The Volusia County Council voted unanimously Tuesday to purchase 1,299 acres for conservation along the St. Johns River in Osteen.
The county bought the River Bend Ranch property with $20 million from the voter-approved Volusia Forever program.
County documents say the land floodplain marsh, pine flatwoods and pasture. It's entirely within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
That's important to Catherine Pante with Slow the Growth Volusia. She told the council the purchase is a vital link in the corridor.
"By acquiring River Bend Ranch," she said, "we can connect and expand conserved lands, including its direct adjacency to Deering Preserve at Deep Creek. This corridor is essential to Florida's wildlife for black bears, Florida panthers, white-tailed deers, bobcats and a variety of birds and other species that move safely between habitats."
Also addressing the council, Bryon White, who's running for the District 3 council seat -- urged them to buy the land.
"River Bend Ranch," he said, "is precisely the kind of property this program was built for: large, strategic and irreplaceable."
The purchase was approved largely without discussion by the County Council.
Council member Don Dempsey focused on the "great price" and the fact the county was purchasing the property outright on its own.
"This, to me, this is exactly what Volusia Forever is all about," Dempsey said. "I'm in full support of this, the fact that we own it in fee simple, the fact that there's no partners, the fact that in 500 years, if the city and council finds some emergency need for it, they have that ability to do what they need to do to, you know, take care of whatever the issue at hand might be in the future."
The property is adjacent to the Deering Preserve at Deep Creek.
In the meeting agenda, county staff describe the environmentally sensitive lands as containing "longleaf pine and sandhill habitat, cypress swamp, freshwater marsh, wet prairie, cabbage palm hammock, and mixed wetland hardwoods."
The property runs for two miles along the St. Johns River and 1.3 miles along Deep Creek. Staff say it provides natural water storage, filtration, and flood attenuation for the Middle St. Johns River basin.
The county's land conservation programs began in 1986. Volusia Forever started in 2000, when county voters imposed a 0.2 mill property tax to protect the county's natural biodiversity, according to the Volusia Forever page on volusia.org.
Voters renewed the special tax in 2020.
Volusia Forever's mission: "Finance the acquisition and improvement of environmentally sensitive, water resource protection, and outdoor recreation lands, and to manage these lands as conservation stewards in perpetuity."
The conservation efforts also involve partnership with state and federal agencies.
The program's online dashboard shows a total 61,800 acres protected since 1987.
