FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                   

Contact:            Karen Forsyth or Lynda Riley, Lee County Lands Division
                         (941) 479-8505

CONSERVATION 2020 PROGRAM TO REACH 10,000-ACRE MILESTONE

FORT MYERS, Fla. (August 29, 2002) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners will vote Tuesday (Sep. 3) to buy a 2,054-acre parcel that will push the Conservation 2020 Program over 10,000 acres.

The highly successful, voter-approved program buys environmentally sensitive land for long-term preservation.

The 2,054-acre site, owned by the Karl H. Schewe Trust, is located just east of Southwest Florida International Airport’s boundary and also connects to State Road 82.  The purchase price is $6.275 million.  The parcel also is just north of a 588-acre Conservation 2020 tract bought in 2001.

When this purchase closes in about 60 days, the county will have bought and set-aside 10,038 acres through the program.

 This is the second largest Conservation 2020 purchase.  In April 2001, the county bought the 2,389-acre Prairie Pines Wildlife Preserve in North Fort Myers.  Other large-size buys include the 1,115-acre Caloosahatchee Creeks Preserve along the Caloosahatchee River and the 727-acre Bunche Beach Preserve along San Carlos Bay.

From the program’s inception in 1996 through today, 7,932 acres have been purchased for $49.86 million.  A 52-acre site is scheduled to close Sep. 5 and – if the county commission approves it Tuesday – the Schewe purchase should close within 60 days.

Lee County voters approved Conservation 2020 in November 1996 through a referendum that increased property taxes for seven years by 50 cents for every $1,000 of taxable property value.  The increase raises about $15 million a year to buy environmentally sensitive lands.  In addition, 10 percent of the funds collected are set aside for land stewardship activities such as exotic pest plant control and provision of passive recreation facilities.

The Conservation 2020 Program is a willing seller program, which means that only properties that are nominated by landowners are considered for acquisition.  The county does not pursue acquiring properties by its legal power of Eminent Domain.  The Board of Lee County Commissioners appointed a 15-member citizen advisory committee – the Lee County Conservation Land Acquisition and Stewardship Advisory Committee (CLASAC) – to recommend appropriate properties to be pursued for purchase.  The committee has been meeting nearly monthly since February 1997.

The county purchased the first Conservation 2020 parcel in February 1997.