Story by Hank Vinson • Images Courtesy Florida Communities Trust

Florida is blessed with many unique resources, including a warm climate, sugar-white sand beaches, crystal clear rivers and streams, wildlife species found nowhere else in the world, and the historical evidence of people who have called the state home over the centuries. Native American villages, shell middens, Spanish mission sites, historic homesteads, and forts and battlefields are among the historic resources found in all areas of the state. However, these cultural resources have been as adversely impacted as the state's natural resources by the explosive population growth and accompanying development Florida has experienced over the last three decades. As development expands in areas inhabited by humans for thousands of years, destruction by development, vandalism, and looting continues to threaten the remaining examples of Florida's rich cultural heritage.

Recognizing the critical importance of preserving Florida's vanishing natural and cultural heritage, and understanding that without these resources, the state ceases to be the special place it is, the state has engaged, since the mid-1960s, in a succession of aggressive land acquisition efforts. Beginning as a $20 million bond issue in 1968, the state's acquisition programs have expanded through the years with the creation of the Environmentally Endangered Lands, Save Our Rivers, and Save Our Coast Programs in the 1970s, the Preservation 2000 Program in the 1990s, and finally, the Florida Forever Program, created in 1999. Preservation 2000 and the Florida Forever programs have been the most successful, contributing a large portion of the more than 1.25 million acres preserved in public ownership for future generations.

Recognizing the critical importance of preserving Florida's vanishing natural and cultural heritage, and understanding that without these resources, the state ceases to be the special place it is, the state has engaged, since the mid-1960s, in a succession of aggressive land acquisition efforts. Beginning as a $20 million bond issue in 1968, the state's acquisition programs have expanded through the years with the creation of the Environmentally Endangered Lands, Save Our Rivers, and Save Our Coast Programs in the 1970s, the Preservation 2000 Program in the 1990s, and finally, the Florida Forever Program, created in 1999. Preservation 2000 and the Florida Forever programs have been the most successful, contributing a large portion of the more than 1.25 million acres preserved in public ownership for future generations.

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