TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida has completely protected greater than 2,200 acres of working agricultural land in Madison County via a conservation easement, a transfer the state’s agriculture commissioner says will strengthen meals safety and shield pure assets.
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson introduced Friday that the Kip Whaley Ranch, an roughly 2,292-acre cattle and timber operation, has been preserved from future growth via the Florida Division of Agriculture and Shopper Providers’ Rural and Household Lands Safety Program, or RFLPP.
The RFLPP purchases the event rights to personal lands, permitting the house owners to proceed agricultural operations whereas completely stopping non-agricultural growth.
“Each acre we protect via the Rural and Household Lands Safety Program strengthens Florida’s meals safety and protects our pure assets,” Simpson mentioned. “By holding working lands like Kip Whaley Ranch in personal, productive agriculture, we’re investing within the long-term prosperity of our rural communities and making certain that Florida agriculture endures for generations.”
In keeping with the division, the everlasting preservation of Kip Whaley Ranch provides to the state’s rising conservation portfolio and goals to supply a number of financial and environmental advantages:
- Taxpayer financial savings: By buying a conservation easement reasonably than the land itself, this system avoids creating an “further burden on the taxpayer by having to take care of state-owned lands.”
- Environmental safety: The ranch, which is close to the Aucilla River, consists of pasture and planted timber interspersed with intensive forested wetlands. Roughly two-thirds of the property overlaps the Aucilla/Wacissa Watershed Florida Ceaselessly undertaking and supplies an important riparian buffer to Rocky Creek.
- Program development: Because the RFLPP’s inception, this system has completely preserved over 220,000 acres of working agricultural land, with 156,000 acres preserved throughout Commissioner Simpson’s administration alone.
- Property use: The ranch stays a privately owned operation targeted on cattle and timber manufacturing.
Florida’s Rural and Household Lands Safety Program, established in 2001, combats the lack of working farms and ranches to city sprawl.
Recognizing that these agricultural lands are important to the state’s financial system, this system companions with property house owners to make sure sustainable manufacturing practices whereas safeguarding pure assets.
Commissioner Simpson has been a serious advocate, serving to to safe over $700 million in state funding for this system since 2022.
