Tuesday, the Florida Cabinet approved five parcels of land, totaling more than 3,500 acres statewide, to connect, protect, and restore essential conservation habitat statewide.
Among the five approved parcels is Collins Ranch, located in east of St. Cloud near Holopaw. The land parcels are part of an envisioned wildlife corridor that would stretch from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle.
The state will spend $1.89 million to keep the 287-acre Collins Ranch in Osceola County as a conservation easement and keep it from future development. The Palmer W. Collins Trust (known as Collins Ranch), part of the Osceola Pine Savannas Florida Forever project shares its boundaries with U.S. 441 and Triple N Ranch Wildlife Management Areas.
Per Wildpath and the Florida Wildlife Corridor: “This project will eliminate the threat of encroaching residential development and protect wildlife that requires extensive natural areas such as the sandhill crane, wood stork, crested caracara, and the federally endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow … The property provides habitat for wildlife such as swallow-tailed kites, striped newts, red cockaded woodpeckers, crested caracaras, gopher tortoises, and eastern indigo snakes. Osceola Pine Savannas is home to cypress forests, longleaf-pine flatwoods, and dry prairies.”
The parcel provides habitat and connectivity for key Florida species. All of the properties approved for acquisition or conservation easement were made possible by the state’s Florida Forever Program and Department of Agriculture’s Rural and Family Lands Protection Program.
“We thank Governor, the Cabinet, and the Department of Environmental Protection for continuing to support critical land acquisitions to protect our natural and agricultural landscapes,” said Traci Deen, President and CEO, Conservation Florida. “The conservation of land to create a conserved wildlife corridor spanning our state is not only necessary for wildlife such as the Florida panther, black bear, and gopher tortoise, but also for protecting our water, economy, and way of life. With today’s approval of our Role Tran and Gissy Rainbow River Ranch projects, both properties are on their way to being protected for generations to come and we move the needle forward on the protection of a functional Florida Wildlife Corridor.”
