Tates Hell State Forest, a Florida Forever project

Florida Forever is Florida’s premier conservation and recreation lands acquisition program, a blueprint for conserving natural resources and renewing Florida’s commitment to conserve the state’s natural and cultural heritage. Florida Forever replaces Preservation 2000 (P2000), the largest public land acquisition program of its kind in the United States. With a total of 3.8 million acres of conservation land purchased in Florida, 2.4 million acres were purchased under the Florida Forever and P2000 programs.

Between its inception in July 2001 to the present, the Florida Forever program has acquired more than 638,600 acres of land with $2.62 billion. During this time, Florida Forever has protected:

• 259,330 acres of strategic habitat conservation areas
• 426,290 acres of rare species habitat conservation areas
• 638,450 acres of ecological greenways
• 57,310 acres of under-represented natural communities
• 77,920 acres of natural floodplains
• 645,350 acres important to significant water bodies
• 5,190 acres of fragile coastline
• 273,000 acres of functional wetlands
• 625,710 acres of significant groundwater recharge areas
• 206,390 acres of land to support priority recreational trails
• 302,130 acres of sustainable forest land
• 554 archaeological and historic sites

Florida Forever has conserved habitats for 200 protected species [PDF - 182 KB] (99 state-listed as endangered, 39 state-listed as threatened and 19 species of special concern).

Note: These acreages were derived from the most recently updated Florida Forever data layers, which are continuously amended to reflect the most current scientific analysis of Florida’s natural resources. Additionally the acreages recorded for each measure often overlap, and thus should not be added together.

Florida Forever Funding Distribution - June 2008

Florida Forever funding is allocated by the legislature at $300 million per year. It is distributed by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to a number of state agencies and programs to purchase public lands in the form of parks, trails, forests, wildlife management areas and more. All of these lands are held in trust for the citizens of Florida.

Division of State Lands - $105 million Division of Recreation and Parks - $4.5 million Office of Greenways and Trails - Rails to Trails - $4.5 million Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) - $6 million Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - $4.5 million Division of Forestry, DACS - $4.5 million Rural & Family Lands, DACS - $10.5 million Stan Mayfield Working Waterfront, DCA, $7.5 million Florida Communities Trust, DCA - $63 million Water Management Districts - $90 million