Manatee County's land conservation program races to protect special spaces

In a way, it’s a race.

That’s the way Debra Woithe, Manatee County’s Environmental Lands Program manager, describes the process of buying conservation land for the county.

She doesn’t actually use the word race. She chooses “urgency” instead.

But the meaning is the same in the sense that her countywide office, along with state organizations both public and private, are doing what they can to secure conservation lands as developers look for space to build much-needed housing.

The issue — or issues depending on how you look at it — is urging people and groups tasked with setting land aside for environmental protection and long-term public use to move fast.

“I’m hearing, ‘The time is now’ echoed throughout the conservation community,” says Woithe.

“I think there is a sense of urgency in that you see the governor supporting the funding to make it happen. And because of the pressure, the time is now to get it. That doesn’t mean that we’re trying to stop growth. We’re just trying to get those natural places in place and connected and get the growth filled in around properly.”

Photo by Lori Sax

What Woithe is talking about — balancing the needs of conservation and growth — is by no means unique to Manatee County. But the county’s conservation conundrum is a prime example of the issue municipalities grapple with statewide.

It’s especially true in east Manatee County, where an influx of people and a demand for space has driven developers to push for more places to build.

That is where Woithe’s department is focused.

She says the county is actively looking to purchase larger pieces of land with “really outstanding” habitats that are also unique.

One of the main goals is connecting existing conservation lands, so the department is looking at bigger tracts that can either be purchased outright or through conservation easements that would protect them. The Environmental Lands Program allows the use of tax money to buy, improve and manage land to protect natural resources and create parks.

To that end, Woithe says a big part of her job these days is meeting with property owners in East Manatee County to talk about how they can sell their lands or easements to the state or local government to preserve it.

For some, it’s a great option: it can allow them to preserve the land and either cash in by selling outright or continuing to work it by selling the development rights through an easement. (The public can nominate land to be purchased on the county’s website.)

It’s important to note Manatee’s Environmental Lands Program is not necessarily buying the land on its own. The plan, says Woithe, is prioritizing properties that other conservation organizations see as a priority as well, and then working together to secure the funding. “Our strategy is making our tax dollars go as far as possible.”

Photo by Lori Sax

An example of that is the purchase of a 68-acre parcel of riverfront land between Interstate 75 and Fort Hamer Road in Parrish late last year. Manatee County commissioners unanimously agreed to pay $11.2 million for that site, Crooked River Ranch, to benefit manatees that graze on vegetation along the shoreline as well provide a habitat for birds, including roseate spoonbills and wood storks.

The county worked with the property owners and the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast for almost a year to put the sale together, and it was bought through funds from the Environmental Lands Program. Four months after the deal was approved, in April, the county announced it had received a $5 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to offset the cost.

Manatee County spokesman Bill Logan says the sale had already closed, but the “grant frees up more county dollars to work on protecting even more environmentally sensitive properties here in Manatee.”

Which takes the situation back to the race.

Conservation advocates from across the political and economic spectrum agree there needs to be a concerted effort to protect the state’s natural resources. Which, the advocates are quick to point out, is what has drawn people to the state since it was founded in 1845. 

Recognizing this, the master-planned Lakewood Ranch has set aside natural areas for preservation. 

But outside the Lakewood Ranch boundaries, the reality, given the area’s growth, is all the people coming to and visiting the area need places to live, eat, work and play. And that’s where developers enter the equation.

And it’s why conservation organizations end up competing with developers for land. 

“It is pressing,” says Woithe. “It really is very much ‘the time is now.’ We have to be quick. If we blink, somebody else snatches up those properties and they become developed. Getting them at the right time is definitely important.”