Nature Conservancy Protects 5,000-acre Jewel

Ranch owner works with Conservancy to protect Polk County site critical for water resources, wildlife.

ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, FL — Nov. 25, 2008 — The Nature Conservancy and Hatchineha Ranch LLC today announced they have protected a 5,134-acre Central Florida environmental jewel—a natural landscape strategically situated within one of the highest concentrations of threatened and endangered plant and animal species in the United States.

The protected site, 65 miles east of Tampa and 40 miles south of Orlando, connects to the state’s 8,250-acre Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek State Park and other protected lands in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. It is only two miles across Lake Hatchineha from The Nature Conservancy’s 12,000-acre Disney Wilderness Preserve.

“This is such great news. I’ve had my heart broken by that place so many times,” said Steve Morrison, who grew up on the Lake Wales Ridge and manages The Nature Conservancy’s Tiger Creek Preserve. “We’ve tried for so many years to get it into conservation, and every time it would sell again for more money, I would think, ‘There it goes’.”

Once called Imagination Farms, the property topped the list of tracts Polk County sought to protect when its environmentally sensitive lands referendum passed in 1994. The Polk County Board of Commissioners and the South Florida Water Management District unsuccessfully pursued its acquisition for years. The land most recently was proposed as a development of regional impact with 4,900 single- and multi-family homes.

“This is fantastic news for environmental lands preservation in Polk County,” said Jeff Spence, Polk County Natural Resources Division director. “Due to its key location, outstanding beauty and great diversity, the county had targeted this particular piece of property for preservation more than 15 years ago. Several past attempts to acquire it were unsuccessful.”

“This acquisition not only preserves an outstanding natural landscape from development, it connects a complex of conservation lands critical for protection of the headwaters of the Kissimmee River and the Everglades basin,” said Jeff Danter, The Nature Conservancy’s state director. “We are grateful to the owner for helping us to implement our primary strategy for the northern Everglades, which is to protect natural landscapes with high biological diversity and opportunities for hydrological restoration.”

Hatchineha Ranch LLC donated 1,130 acres of the ranch to the Conservancy and the Conservancy purchased a partial interest in the remaining 4,004 acres. As tenants in common, the Conservancy and Hatchineha Ranch LLC will jointly pursue multiple strategies for long-term conservation, including wetlands mitigation, conservation banking for imperiled species, and the sale of lands to government agencies as additions to adjacent public holdings.

Bald eagle, Florida scrub-jay, sand skink, crested caracara, gopher tortoise and southeastern kestrel are on the long list of rare species that inhabit this diverse natural site that is comprised of a mosaic of scrub, cutthroat grass-dominated pine flatwoods, dry prairie, wet prairie, blackwater stream and pasture. Telemetry data indicates the Florida panther has traversed the ranch.

Numerous opportunities for habitat restoration occur on the site, including the restoration of cutthroat grass seeps, an imperiled natural community that has been affected by ditching for agricultural purposes, and the restoration of Catfish Creek, a historical tributary of the Kissimmee River which was diverted decades ago for the creation of pasture and sod farming. Over time, these lands will be restored.

“This is one of the most significant acquisitions in the Florida chapter’s history,” the Conservancy’s Danter added. “This Thanksgiving, we are extremely grateful to have protected one of the final pieces in a huge interconnected conservation landscape that has been seriously threatened by habitat fragmentation and development.”

Note to Editor:
 Photos of this landscape are available. Please call Jill Austin at (321) 689-6099.
 For information regarding Hatchineha Ranch, LLC, please call Ernie Cox, Family Lands Remembered, LLC, at 561-762-2282

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 18 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 117 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.