Conservation Expands in the Rainbow Springs Basin
October 6, 2023
Landowner Peggi Young with her favorite longleaf pine.
Gainesville, Florida – Landowner Peggi Young has practiced and fostered land stewardship activities through several decades to preserve the natural communities found on her GHC Farms. Peggi partnered with Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT) to protect her 197-acre special place in northeastern Levy County. The property boasts diverse native ground cover including wiregrass and five different species of milkweed, mature flat-topped longleaf pines and wildlife species like gopher tortoise and the federally protected eastern indigo snake. Peggi runs a managed cow-calf operation on both native range and on pasture, making it eligible for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) competitive Agricultural Land Easement (ALE) Program. The conservation easement will keep the property privately-owned and is compatible with working lands. Peggi and ACT joined efforts with multiple state, federal, and private partners to conserve this critical habitat in the Rainbow Springs Basin.
The permanent protection of this property with a conservation easement buffers state land and protects important regions of aquifer recharge and karst windows in the Floridan Aquifer. The Rainbow River Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) recommends maintaining rural and natural areas to ensure the protection of water quality within the basin. This property also shares a boundary with Goethe State Forest in an area of increasing subdivision and development.
Protecting GHC Farms was possible with the assistance of many partners. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s land owner assistance program, U.S. Fish and Wildlife grants to protect federally protected species and the Southwest Florida Water Management District and Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Springs Restoration competitive grant program.
“Utilizing grant funds to purchase a conservation easement not only protects the landscape but is also an investment a landowner can use to further manage and protect their property. ACT is in a unique position to work with many partners and leverage the resources necessary to help owners hold on to their land and maintain its natural character.”
GHC Farms was once impacted by a severe wildfire in the 1980s that threatened homes. Now with the help of the North Florida Burn Association, prescribed fire is implemented on the landscape encouraging native grasses and flowers to bloom in the natural sandhill habitat. Key to the easement is the preservation of the scenic, open, and rural character of the land. The landowner can continue to make her living on her farm while protecting the special natural areas and wildlife that also share this landscape.
“Over my many years here, I have learned to love and appreciate the sandhills, the endangered longleaf pine/wiregrass community. So much beauty, some of which requires changing the scale of reference and looking more closely. We are so grateful to ACT for ensuring that it will be protected in perpetuity from the staggering growth that is happening to so much of our beautiful state.”
A prescribed burn at GHC Farms conducted by the North Florida Prescribed Burn Association.
ACT has protected over 6,600 acres of private lands through conservation easements. The permanent conservation of GHC Farms will provide critical oversight and management for preservation of waters in the Rainbow Springs BMAP and permanently protect valuable habitat and endangered species by preventing future land use intensification and subdivision.
ACT works with local, state, and federal funding programs to help landowners protect and manage their land through conservation easements, conservation land sales, or habitat restoration activities.
Open enrollment to protect agricultural lands with Farm Bill conservation easements and land management programs are open now. Interested landowners can contact ACT at info@AlachuaConservationTrust.org or (352) 373-1078 for additional information.
