Florida’s land trust approved $72.6M for easements on 10,770 acres, the state says, including a ranch once owned by Gov. Doyle Carlton

The state did not buy 10,770 acres on Sept. 29. It agreed to buy the right to keep them from being developed.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet approved the conservation of more than 10,770 acres, an investment of more than $72.6M, including more than 2,700 acres within the Ocala-to-Osceola Wildlife Corridor (DEP). The Capitolist reported the same totals, with 2,708 acres in Putnam County, 3,567 acres in Hendry County and more than 4,500 acres of working agricultural land under permanent easements (The Capitolist). The meeting’s agenda is headed “Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund,” and by law those trust lands are vested in four trustees: the Governor, the Attorney General, the Chief Financial Officer and the Commissioner of Agriculture (agenda; s. 253.02).

The owners keep title. The Crow’s Nest option agreement says the seller “is the owner in fee simple absolute” and grants the trustees “the exclusive option to purchase a perpetual conservation easement” (Attachment 4B). The Limestone Creek deed is a deed of conservation easement in favor of the trustees, “a real property interest immediately vested in Grantee” (Attachment 7F).

The money

Nine option agreements sit on the agenda. Two are Florida Forever easements. CA & KC Properties, LLC of Palatka, signing through manager Charles E. Alford, Jr., gets $5,416,000 for about 2,708 acres in the Etoniah/Cross Florida Greenway project in Putnam County, $2,000 an acre and 91% of the $5,960,000 approved value; the agenda says the land “was assembled over multiple decades” (agenda Item 4A; Attachment 4A). Crow’s Nest Farm, LLC, a Delaware company with a Raleigh, N.C., address, gets $13,390,000 for about 3,567 acres in the Panther Glades project in Hendry County, $3,754 an acre and 94% of the $14,300,000 approved value. The agenda says that property was bought in 2024 for $25,875,900, so the easement is about 52% of that price (agenda Item 4B; our arithmetic). The owner keeps the right to split the land into two parcels of at least 1,000 acres each and to build two new homes of up to 5,000 square feet each (agenda Item 4B).

Seven are Rural and Family Lands Protection easements, which FDACS says total more than 4,500 acres (FDACS). Limestone Creek in Hardee County, about 1,034.88 acres, is $6,520,000, or $6,300 an acre, against fee values of $10,140,000 and $10,245,000; the agenda says it was “inherited and family owned since prior to 1985” (agenda Item 7F). The Leonard Property in Martin County, about 219.14 acres, is $20,150,000, or $91,950 an acre, with Martin County providing $10,075,000 as co-title holder; the agenda says John J. and Laurie L. Leonard acquired it from LMA Properties, LLC on April 14, 2015, for $1,000,000 (agenda Item 7D). FDACS lists the rest: Turnpike Dairy in Martin, about 498 acres, $7,480,000 with Martin County providing $3,740,000; Blandford Farm & Ranch in Lake, about 349 acres, $7,500,000; Encore Farms in Lake, about 194 acres, $5,436,000; Fair Bluff Ranch in Martin, about 618 acres, $6,200,000; and Stokes Farm in Columbia, about 1,586 acres, $5,562,000 (FDACS). The agenda’s cost-basis notes: Encore was bought for $2,000,000 in 2000, Fair Bluff for $482,600 in 1992, Stokes assembled from 1986 to 1989 for $1,138,700; Turnpike was inherited in 1970, and Blandford has been in the family since the early 1900s (agenda).

The state’s total does not match the agenda. Our sum of the nine trustees’ prices is $77,654,000 for 10,777.02 acres, and $63,839,000 after Martin County’s $13,815,000 share. Neither is $72.6M, so the $72.6M here is the state’s figure (DEP; agenda; our arithmetic).

How it works

A conservation easement is a purchase of what the land could become. The owner keeps the farm and the title; the trustees take a recorded interest that bars development forever, and the owner can still reserve rights, like Crow’s Nest’s two homesites. That is why an easement acre costs less than a fee acre, and why the per-acre spread across this agenda runs from $2,000 in Putnam to $91,950 near Hobe Sound (agenda; our arithmetic). Our arithmetic on the state’s totals puts the package at about $6,700 an acre. On Sept. 30, 2025, the same board took up 4 acres in Okaloosa County at $83,326,520, or $20,831,630 an acre, for land the sellers had bought for $7,901,214 (Sept. 30, 2025 agenda; WUWF). That was a fee purchase for a public park; this package buys development rights only, so the two numbers measure different things.

What could still stop it

These are options, not closings. The board approved option agreements, and the easement deeds in the packet are unsigned forms, and each still has to close (agenda). FDACS says Limestone Creek “has been permanently preserved from development”; that is the state’s framing. The $72.6M does not reconcile with the agenda, and DEP has not said how it reached it. The ranch’s ownership history rests on state records and The Herald-Advocate; the current owner is Limestone Land LLC of Clearwater, with Robert Carlton Ward, Sr. in the manager’s signature block, and the agenda calls Doyle Carlton, Sr. and Doyle Carlton, Jr. “the current owner’s ancestors” (Attachment 7F; agenda Item 7F).

Why it matters across Florida

The package spreads across Putnam, Hendry, Hardee, Lake, Columbia and Martin counties (agenda). Limestone Creek, a working cattle ranch for more than 70 years, was formerly owned by Gov. Doyle E. Carlton (DEP); The Herald-Advocate reported in 2024 that the late Mr. Carlton acquired the land in 1935 and that it is now held in an LLC of his grandchild and great-grandchildren. The same board approved the Destin purchase a year earlier (see the Destin story).

What to watch

Closings on each of the nine options. How DEP reached $72.6M. Phase two of Limestone Creek: the ranch is 2,082 acres, and phase one was acquired May 21, 2024 (agenda Item 7F). Walter Farms in Polk County, a separate $3,005,000 easement FDACS announced Oct. 1, which is not on the Sept. 29 agenda (FDACS).