Conservation Foundation Celebrates 20,000 Acres Protected

October 4, 2024 | Osprey

Protecting Southwest Florida’s land and water for twenty years, Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast is thrilled to announce surpassing 20,000 acres protected! The not-for-profit land trust’s recent protection of 58 acres in suburban Manatee County put them over the milestone marker for a grand total of 20,004 acres protected as their 20^th Anniversary year ends. Saving land is a race against time, but together with their dedicated and growing conservation community, Conservation Foundation is quickening the pace of land conservation here in Southwest Florida.

“Everything we have accomplished over the past twenty years was made possible with the support of our conservation community,” comments Christine P. Johnson, President of Conservation Foundation. “As we celebrate this incredible accomplishment, we know our work is far from complete, and we look toward the future with excitement and enthusiasm. We are grateful to all those who helped us reach this monumental milestone.”

Conservation Foundation was founded in 2003 and is the region’s only accredited land trust. Prioritizing projects that are significant to water quality and quantity, protecting native species, connecting wildlife corridors, and providing unique public access, they serve five Southwest Florida counties, encompassing three National Estuaries – Tampa Bay, Sarasota Bay, and Charlotte Harbor – and four significant rivers – Manatee, Myakka, Peace, and Caloosahatchee.

Since the beginning, Conservation Foundation has worked to permanently protect Southwest Florida’s critical remaining natural areas, strengthening our region’s resiliency to storms and floods, safeguarding water quality, and creating and enhancing corridors and preserves for wildlife. Through their youth and community education programs, they connect thousands of kids and grown-ups to nature each year, and through collaborations with private landowners, other not-for-profit organizations, governments, and various agencies and organizations, Conservation Foundation finds creative solutions to help solve our region’s land-based challenges, forever protecting the land and water our community needs to thrive. Beyond protecting land, Conservation Foundation also works to enhance and restore the land in their care. By conserving land, they protect it from further human disruption, and by restoring it, they help return it to its native state so that it is better able to naturally clean our water, provide food and shelter for wildlife, and increase our community’s resiliency in the face of an ever-changing climate.

In addition to thanking their conservation community, Conservation Foundation notes special thanks to the Bishop-Parker Foundation, the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation, the Partnership for Gulf Coast Land Conservation, and the Bill and Mary Muirhead Fund of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County for their leadership gifts to protect the 58-acre property that drove them over the 20,000-acre mark.

Additional recent Conservation Foundation protections include the conservation of 656 acres at Longino Ranch in eastern Sarasota County; 64 acres at Crooked River Ranch located along the Manatee River in Manatee County; and 20 acres located within Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park in Port Charlotte, which Conservation Foundation recently sold to the State as an addition to the Park. The organization is currently partnering with Sarasota Audubon Society and Sarasota County to re-wild the 33-acre Quad Parcels at the Celery Fields and has an ongoing partnership with the City of Sarasota to restore and enhance the Bobby Jones Nature Park for the benefit of both wildlife and our community.

Landowners interested in learning how land conservation might work for them are encouraged to contact Conservation Foundation by calling their office at 941.918.2100 or completing their online inquiry form at conservationfoundation.com/savemyland. To support Conservation Foundation’s mission to protect Southwest Florida’s land and water for the benefit of people and nature, visit conservationfoundation.com/donate.