Conservation Lands 

These include lands that are acquired for their water resource value and are managed to restore and/or protect natural conditions. Some of these lands may be part of future water management projects in these natural conditions. South Florida Water Management District manages the lands in perpetuity, or until they are incorporated into a larger project.

In accordance with the Florida Statutes Chapter 373.1395, lands acquired by the District shall be managed to "ensure a balance between public access, general public recreational purposes, and restoration and protection of their natural state and condition."

District conservation lands were acquired to protect and enhance water resources by buffering critical flow-ways from urban development and by maintaining large wetland areas for aquifer recharge and additional storage of surface water. Land Stewardship's primary focus on these lands is in restoring and maintaining their ecological function so that they are able to provide the benefits for which they were acquired.

 In order to keep these lands in their natural state and preserve their ecological function, the Division's land managers take actions to compensate for the loss of natural processes and conditions no longer present due to both historic and ongoing alterations to the landscape. These processes and conditions are essential to keeping native plant communities in a healthy and vibrant condition that both supports the greatest diversity of plant and animal life and provides the greatest benefit to the water resources of the District; they include:

 * Burning the fire dependent communities with a fire return interval that provides the most ecological benefit, this is as frequent as every other year for our pine flatwoods and dry prairie communities.

 * Restoring hydrologic alterations to bring back a more natural hydroperiod.

*  Eradicating non-native or nuisance vegetation; sparse in some areas and extremely dense and threatening in others.

*  Restoring the physical structure of plant communities through vegetation management.