We are just 20 weeks away from our 25th birthday! On December 27, 1999, North Florida Land Trust officially became a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and enhancing quality of life by protecting North Florida’s irreplaceable natural environment. As we count down to this big birthday, we are sharing stories of who we are, how we got here, and what we do. This week, we focus on a conservation effort we have led for nearly eight years – the Ocala to Osceola Wildlife Corridor (O2O) and the O2O Partnership.
The O2O is a nationally recognized critical wildlife corridor that stretches 100 miles from the Ocala National Forest to the Osceola National Forest. It is 1.6 million acres of public and privately owned forested land. This network of natural landscapes provides a corridor for wildlife migration between the two national forests. Conservation of the lands along the O2O provides critical habitats for Florida black bears and imperiled species such as the red-cockaded woodpecker, indigo snake, and gopher tortoise.
The O2O is a significant part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor. It includes the Florida Ecological Greenways Network (FEGN) priority lands and approximately 80,000 acres in the Camp Blanding Joint Training Center. We began working with Camp Blanding in 2016 to identify lands for conservation around the military installation and began leading the O2O Partnership in 2017. This Partnership includes public entities and private organizations working together toward a common goal – land conservation and protecting the military mission within the O2O.
The O2O includes protected large landscapes and fragmented smaller landscapes. The habitats include Florida ecosystems such as longleaf pine, sandhill, scrub, springs, and swamps. We have been working with our partners to string together these protected lands and greenspace areas to allow wildlife to thrive while protecting the military mission by allowing training to occur without incompatible development. Our work helps the military mission while allowing common wildlife and plant species to flourish and provides protection for the imperiled and threatened species in the area. In 2019, we got confirmation that our efforts were working when a red-cockaded woodpecker banded in the Osceola National Forest showed up at Camp Blanding, 27 miles away.
NFLT and our partners got together to form the O2O Partnership for better coordination of our conservation efforts for improved landowner outreach and the ability to leverage additional funding to save the land from development. Our partners are state, federal, and non-government organizations. We work together to protect wildlife habitats and natural resources; we have improved forest management for conservation and economic benefit; and we have preserved and improved water quality within the numerous watersheds in the O2O. Florida’s aquifer recharge area sits within the O2O and benefits everyone by providing fresh water to more than 90 percent of Floridians.
Accomplishing our goals within the O2O requires funding to acquire the land or property rights on land that has not yet been conserved. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) has provided significant funding for these efforts and requires matches from the O2O partners. We received our first grant of $3.56 million from the RCPP in 2017, and in 2020, we received another $9.3 million toward the effort. NFLT and our partners successfully raised $11.4 million in matching funds for the 2020 RCPP, which gave us more than $20 million in support of conservation within the O2O. In 2023, we were awarded another RCPP grant for the Corridor to Coast, or C2C, initiative, an extension of the O2O partnership. (You will be able to read more about the C2C in next week’s post!)
Our conservation acquisitions team works closely with our partners and the NRCS to identify land we will target for conservation. We reach out to landowners within the O2O to protect these critical lands and promote conservation management practices. We only work with willing landowners to acquire property or property rights by purchase or a conservation easement. Those who own land within the O2O and are interested in learning more about opportunities to conserve their land should contact Kim Hall at khall@nflt.org. It is Now or Never!
P.S. You can read more about the O2O and see the full list of partners here.
