News

Oct 15, 2024

Hammock State Park could get land buffer | Highlands News-Sun | midfloridanewspapers.com

A local family is stepping forward to protect the ancient bald cypress swamp and other priceless habitats that make up Highlands Hammock State Park. If the Livingston Family has its wish, the 880

A local family is stepping forward to protect the ancient bald cypress swamp and other priceless habitats that make up Highlands Hammock State Park.

If the Livingston Family has its wish, the 880 acres it has owned for five generations on the outside of the park will become a conservation property that will help buffer the park against encroaching development.

Over the years, the Livingston Family has seen Florida panther, black bear, Eastern indigo snake, wood stork, deer, turkey, otters and many other endangered plants and flowers on their properties. The 10 parcels that make up the 880-acre buffer zone are worth $6.2 million, the family’s lawyer said.

Highlands Hammock State Park first opened in 1931, four years before Florida’s state park system was created. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. Thousands of people a week picnic, hike, stroll, and camp in what they consider a beautiful, irreplaceable park.

Zach Franco of Archbold Biological Station said the tract would enjoy preservation rights and protect the park from death by a thousand cuts.

“Without protection by conservation easements, the area is likely to transition to residential development in the future, essentially isolating the north unit of the state park from the south unit.”

The Livingston Family believes the land is worth preserving in its own right, according to a Keith Fountain, of Keith Fountain Law. He has helped landowners arrange conservation easements in Florida for more than 30 years. Over the decades, the land has hosted cattle ranching and citrus, haying, palmetto berry harvesting and row crops.

“It has a mosaic of natural communities and agricultural activities, both historical and current. It has a large basin swamp in the northwestern portion of the Project west of Charlie Creek,” Franco wrote. “The balance of the property is a mosaic of hydric hammock, mixed wetland hardwoods, baygall, mesic flatwoods, and agricultural uses.”

Historically, the primary agricultural activities included cattle ranching and citrus, with ancillary activities including haying, palmetto berry harvesting, and row crops.

Such lands become conservation properties through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Forever Florida program. The DEP’s Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC) develops the list of acceptable properties. Once ARC’s Board of Trustees approves the land, it can be pursued for acquisition.

According to the Livingston property’s Forever Florida application, the buffer will protect from development well over 50% of the undeveloped land lying between the north and south units of Highlands Hammock.

Franco argued for the Livingston property at an ARC public hearing in August. According to Franco, private landowners, the county, state and federal taxpayers have invested heavily in easements and public conservation lands in this part of Highlands County.

“The approval and investment into the Highlands Hammock corridor would contribute an invaluable linkage for ensuring habitat connectivity,” he said, “promoting biodiversity, and providing suitable habitat for large mammal movement and expansion.”

The ARC Board was to hold a public meeting on Oct. 11 to debate the Livingston Family’s application, but the DEP canceled the meeting as Hurricane Milton approached. A new date has not yet been set, said DEP spokesman Brian Humphreys.