Purchase by Alachua County Forever Expands Lake Alto Preserve
Press release from Alachua County
Alachua County Forever, the County’s environmental land acquisition program, has closed on the purchase of 292.5 acres from members of the Jefferson Family. The property will be added to the County’s 982-acre Lake Alto Preserve northwest of the town of Waldo. It forms a vital link in a potential ecological corridor that would link Lake Alto to Lake Santa Fe.
The property includes a portion of Hickory Pond and a wetland system extending to the north and west. The marsh and swamp communities in this area have been judged to be in good to excellent ecological condition. The balance of the property is predominantly planted pine that has been thinned and treated with prescribed fire to produce good habitat for wildlife species, including gopher tortoises.
The property management will focus on maintaining the high-quality wetlands and improving the pine flatwoods for native wildlife species. Public use opportunities will be evaluated during the development of the management plan.
Wild Spaces and Public Places, the voter-approved, one-half-cent sales tax, provided funding for the $1.3 million purchase price. Since County voters reauthorized Wild Spaces and Public Places in 2016, Alachua County Forever has protected an additional 5,824 acres. The program has protected 25,678 acres since its inception in 2000.
Learn more about Alachua County Forever.
Must be an awful lot of liberal idiots who were born with silver spoons in their mouths. I’m fairly confident the Henderson family is pretty excited. They get to get the hell out of high taxed Alachua County. Wonder if I can get a deal like some have? Live on my property, not pay taxes, the county or university gets it when I die. Probably not, it’s not lakefront, oceanfront, rolling hills or more than 100 acres. Add that to the east side of town and it’s no wonder no one is willing to pay that type of money for my piece of dirt.
Thanks to purchases like this, our taxes are rising faster than the water levels.
Maybe we’d be better off if it was a trailer park? I support this acquisition.
They paid $1,300,000 for some swampland that they
Should have left on the tax rolls because it’s un-developable …Who’s behind Alachua county forever, some ex-county commissioners
And their wives who get paid to manage it? I’d like the
County spokesperson to answer that question…
Does the management plan also include the removal & sale
Of the pines when they mature? Management & development plan = “kick back” plan
Will taxpayers be able to hunt that land? I like to
Hunt deer… Hunting on the land is good management practices to thin the heard.
Great place for their “chateau” don’t you think?
Was wild spaces & public places money used to
Pay for those social justice murals in some GNV parks?
I don’t support those expenditures on propaganda.
How could that scary mural with the black guy with
The mask on and fear in his eyes with his hands up
And the whitehouse in the background win an award? It’s ugly & creepy.
I don’t think taxpayer money should be used for political
Propaganda and then call it art.
The county never seems to get around to developing these acquisitions so that the heavenly taxed Alachua County tax payers can actually use and enjoy them… I guess we would have to agree to another penny or two of sales tax if we wanted that to happen… It if we wanted the to be decent roads to drive or ride our bikes on to get to these Wild Spaces… 🙄
*Or* if we wanted *there* to be decent roads…
These spaces are for the semi-private enjoyment of the enviro-climate aristocracy. And the snakes.