- September 9, 2024
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Vicky Oberlander can identify nearly every plant, tree and grass growing on the 105 acres that surround her home on Betts Road in Myakka City.
Oberlander spends about three days a week weeding and tending to the grounds. She even maintains two of the four ponds on the property.
Debra Woithe, manager of Manatee County's Environmental Lands Program, said the property won’t be maintained to that extent after the county takes it over.
Woithe said Oberlander sees the 105 acres as her garden.
“The grass will grow a little higher (now that the county owns it)," Woithe said. "It’ll look more like wilderness while maintaining open space and habitats like the longleaf pine where the wildlife can still move through.”
The Environmental Lands Management and Acquisition Committee recommended purchasing the property for conservation, and commissioners agreed in a 5-0 vote during the July 30 commission meeting.
Appraisals came back between $3,005,000 and $4,750,000. Dr. Orin and Vicky Oberlander agreed to sell the property and structures to Manatee County for $3,606,000.
“We wanted it maintained as a park for wildlife,” Orin Oberlander said. “We were worried if we just listed it on the open market that somebody might develop it and chop down trees to put in 10 houses.”
The Oberlanders are protective of the trees because they watched all but three grow from seedlings and saplings.
When the couple first bought the land in 1995, they started with 36 acres and three oak trees, hence the name Triple Oak Preserve. The Oberlanders built two homes and bought two neighboring properties to fill out the 105 acres of barren land.
With help from the Florida Forest Service, about 34,000 trees have been planted since the Oberlanders moved in.
It only took two days to plant the majority of the trees. In 1997, 9,000 slash pines and 1,000 cypress seedlings were planted. In 2001, 19,000 longleaf pines and 1,000 cypress tubelings were planted. Tubelings are a little larger than seedlings.
“In three hours, I think it was 12 guys that planted 10,000 trees,” Orin Oberlander said of the planting in 1997. “I walked behind one guy and timed him. He was planting a tree every eight seconds.”
The next major planting was done in 2001, a year after the two adjacent properties were purchased. The tubelings were planted using a tractor and took two men in addition to the driver.
The Forest Service sells the seedlings and tubelings at an extremely low cost. Oberlander said the first 10,000 seedlings only cost him $350 and the hand planting cost $700. The total cost for planting 20,000 trees in 2001 was $7,000, which included hiring a tree planting tractor.
The rest of the trees were bought by the Oberlanders, usually 100 at a time from local nurseries, before the rainy season each year.
The eight-inch seedlings have since grown into a towering forest that the public will be able to explore in about a year. Woithe said the county still needs to install trails, restrooms and a parking lot.
The estimated cost to open the property as a preserve is $275,000. Annual maintenance is estimated at $22,000.
Wildlife commonly seen on the property include deer, gopher tortoises, southern fox squirrels, turkeys, wood storks, bald eagles, herons and eastern indigo snakes.
Vicky Oberlander said the Sandhill cranes are spoiled from the bird feeders. When they run out of seed, the birds tap their beaks on the side door to let her know.
Two homes are included in the purchase — the Oberlanders' 4,700-square-foot home and a 1,400-square-foot guest house that Orin Oberlander used for his dental practice for the last six years of his career before retiring in 2018.
Woithe said commissioners will have to make the final decision, but proposed plans for the houses include using the guest house as a visitor center with restrooms or a ranger’s home for 24-hour security.
The larger home could provide offices for the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extension staff. It could also be used for education and community programs.
The preserve will offer residents trails for hiking, biking and birding.
For the county and local wildlife, the property was a missing piece, as it sits between Myakka River State Park and conservation easements to the north and west of Flatford Swamp.
By buying the Oberlanders’ property, the county is able to conserve that wildlife corridor.
“There are longleaf pines out there,” Woithe said. “That’s one of the habitats diminishing across the state.”
The Longleaf Alliance is working to restore longleaf pine forests. The alliance reported that over 90 million acres of longleaf forests across the southeastern United States had shrunk to 3.4 million acres by 2009.
Restoration efforts since 2010 have increased longleaf forests to over 5 million acres. There are nine acres on the Oberlander property. Longleaf pines are more resilient to fire, drought and insect damage than other species of southern pine trees.
The Oberlanders don't have any children, so their original plan was to donate the property outright to Manatee County in another 10 to 15 years. However, Hurricane Ian made them rethink that plan.
“We’re getting too old to maintain it,” Vicky Oberlander said. “We couldn’t even get down the driveway. It was completely crisscrossed with trees. Oaks just toppled over.”
Vicky Oberlander is 58, and her husband is 64. About 400 trees blew over during Hurricane Ian. It took them nearly a year to clean up.
The driveway that was covered in trees is 1,500 feet long. When entering from Betts Road, it slices through the forest and leads back to the Oberlanders' home.
The surrounding habitats include a 50-acre upland forest, forested wetlands, mesic flatwoods, scrubby flatwoods and freshwater marshes.
When walking around the property with Vicky Oberlander, she couldn’t help but pick up sticks the whole way. The grounds are meticulously maintained.
It’s not only a matter of what’s been planted, but also what’s been removed. It’s a constant effort to keep invasive species, such as Cogon grass and Caesar weed, at bay.
The couple is retiring to a home on one acre in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
“One of our neighbors is a 160-acre nature preserve,” Vicky Oberlander said. “We don’t have to maintain it, but there are trails, so we can enjoy the preserve.”
Woithe said the county should close on the property within 45 days.
Correction: This article has been updated with the correct cost of seedlings.
