North Florida Land Trust
Press Release
August 13, 2020
The public presentation is the first draft of the plan on how best to use conservation funding to serve the environmental needs of the county
Jacksonville, Fla., Aug. 10, 2020 – North Florida Land Trust and the Nassau County Planning Department are holding two meetings to present their draft of the Conservation Lands Acquisition and Management program, also known as CLAM. NFLT and the County will host the meetings on Saturday, August 15. The first meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. in Yulee at the James S. Page Complex at 96135 Nassau Place in the outside tent area. The second meeting will take place in Callahan from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. at the West Nassau Museum of History in the outside tent area at 45383 Dixie Ave.
NFLT and the Planning Department staff have been working together to develop a plan to conserve lands throughout the county. They recently conducted a survey to get the public’s input to help determine what lands will best serve the county’s environmental needs. The survey asked the citizens for input in four categories; water issues, species and habitat protection, working lands, and outdoor recreation and quality of life. Those results were used to develop the draft version of the CLAM program that will be presented at the meeting.
“The County Commissioners asked us to help them determine how best to spend the dollars that have been allocated for conservation,” said Jim McCarthy, president of NFLT. “We took the suggestions from the county’s citizens, along with the budget to determine where those dollars would be best used for conservation. We used ranking criteria to score future potential conservation land acquisitions and created this first draft of the plan. We encourage everyone to join us on August 15 to learn more about what’s ahead.”
The meetings are open to everyone. NFLT and the County hope to reach as many residents as possible on August 15. More information about the CLAM program can be found at https://www.nassaucountyfl.com/933/Conservation-Lands.
About North Florida Land Trust
North Florida Land Trust is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to protect the natural resources, historic places and working lands (farms and ranches) throughout north Florida. Founded in 1999, NFLT has preserved tens of thousands of acres of land through donation or purchase of land as well as conservation easements. NFLT is funded largely by private and corporate contributions and works closely with willing landowners and public agencies at all levels of government, not-for-profit partners, and foundations. For more information, visit nflt.org.
Just came back from this presentation. It was very impressive. The process NFLT and the county laid out is thoughtful, rigorous and science based. I look forward to seeing the results. If the county follows this process there should be broad support for the 2022 conservation referendum.