County Approves 18 Parcels for Conservation Collier

Late last month, the Board of Collier County Commissioners approved $1 million to purchase 18 parcels of land across the county for Conservation Collier.

To conserve ecologically important areas across the county, Conservation Collier has purchased 6,672 acres across 28 project locations since 2003, and many of the new parcels are part of its ongoing plan to connect previously disconnected properties into larger, multi-parcel wilderness preserves.

For instance, nine of the 18 parcels approved for purchase are part of, or adjacent to, the existing Dr. Robert H. Gore III Preserve, located along 4055 40th Ave SE in East Naples alongside Everglades Parkway. Currently a 280-acre preserve, the acquisitions will bring the total acquired land to over 50 percent of the full envisioned size of the completed reserve, as the county has worked since 2018 to gradually buy up plots of land to piece the planned site together.

It serves as a habitat for Florida panthers, black bears, the bonneted bat, and wading birds, alongside serving as a wildlife corridor between private and public conservation land.

Four parcels were also approved for the Panther Walk Preserve, located on 2845 60th Ave NE, north of Golden Gate. One of the smaller preserves, at 84 acres, it is a notable habitat for deer, Big Cypress fox squirrels, panthers, and other species. Each of the parcels, similar to those in the Gore Preserve, serves as a potential corridor for wildlife to move safely between private and public land.

Commissioner William McDaniel Jr. of District 5 noted during the meeting that he felt it was imperative to continue to focus on Panther Walk to put together a cohesive corridor that allowed animals to travel freely from north to south through it.

“We all talk about connectivity, and it’s imperative. Immokalee Road is just to the north of Pather Walk Reserve. So connectivity is going to require some sort of wildlife crossing on Immokalee at some point in time, so let’s get it logged in there at some stage; we need to have a place for our four-legged friends to be able to get out of the northern remote areas and into this particular area - to and through,” McDaniel said.

Another acquisition was a five-acre parcel called the Wilson Parcel, which will be incorporated into a larger 295-acre area known as the North Belle Meade Preserve, located along Black Burn Road, which is adjacent to Everglades Parkway in a largely undeveloped region of east Naples. The property sold for $71,250.

District One Commissioner Rick LoCastro, once the parcels were approved, also sought clarity before the public on getting several plots of land on Marco Island seen before the commission to also be approved, after they’d been under consideration for some time but had yet to be officially brought forward.

According to officials, a change in purchasing policy required new appraisals on properties that had already been priced - which ultimately resulted in lower appraisals for the parcels. They added that there is one property under major consideration on Marco Island, with the owner having accepted an offer previously before it had to be re-appraised, though officials said that in the year since the owner has been patient and still remains willing to sell to the county. The address of the property wasn’t specified.

Marco Island properties, however, are much more expensive than comparatively much larger parcels elsewhere. Currently only two Conservation Collier properties exist on the island: Otter Mound and Barfield Burrows, respectively. Though both properties are a little above two acres each, they cost around $2 to $3 million to purchase, far higher than other parcels elsewhere in Naples, largely on account of the higher real estate price and limited land space on the more densely developed island.

LoCastro said, however, that the county should consider more Marco Island land purchases at a future commission meeting.

Michele Lenhard, chair of the Conservation Collier Land Acquisition Committee, thanked the commission for the approval of so many parcels at the meeting, noting that while most of them are smaller and spread out from one another, they still play a key role in reaching the county’s conservation goals.

“The large parcels are easy to picture and it’s simple to imagine what they can become, and I never want to minimize the importance of large parcels. But the small 19 parcels recommended today speak to a unique strength of this program. Individually they are small; assembled they become so much more,” Lenhard said.

“Conservation Collier is in a unique position to assemble small parcels into preserves for the present and future generations.”