the Blackwater River State Forest is a real win-win for the military mission and conservation,” said General David Eidsaune, Commander, Air Armament Center, Eglin Air Force Base. “Sustaining natural areas beneath our low level military airspace ensures our nation's war fighters can continue to train as they are expected to fight, while at the same time preserving our region's rich natural resources.” 

The region also benefits from clean air and water that conservation lands provide, known as ecosystem services.

“The Rayonier tracts are such important pieces of the puzzle and add so much value to the adjoining state forest land,” said Callie DeHaven, the Conservancy senior field representative on the project.

Rayonier has sold more than 90,000 timberland acres to government and conservation groups in the past decade, much of it in Florida. Ed Montgomery, director of rural properties for Rayonier, said: “The sale of these properties to The Nature Conservancy directly benefits the ecology and people of the Panhandle region, and was made possible by true partnership from both sides. Rayonier is proud of its presence in Florida, and is pleased to help The Nature Conservancy preserve the native forest terrain that makes the state so unique.”

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. With funding from the Florida Forever program and generous donors, the Conservancy has helped protect more than 1.2 million acres in Florida since 1961. Visit us on the Web at nature.org/florida.

Rayonier, headquartered in Jacksonville,FL, is a leading international forest products company with three core businesses: timber, real estate and performance fibers. The company owns, leases or manages 2.6 million acres of timber and land in the United States and New Zealand. The company’s real estate development subsidiary is TerraPointe LLC. Rayonier is structured as a real estate investment trust. More at www.rayonier.com.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.