North Florida Land Trust raises $62,500 to expand Jacksonville's Ferngully Preserve

Steve Patterson, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
Jacksonville's city-owned Ferngully Preserve sits behind homes on Royal Fern Lane in Mandarin. The North Florida Land Trust has completed fundraising to help the city buy another 4.5-acre parcel to expand the preserve.
Jacksonville's city-owned Ferngully Preserve sits behind homes on Royal Fern Lane in Mandarin. The North Florida Land Trust has completed fundraising to help the city buy another 4.5-acre parcel to expand the preserve.

A Jacksonville nonprofit has raised money it needed to help City Hall preserve property next to the city’s Ferngully Preserve in Mandarin.

The North Florida Land Trust collected donations from 128 supporters to raise $62,500 that the city pledged to match to preserve 4.5 acres near Royal Fern Lane off Brady Road.

“We are incredibly thankful for the local community support of the Ferngully Preserve Addition,” Lee Anderson Louy, the land trust’s director of philanthropic services, said in an announcement about the trust hitting its fundraising goal.

The undeveloped property adjoins 21 acres at the end of Woodside Lane that neighbors dubbed Ferngully after a 1992 children’s movie about an enchanted rain forest. The larger property was bought in 2001 by a national nonprofit, the Trust for Public Land, to prevent its development as a housing subdivision, then was deeded to the city as part of Jacksonville’s Preservation Project.

The North Florida Land Trust has raised $62,500 to buy a 4.5-acre addition to Jacksonville's city-owned Ferngully Preserve off Woodside Lane in Mandarin.
The North Florida Land Trust has raised $62,500 to buy a 4.5-acre addition to Jacksonville's city-owned Ferngully Preserve off Woodside Lane in Mandarin.

City Council members Michael Boylan and Matt Carlucci reached out to the local nonprofit for help raising money to pay for the preserve’s expansion and prevent a risk of development in an area with lots of wetlands.

City officials are still working through details before acquiring the land, which requires City Council approval.

“I am proud that the team at NFLT was able to accomplish this … and help the city expand preservation lands that we were able to save during my time as mayor,” said Land Trust Chairman John Delaney, who created the Preservation Project when he was mayor. “Preservation was one of my administration’s main areas of focus and I am happy to see that our city is still working to save these natural spaces.”

The Ferngully Preserve abuts another 40-acre preserve the Duval Audubon Society has owned for the past 30 years, creating a pocket of undisturbed wildlife habitat in one of Jacksonville's most developed communities.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Nonprofit raises $62,500 to help Jacksonville preserve land in Mandarin