Good afternoon,
I saw last night's National Geographic's show at the Straz Center in Tampa featuring Mr. Ward.
It was a very good show and enlightened me on the problems associated with the lands and waters of Florida (as well as how panthers are uncooperative to photographers(lol)). There was one question which has stuck with me since last night. How do you maintain and expand the Florida Wildlife Corridor? Just on the drive home from Tampa to Port Richey, Florida, suddenly saw the difficulty in your or our endeavor. The state and federal government must do their part as well as the civilian population. BUT, it is also up to the landowners or the heirs of the landowners/ranches. In Pasco, most of the *Starkey and *Belcher lands were sold to developers, even before they knew the natural damage they would cause and after they learned the truth. The area between Hwy 54 and Hwy 52 in Pasco County is being turned into homes and businesses - everyone is very excited by it all while not giving a single thought of the environmental damage. Yet, I just do not see how an adult grandchild who now owns many thousands or hundreds of thousands of acres won't sell it or portions of it to make money. It is their legal right to sell and to profit from the land they now own. How can this issue be solved? How can these new young generational landowners be personally motivated to be naturally responsible? Especially, when cattle ranching is very hard and rough work.
The predictive map of 2060 can be slowed down and possibly mitigated with responsible land and water management together. But the current landowners and ranch owners must also do their responsible part in the protection of all wildlife in Florida, even if that means losing hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for each landowner or the heirs. That is a big loss of money.
Could the lands be gifted to the Seminole tribe and are they managing the lands in a responsible manner today?
Thank You,
John
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The link below is copy and paste for your safety and security.
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http://floridawildlifecorridor.org/
look for maps and years of maps.
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Note * The names of Starkey and Belcher is only for recognition purposes only as they are the only large land owner names that I know of. It is only because of name recognition that I use those names. I would not know any person of wealth based on land or any other real estate portfolio.
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Added on 03 March 2019.
There are more than 40 ranches in Florida for sale which exceed 1000 acre parcels.
look at the money. 24 ranches exceed $10,000,000. One ranch in Okeechobee has 11,995 acres and is for sale at $47,400,000.
https://www.landandfarm.com/search/Florida/Pasture-Ranch-for-sale/?CurrentPage=1&SortBy=Price&SortOrder=Desc
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