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Friday, August 18, 2006 — CTF is pleased to announce John Strassburger, former editor of The Chronicle of the Horse, as the keynote speaker at our Fall Fundraiser & Awards Ceremony, to be held at the Golden Hills Golf & Turf Club in Ocala, FL, November 12 from 5 to 8 p.m.
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 — Please join us for networking and educational opportunities with Florida land trusts. Learn more about updates to the Land Trust Alliance's Standards & Practices and attend a workshop on estate planning with Jerry Cosgrove of the American Farmland Trust!
Tuesday, February 15, 2005 — The Conservation Trust for Florida is hosting two estate-planning workshops with Jerry Cosgrove of the American Farmland Trust. The Saturday, February 26th workshop will focus on both the substance (what) and the process (how) of estate planning issues for farmers and other rural landowners. The workshop is geared towards staff and Board members of land trusts; personnel of government agencies; and professionals.
A second workshop geared toward landowners will be held on Sunday, February 27th and will focus on the economic benefits of conservation easements and ways to reduce property, federal income, and estate taxes. Additional topics covered at the workshop include life estates, charitable remainder trusts, and business organization strategies. Please feel free to invite anyone who may be interested to either workshop.
Sunday, November 7, 2004 — 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.
Friday, December 12, 2003 — A critical link in an ecological corridor between the Ocala National Forest and the Osceola National Forest is one step closer to being protected. The Florida Forever Acquisition and Restoration Council voted unanimously December 5 th to place the 153,000-acre Camp Blanding to Osceola National Forest Ecological Greenway into the "A" funding category.
The Conservation Trust for Florida and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection/Office of Greenways and Trails co-sponsored the grant application. The Florida National Scenic Trail Association and the University of Florida's GEOPLAN Center also helped identify and secure support for the corridor.
Thursday, September 25, 2003 — Alachua County and the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) have jointly acquired a 1,388-acre preserve within the Lochloosa Wildlife Conservation Area in southeastern Alachua County. The Conservation Trust for Florida nominated the tract for acquisition by the Alachua County Forever land conservation program.
Formerly owned by the Lybass family, and now renamed the Lochloosa Longleaf Nature Preserve, the property is the second acquisition by the Alachua County Forever program. The parcel boasts some of the best remaining longleaf pine flatwoods and sandhill habitat in the county. SJRWMD provided 33% of the approximately $2 million acquisition cost.
Thursday, May 15, 2003, Micanopy — A new study recently released by The American Farmland Trust provides a staggering look at the loss of the nation's farmland.
At an increasing rate of about 1.2 million acres per year, every state in the nation is losing some of its prime farmland. In five years, the U.S. lost 6 million acres of farmland. Sprawling development and wasteful land use, not growth, is cited as the cause.
Thursday, March 14, 2002, Micanopy — April 15 doesn't have to be painful again next year. Instead, it can be a day you celebrate both your tax savings and the satisfaction of permanently conserving important open spaces.
The nation's 1,200-plus land trusts — nonprofit organizations that are independent of government and work hand-in-hand with landowners who choose to conserve their lands — offer a variety of ways that you can permanently protect your open space lands and perhaps shave your tax bill:
- Donate it to a nonprofit land trust;
- Donate a conservation easement, which permanently limits the type and scope of development; or
- Sell the land to a land trust in a "bargain sale" for below fair market price.
Thursday, February 14, 2002 — Farm and conservation advocates joined forces to call for passage of legislation that will fund a new program to protect farmland from urban conversion.
Pointing to a new study by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), the groups urged immediate action to slow the conversion of productive farmland to urban uses. The Department's study found that Florida has lost 5 million acres of farmland and can expect to lose a million more in the next 10 years.
The Department declared a goal of protecting one acre for every acre lost to development.
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