Fall Fundraiser & Awards Ceremony to honor Kerry Heubeck and Phyllis Hansen

Two landowners will be honored with awards from the Conservation Trust for Florida for protecting their land with a conservation easement at the Fall Fundraiser & Awards Ceremony on Sunday, November 7th at The Yearling restaurant.

Kerry Heubeck, son of Elmer and Harriet Heubeck, will be honored with a Land Conservation Award for protecting 200 acres of Quail Roost Farm, which is located east of Citra. Kerry’s parents are considered true pioneers in the Florida Thoroughbred horse industry. Phyllis Hansen will also be honored for placing a conservation easement on her homestead in Cross Creek.

The conservation easement on Quail Roost Farm will protect a significant stand of cypress trees, but will also allow the new owners, James and Lee Windham, continued use of the land for bird hunting, horseback riding, and to raise organic beef cows. Kerry said he placed the easement on 200 acres of the 1,000-acre farm as a memorial to his parents.

"Before they died, each of my parents spoke of protecting the land," he wrote in a statement. "I’ve also come to believe that each of us must assume that responsibility of preserving the wildness that remains — so that our children, and theirs, may come to know such beauty; and, quite possibly, for the very survival of us all."

Phyllis Hansen’s 25-acre estate in Cross Creek will be protected from future subdivision with the easement she placed on her land. Ms. Hansen wanted to protect the scenic beauty of the tupelo swamp on her property. "When I found this spot of land I knew I would never go anywhere else," she wrote. " The beauty was more than I had ever imagined could exist in one place."

In addition to the awards ceremony, there will also be a live auction of original art by several artists including Kate Barnes, Ellie Blair, Peter Carolin, Sean Dowie, John Moran, Annie Pais, and Jeff Ripple. Storm Roberts of 98.5 WKTK radio station will serve as the auctioneer.

Francis E. "Jack" Putz, a Professor of Botany at the University of Florida and The Prince Bernhard Professor of International Conservation at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, will be the speaker for the event. Monica Cooper and Jack Nettle will provide musical entertainment.

GRUgreen Energy, Progress Energy, Atlantic Design and Construction, Inc., Xerographic Copy Center, Goodwin Lumber Company, and The Flower Shop sponsored the event and awards.

Tickets are $35 each and are still available. The event runs from 4 to 7 PM on Sunday, November 7th at The Yearling restaurant in Cross Creek.

CTF is a non-profit land trust that works to protect rural lands in Florida. We focus on the protection of working farms and forests, and natural areas that provide landscape connections. CTF has successfully protected approximately 2,700 acres of rural landscapes through publicly funded land conservation programs and conservation easements. CTF, in conjunction with the Office of Greenways and Trails, also helped begin the acquisition of a 153,000-acre project, the Camp Blanding to Osceola National Forest Greenway.