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Highlands Today

Program Suspension Takes $400K From Conservation Land Buys

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By JIM KONKOLY

Highlands Today

Published: January 13, 2009

SEBRING - About $400,000 for conservation land purchases in Highlands County this year will be lost if, as expected, the state legislature suspends the state's Florida Forever land conservation program.

Florida Forever will be suspended for one year under the $2.6 billion in budget cuts agreed to Sunday by a House and Senate conference committee to balance the state budget, said state Sen. J.D. Alexander, R-Winter Haven, chairman of the Senate's Ways and Means committee.

The full House and Senate will vote on the budget-cut package Wednesday.

"We're not doing away with the program (Florida Forever)," Alexander said. "We're just saying, 'Whoa for this year, stop, hold off on these projects.'"

Through Florida Forever, the state has been issuing $300 million in bonds per year for the acquisition of conservation lands. About $50 million in bonds have already been issued this fiscal year, but the recommended budget cuts will eliminate the other $250 million, cutting out dozens of land-purchase projects around the state.

With unemployment in the state "trending toward double digits," Alexander said, state lawmakers decided to use the state's borrowing power for projects that will put people back to work.

"The ability of the state to borrow is limited, we are not the federal government," he said.

"At this point in time," he added, "with the state facing tough financial decisions, the senate voted to shift our priorities toward when we borrow money, we're going to do it where we put people to work."

The state's ability to borrow, he said, should be focused on financing projects such as building new roads, schools, sewer systems and other infrastructure that create jobs, Alexander said.

Suspending Florida Forever is also one part of the budget cutting package that helps preserve optional Medicaid programs to help senior citizens with health needs, Alexander said.

"We continue to fund the optional Medicaid programs for hearing aids, dental work and eyeglasses that so many of our seniors rely on," he said. "We did that by making some other difficult decisions, like the decision not to make Florida Forever purchases this year."

In Highlands County for 2009, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection had planned to close on purchase of 16 parcels totaling 21.4 acres at a cost of $199,000.

DEP also had scheduled Florida Forever funding to purchase two additional parcels totaling 21.8 acres in the county for conservation, with the final purchase price not yet determined.

If, as expected, the proposed state budget cuts are approved, these Highlands County land purchases will not go forward, said Amy Graham, a DEP spokesperson.

All of the planned conservation land buys were within the five "mega-lot" subdivisions in Highlands County, subdivisions which were platted in the 1950s but now have either no or little development.

The Highlands County Natural Resources Advisory Commission has supported acquisition of the mega-lot properties for conservation by state agencies to preserve the Scrub habitat unique to the Lake Wales Ridge.

"These mega-lots are the primary sites in which bio-diversity still exists on the Lake Wales Ridge," said NRAC member Reed Bowman, director of avian ecology at the Archbold Biological Station. "This is the best undeveloped land, almost all Scrub or Scrub associated habitats, that exist in Highlands County and all down the Lake Wales."

The Carter Creek Wildlife and Environmental Area is one of the mega-lots which is now mostly publicly owned and open to hiking, biking and horseback riding.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission manages the 3,000-acre, fenced preserve, bounded by Arbuckle Creek Road on the south, private ranches to the north and east, and the Highlands Ridge gated golf course community on the west.

Trish Martin, peninsular program director for The Nature Conservancy, a non-profit organization which assists the state in Florida Forever land buys, said the organization hopes the land conservation program can be restored as soon as possible.

"We understand the historic fiscal pressures that are underpinning the Legislature's (budget cutting) proposals," she said. "But we also want to make sure that the legislature and the governor are able to restore funding during the regular session."

Martin was referring to the upcoming regular session of the Legislature in March, which will set state funding for the new fiscal year starting July 1. A special legislative session is meeting now to balance the budget for the current fiscal year.

Past Florida Forever funding for Highlands County has provided for expansion of Highlands Hammock State Park, and acquisition of the Carter Creek preserve and other areas "that are beautiful and ecologically important," Martin said.

Alexander said he was one of the prime sponsors eight years ago of extending Florida Forever.

"I believe in Florida Forever, it is an important program," he said.

But, Alexander said, the conservation program has to be curtailed temporarily to maintain vital services.

Alexander also noted that land prices have been falling significantly. That means, he said, that when Florida Forever can be continued, taxpayers will get a better deal on acquiring conservation lands.

Highlands Today reporter Jim Konkoly can be reached at 863-386-5855 or e-mail jkonkoly@highlandstoday.com

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