(NSF) — Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet next week will consider paying $4.3 million to conserve 1,786 acres in Santa Rosa County and $1 million for about 729 acres in Jefferson County. Both projects are on acquisition lists for the Florida Forever program.
The Santa Rosa County land, owned by Kingfisher Timber, LLC, is used for hunting and to grow timber. It is near Milton, between Blackwater River State Forest to the east and Whiting Field Naval Air Station to the southwest.
The Jefferson County land, owned by Woodvest, LLC, would help form a corridor of conservation land from Upper Lake Lafayette in Leon County to Apalachee Bay in Taylor County. The land is part of the Apalachee Bay Watershed, which a Cabinet staff description said is “part of a complex water system where the surface water and groundwater interact due to the limestone bedrock below the region.”
DeSantis and the Cabinet members — Attorney General Ashley Moody, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, and state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis — are slated to meet on Feb. 2.
Source: News Service of Florida