ACT working to save springs by protecting land along Santa Fe, Suwannee rivers

When we think of what we love about North Central Florida, many of us think of our area’s iconic springs and spring-fed rivers. But now, as the land around those resources is being developed at a breakneck pace, and as our water is rapidly being pumped out of our aquifer, our beloved springs are in danger of being lost forever.

Alachua Conservation Trust (ACT), a local land trust that works to protect land in 16 counties across North Central Florida, has been working hard to conserve our springs and spring-fed rivers by protecting land along the Santa Fe and Suwannee rivers. In fact, ACT is proud to have had our most successful year ever in 2021, protecting over 3,800 acres along these riverways through direct land purchases and private land conservation before development can occur.

The process of land conservation is complex, with many different tools, partners and potential sources of funding. It’s also a proactive, ground-up approach that is flexible and responsive to the needs of individual landowners and their properties.

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ACT protects land by finding a piece of important property and raising funds to buy it outright, or through landowners who contact us with offers to sell or donate their land for conservation. Sometimes, we even work with landowners to place conservation easements on their land through sale or donation. Conservation easements are a flexible tool that allows landowners to maintain private ownership of their property while giving up the right to develop it in the future, in order to preserve its ecological integrity.

In recent years, ACT has targeted much of our land conservation work toward the Santa Fe and Suwannee river basins. We have done outreach through letter campaigns, online webinars, workshops and events to connect with landowners who would like to understand the options for protecting their property to benefit our springs and rivers. We have reached out to farmers about potential funding opportunities to help them switch to farming practices that use less water and fewer nutrients but still enable them to make a living.

After finding a potential conservation property, we have a conversation with the landowner to understand their individual conservation goals and property uses. We visit the property to assess its conservation value. We look at aspects such as quality of the ecosystem; soil and habitat type; proximity to rivers, springs and other conservation lands; which plant and animal species are present; and whether there is potential for restoration.

Once we have a good understanding of the property and the landowner’s goals, we work to identify conservation and funding options that are tailored to their individual situation. ACT also works with landowners and our partners to develop management plans for individual properties to ensure each property is managed and restored to its full ecological potential. In other instances, if ACT purchases a property outright or receives a land donation, we might sell the property to the state or a local government entity, or that property might become a public park or preserve.

ACT’s conservation work cannot be done without the support of others. From landowners contacting us directly, to local government, nonprofit and agency partners who help us find properties and leverage potential funding opportunities, to conservation-minded members of the community who enable us to do our work by donating their hard-earned time and money to ACT — our conservation work is truly a community effort.

Land prices have skyrocketed in recent years and the real estate market is very fast-paced. In order to quickly protect important properties, ACT often secures private bridge loans to ensure that our purchases can move forward with the hope of being reimbursed later by the state, grant programs or other fundraising efforts.

This occurred for several properties ACT purchased last year, including Telford Springs (94 acres) on the Suwannee River and Little Awesome (195 acres) on the Santa Fe River, which will both become public preserves. In 2021 alone, ACT purchased $8.5 million worth of land in the Santa Fe and Suwannee river basins through a combination of donations, grants and private bridge loans, the majority of which needs to be paid back.

ACT’s work in springs protection and conservation benefits us all in myriad ways. If you would like to help protect our local springs and riverways, contact us at (352) 373-1078 or info@alachuaconservationtrust.org, or visit www.AlachuaConservationTrust.org to find out more ways to support our work.

Joanna Reilly-Brown is springs project coordinator and Lianne D'Arcy is outreach coordinator for ACT. This column is part of The Sun's Messages from the Springs Heartland series.

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This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Alachua Conservation Trust: Protecting land to help save our springs