Sarasota County buys 290 acres of green space by Manatee, DeSoto for wildlife corridor
In an era of super-heated development in the Manatee-Sarasota County area, lovers of open space and nature can rejoice when some of that land can be preserved against the encroachment of more rooftops.
Sarasota County recently purchased 290 acres along the Sarasota, DeSoto and Manatee county line through the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Protection Program (ESLPP), which was created to acquire and protect environmental land.
“As part of the Eastern Ranch lands Protection Priority Site, this strategic purchase connects multiple green spaces, providing continuous land protection along State Road 72 into DeSoto and Manatee counties,” Nicole Rissler, director of Sarasota County parks, recreation and natural resources, said in a news release.
“This property consists of a mixture of pasture, wetlands, mesic hammock habitat that provide a significant wildlife corridor which will now be safeguarded in perpetuity,” Rissler said.
Mesic hammock is a forested area with palms or hardwoods that create a treetop canopy.
The 290 acres are home to the sandhill crane, Florida wood stork, ibis, crested caracara, red shouldered hawk, bald eagle, gopher tortoise, pygmy diamondback rattlesnake and bobcat.
The property also has a cattle grazing lease allowing cow and calf ranch operations.
Sensitive lands protection
The ESLPP is a voter-approved and taxpayer-funded program that began in 1999. Since its inception, the program has protected and preserved more than 40,540 acres of natural habitat, with more than 21,000 of those acres placed under a conservation easement.
Conservation easements remove the land’s development rights and require the landowner, current and future, to protect the land for greenways, water quality, habitat, and wildlife protection in perpetuity.
