PANAMA CITY, Fla. – Florida Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson is hailing the acquisition of 12,200 acres in Bay County for the creation of Sandy Creek State Forest, calling it a serious win for conservation and public recreation.
Talking on Florida’s Voice Radio with Drew Steele, Simpson mentioned the Florida Division of Environmental Safety just lately acquired the property, which lies throughout the Florida Wildlife Hall, and the Florida Forest Service — a part of his division — will oversee its administration.
“That is a tremendous accomplishment,” Simpson mentioned. “It’s throughout the wildlife hall, which is an enormous bonus. We’ve to safe that wildlife hall. Our grandkids’ grandkids are going to have the standard of life and expectations of a Florida the way in which we’ve.”
WATCH: Florida Division of Environmental Safety has acquired Sandy Creek State Forest inside wildlife hall, in keeping with Ag Commissioner @WiltonSimpson pic.twitter.com/2Nplibhw9A
— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) August 6, 2025
The Florida Wildlife Hall covers about 18 million acres, with roughly 10 million already protected. Simpson mentioned the state has acquired improvement rights to about 500,000 acres, whereas others, like Sandy Creek, are bought outright to develop into public lands.
The brand new state forest will enable for passive and leisure actions, together with searching, climbing and biking, and might be managed with practices like prescribed burns to cut back wildfire danger.
“The whole nation does about 10 million acres a yr in prescribed hearth, and Florida does about two and a half million of that,” Simpson mentioned. “We do these in order that we don’t have a state of affairs like they do in California or Colorado or out west or in Canada.”
Simpson credited DEP for its partnership and highlighted the Rural and Household Lands Safety Program, which purchases improvement rights from farmers to protect agricultural land.
“This forest will definitely be managed by our forestry — they’re one of the best on this planet at managing forests,” he mentioned. “Keep tuned. There’ll be new updates most likely within the subsequent few months.”
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