- October 11, 2024
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Representatives of the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation want the Volusia County Council to help close conservation land gaps in the county’s section of the corridor.
Jason Lauritsen, the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation’s chief conservation officer, asked the council at its Aug. 1 meeting to look for opportunities to preserve land that would bridge existing conservation gaps in the wildlife corridor.
The county has about 200,000 acres of land that is not conservation land but could be, he said.
“How that land ultimately ends up in the next decade is going to make a big difference between whether the corridor is connected or fragmented,” Lauritsen said.
The Florida Wildlife Corridor is a statewide network of almost 18 million acres of connected lands and waters — land that is crucial to Florida’s native wildlife and habitats, according to the foundation’s website.
The corridor stretches from South Florida to the panhandle, with one branch passing north along the east coast, through Volusia County.
How that land ultimately ends up in the next decade is going to make a big difference between whether the corridor is connected or fragmented."
— Jason Lauritsen, Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation chief conservation officer
Lauritsen said the point of closing the corridor’s gaps is not necessarily to create new wildlife crossings, but to preserve the crossings that already exist.
“The Florida Wildlife Corridor geography is a framework around which the state can look at all the conservation efforts that are going on,” Lauritsen said. “The connectivity is the key piece of this.”
Volusia County has been designating land conservation since 2000, when the county first created Volusia Forever to buy environmentally sensitive land.
Residents voted to tax themselves 0.2 mills for 20 years for Volusia Forever, and renewed that tax in the November 2020 election.
So far, Volusia Forever has protected around 55,600 acres since it formed in 2020, according to its website.
Lauritsen said the County Council can continue to work with Volusia Forever to conserve the 200,000 acres within the county’s wildlife corridor.
Buying the land requires funding. Volusia Forever’s ad valorem tax generates $8-9 million annually, Community Services Director Brad Burbaugh said.
The program also partners with land conservation programs for funding and land acquisition opportunities — and the County Council approved another such partnership at the Aug. 1 meeting.
The County Council voted 5-0 vote to partner with the Alachua Conservation Trust as the trust applies for a Regional Conservation Partnership Program grant from the United States Department of Agriculture.
Council members Jake Johansson and Don Dempsey were absent.
“[It] is essentially a co-investment of federal dollars in our local program,” Burbaugh said. “They take successful conservation programs and co-invest in them.”
[It] is essentially a co-investment of federal dollars in our local program."
— Brad Burbaugh, Community Services director
The trust worked with Volusia Forever staff to develop the “Lake to Lagoon” partnership proposal for the RCPP grant. Tom Kay, an executive director with the trust, said the trust can apply for a grant of up to $25 million.
If awarded, the funding can be used to buy conservation land and conservation easements from landowners, he said.
The county would need to commit to a local match of $25 million, spread over the next five years, for the $25 million grant.
Kay said the county has lined up $5 million of the match from smaller, local conservation organizations.
The $20 million the county would commit as a match would stay in the county and would come from Volusia Forever’s dedicated ad valorem revenue and reserves.
Burbaugh said 35% of the $20 million match is already in Volusia Forever’s reserves.
Vice Chair Danny Robins asked if the proposal would slow Volusia Forever’s established goals, but Burbaugh said the grant would speed up the process.
If the county gets the grant money, he said, it would be able to start buying identified lots.
“What this does is establish a pool of money that we will have access to for all of our projects,” Burbaugh said.
I'm thankful to the residents of our county that recognize our quality of life means preserving land not only for today, but for future generations as well."
— Suzanne Schreiber, Ormond Beach resident
Council Chair Jeff Brower said he appreciated the trust reaching out.
“It’s just good stewardship of our money,” he said.
Several local residents said at the meeting that they supported the Wildlife Corridor Foundation and Alachua Conservation Trust proposals. Suzanne Schreiber, an Ormond Beach resident and founder of Dream Green Volusia, said the grant is a great example of longterm planning.
“I’m thankful to the residents of our county that recognize our quality of life means preserving land not only for today, but for future generations as well,” she said.
