Since its incorporation in 1988, Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT) has helped preserve more than 56,000 acres of land in North Central Florida, directly participating in the purchase of nearly 24,000 of those acres. For our first few years, ACT proposed, lobbied, and acquired lands with funding from the state's Preservation 2000 program. During this time ACT negotiated important additions to Paynes Prairie Preserve, 5,000 acres of Newnans Lake, the Watermelon Pond project, additions to San Felasco Hammock Preserve, and the Lochloosa Wildlife Management Area.

In the early 90s, ACT began working regionally. ACT worked as the acquisition agent under contract to the Suwannee River Water Management District, protecting more than 1000 acres of land in the ten-year floodplain along the Suwannee River. ACT has a major conservation easement at Gum Slough in Sumter and Marion Counties. As the state geared up its staff capabilities to match its available funding, the need for ACT to be involved as an acquisition agent lessened.

During the mid- to late-90s, ACT restored the 1850's Historic Haile Homestead and accepted the generous donation of the 80-acre Saarinen Preserve near Jonesville. ACT also began to seek private conservation easements and negotiated some important ones, such as a 413-acre easement in Yankeetown to protect a beautiful property along the rapidly developing Gulf coast, and a 659-acre easement near Millhopper Road.

Besides the "big, wild, and connected" lands, ACT proposed the Hogtown Creek Greenway, which winds its way through western Gainesville. The project received $3 million from the Florida Communities Trust and the City of Gainesville in 1991, and ACT acquired creek-side lands for this urban greenway connecting the University of Florida with Kanapaha Botanical Gardens several miles away. In 2008, ACT worked with the City of Gainesville and Home Depot to protect the headwaters of Hogtown Creek which resulted in an additional 70-acre park to complement our early efforts.

ACT also played a pivotal role in the creation of Alachua County Forever. Our first Conservation Steward's banquet, in 1998, provided the initial funding for the citizen's initiative. ACT's Executive Director at the time, Pegeen Hanrahan, also drafted the acquisition guidelines for the program with the help of County staff that has been widely recognized as creating transparency and fairness in selecting the properties to be acquired with public funds.

In 2001, the new Florida Forever program allowed land trusts to receive state funds directly from Florida Communities Trust ("FCT") for the purchase of conservation lands. ACT immediately began seeking these grants and is the most successful land trust in the state in receiving them. Our FCT projects include Blues Creek Ravine, a 163-acre nature sanctuary north of Millhopper Road, the 379-acre Lake Tuscawilla Preserve near Micanopy, and the 319-acre Prairie Creek Basin project. ACT also partnered or prepared grant proposals for Florida Communities Trust projects such as the Hogtown Creek Greenway (in the early 90's), Phifer Flatwoods, Bivens Branch, and the Hogtown Creek Headwaters.

In 2002, ACT received a conservation easement over 650-acres of a landmark private farm near San Felasco Hammock. In 2004, with the help of a conservation donor, ACT purchased the last rookery on Lake Santa Fe, protecting 1500 feet of shoreline where osprey, great blue heron, and egret nest every spring. The Hanson Sanctuary was conveyed to the State of Florida in 2006. Tuscawilla Preserve is 600 acres owned by ACT that was acquired from six different landowners from 2005 thru 2010. Funding was provided by generous local donors, and from the US Fish & Wildlife service and Florida Communities Trust. The Preserve has public trails and picnic facilities adjacent to Micanopy's native American Preserve Park. In 2005, ACT purchased the 643-acre Phifer Flatwoods at an auction, using funds raised and borrowed from 300 supporters. This property, which includes three miles along the Gainesville – Hawthorne Rail Trail, was sold to the Alachua County Forever program in early 2006 and was opened to the public in 2008.

In 2007, Alachua Conservation Trust worked with attorneys from public agencies and law students with the UF Conservation Clinic to develop a mechanism to ensure that parks could not be sold to finance short-term needs or converted into other non-park uses. After exploring many ideas, we proposed a "Registry of Protected Public Places." Properties could not be sold, swapped, or converted to another use without approval by the voters. Gainesville and Alachua County voters approved these measures by 81% and 75%, respectively. The first properties were added to the City's registry in March 2011, including Morningside Nature Center, Bivens Arm Nature Park, and Cofrin Nature Park.

Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery (PCCC) opened in July 2009 and in December we conveyed a conservation easement over the cemetery to Alachua County Forever. PCCC was recently certified as a "Conservation Burial Ground" by the Green Burial Council (GBC). This is the highest level of certification awarded by the GBC, and we are the fourth burial ground in the country to hold such distinction.

Since ACT’s inception, it has evolved along with the role of land trusts. When ACT began, the nation had fewer than 400 local land trusts. Now in 2010, there are more than 1,500. In Florida, ACT is one of only two local land trusts that are in the Top 50 nationwide in both acres and value of lands protected. Unfortunately, funding limitations, both in what ACT could raise privately, and what public agencies could commit, continued to result in a heart-breaking triage of selecting what we could actually save. To a great extent, ACT had to remain flexible, entrepreneurial, and opportunistic in selecting the projects that we worked on during this time. In the past, private conservation easements were not particularly attractive to many landowners, but increased federal tax incentives generated more interest, particularly among people who had experienced large increases in property values, but had no speculative intent for their land.

In 2009, we became accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, a program of the Land Trust Alliance. ACT has also set the curve in diversity of projects – from easements, to historic preservation, to outright acquisitions, to environmental education. ACT has partnered with many conservation organizations along the way, including ongoing projects with The Nature Conservancy, the Trust for Public Land, The Conservation Fund, and the Conservation Trust for Florida.

In 2010, ACT added significant frontage along the Old Florida Heritage Scenic Highway (US 441) to our 600-acre Tuscawilla Preserve. We also transferred 500+ acres to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, including the most wild and scenic stretches of Prairie Creek. Tuscawilla Learning Center began in 2011, staffed by volunteers dedicated to providing environmental education opportunities to children. Our offices at Prairie Creek Lodge have become a headquarters for public and private events, hosting environmental classes, concerts, fundraisers, and meetings. ACT is a true community resource.

Starting in 2010, in partnership with The Conservation Fund and Alachua County Forever, and partial funding from the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, ACT negotiated the purchase of Little Orange Creek Preserve (LOCP), just north of Hawthorne. Since the original acquisition, LOCP has nearly doubled in size through numerous acquisitions and a lot donation program and now covers nearly 2900 acres of the upper Little Orange Creek watershed. In January 2017, we celebrated the grand opening of Little Orange Creek Preserve.

An ongoing project since 2012 the Santa Fe River Preserve had its grand opening November 2017. Several acquisitions in partnership with Florida Communities Trust and The Conservation Fund has allowed for the protection of 924 acres on the banks of the Santa Fe River near Worthington Springs. This project is ongoing and support from individuals and foundations through the Rise Up for the Santa Fe River campaign allows this projects success.

One of ACT’s most visible properties to date came into conservation in November 2019 when ACT purchased Orange Lake Overlook. Located just South of McIntosh and locally referred to as “OLO,” the 71-acre property was purchased by ACT from the Huff Family with significant support from the local community. This conservation purchase was made possible thanks to a $1 million bridge loan from The Conservation Fund, an additional bridge loan from a private supporter and $300,000 in donations from individuals and organizations. The property’s well-remembered history as a former orange grove and citrus shop during the height of the citrus boom in Florida make it a memorable stop for many travelers along U.S. 441 even today.

When measured by the amount and value of land protected, ACT was second in Florida among local land trusts during this decade, continuing to be one of the most respected land trusts nation-wide.

A new decade in land conservation is well underway.

In 2020, ACT closed on Santa Fe Springs Preserve, a 254-acre property along the upper Santa Fe River where it meets Olustee Creek. The preserve includes two springs - the Second Magnitude Santa Fe Spring and an unnamed Fourth Magnitude spring - and protects 1.3 miles of riverbank. ACT partnered with the Suwannee River Water Management District to protect the property, which will become a public preserve managed by ACT in the future.

ACT also celebrated the opening of two new nature preserves in December 2020: Blues Creek Ravine Preserve and Fox Pen Preserve. Funding from the Florida Communities Trust allowed ACT to purchase the Blues Creek property in 2002 and a partnership with Alachua County’s Wild Spaces Public Places Program made it possible for ACT to protect the Fox Pen property as well as additional surrounding lands.

In 2021, ACT protected over 1,000 acres of land for a total of more than $10 million. These projects include hundreds of acres that will be added to existing state parks - including River Rise State Park and Manatee Springs State Park - as well as several properties that will be owned and managed by ACT. As a result of the red hot real estate market of 2021, ACT had to mobilize quickly to conserve all of the projects that came before the land trust in 2021. Private bridge loans from individual donors and The Conservation Fund allowed ACT to close on critical lands with significant conservation value such as Little Awesome Preserve and Sawdust Spring. ACT is now working to pay back the loans on these acquisitions with donations, grants from private foundations, as well as through available state funding programs.

ACT’s efforts to protect privately-owned land through conservation easements and government-funded grant programs has also grown significantly over the last few years. In early 2021, ACT worked with state and local partners to record the first ever Grassland of Special Environmental Significance in Florida with federal funding support from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

In April 2021, ACT was awarded $7.1 million in federal grant funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to work with private property owners to protect working farms, timberlands, and natural areas through private land protection efforts in the Suwannee and Santa Fe watersheds as part of the Surface to Springs Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).

In May 2022, ACT and its supporters gathered just South of McIntosh for the grand opening celebration and dedication of the Marjorie A. Hoy Memorial Park at Orange Lake Overlook. Thanks to a generous donation from the Estate of Marjorie A. Hoy, ACT was able to pay off the $1 million loan on the property. Marjorie A. Hoy was an American entomologist and geneticist internationally recognized for her groundbreaking research involving pest management and Florida citrus. She also was a professor and Eminent Scholar at the University of Florida, and was previously a professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

In late 2022, ACT celebrated the opening of Santa Fe River Preserve South. Part of large-scale efforts to protect and connect land along the Santa Fe River, this southern entrance to the 1,067-acre nature preserve features over 2 miles of hiking trails as well as a kayak takeout. Acquisition of this preserve began in 2012 with funds from the Florida Communities Trust.