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 approximately 9.9 million acres managed for conservation in Florida, more than 2.5 million acres were purchased under the Florida Forever and P2000 programs.

Since its inception in July 2001 to the present, the Florida Forever program has acquired more than 683,000 acres of land with $2.87 billion. During this time, Florida Forever has protected:

• 609,270 acres of strategic habitat conservation areas
• 459,870 acres of rare species habitat conservation areas, including 806 sites that are habitats for 285 different rare species, 120 of which are federal or state-listed as endangered, 60 federal or state-listed threatened, and 20 species of special concern
• 686,530 acres of ecological greenways
• 119,480 acres of under-represented natural communities
• 480,695 acres landscape-sized protection areas
• 82,690 acres of natural floodplains
• 708,100 acres important to significant water bodies
• 351,600 acres minimize damage from flooding
• 7,700 acres of fragile coastline
• 300,350 acres of functional wetlands
• 681,120 acres of significant groundwater recharge areas
• 250 miles of priority recreational trails
• 348,160 acres of sustainable forest land
• 834 archaeological/historic sites
• 11,320 acres in urban service areas

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

When Florida Forever funding is appropriated by the legislature 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.

Pursuant to 259.105(3) F.S. the breakdown to agencies is:

Division of State Lands - 35% Stan Mayfield Working Waterfront - 2.5% Florida Communities Trust - 21% Division of Recreation and Parks - 1.5% Office of Greenways and Trails - 1.5% Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program (FRDAP) - 2% Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission - 1.5% Florida Forest Service, DACS - 1.5% Rural & Family Lands, DACS - 3.5% Water Management Districts - 30%