Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Cabinet this week will consider a proposed deal that would help 
preserve more than 400 acres of rural land in Marion County and fill a gap in a greenway across part of the state. The deal would involve the state paying $742,424 for a 412-acre conservation easement on land within what is known as the Cannon Family Farm.
Conservation easements typically allow agricultural activities to continue but protect the land from development.
The Cannon farm has been in agricultural production for more than a century, and the targeted property would fill a gap in the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway State Recreation and Conservation Area, according to information provided to the Cabinet by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The greenway stretches from the Gulf of Mexico to the St. Johns River and includes land from the scrapped Cross Florida Barge Canal project.
Scott and the Cabinet will meet Thursday at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa.