The year began with some belated news owing to the decline in local news coverage that has turned Polk County into a news desert outside the major cities. That was the news that Lake Alfred had in 2023 annexed northward into the Greem Swamp Area of Critical State Concern–including a portion of Hilochee Wildlife Management Area–to seemingly advance plans for industrial park development at the I-4-CR 557 interchange. The issue came to wider public attention after residents north of the annexation raised questions about how the action would eventually affect them.

In March, state officials announced approval of the $36.1 million purchase of the Creek Ranch property on Hatchineha Road. The County Commission had approved the property for a residential-commercial development in 2023 over the protests of area residents. The property, which lies i the Florida Wildlife Corridor, will be managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Also in March Ancient Islands Conservation Chair Marian Ryan was appointed to the county’s CLASAC panel, which makes recommendations to the County Commission regarding environmental lands purchases.

In June, Sierra became involved in a proposal driven by then County Commissioner Neil Combee to loosen residential development standards in the Green Swamp. The proposal came after county planners pushed through a seemingly uncontroversial measure to change standards in suburban areas and then used that to justify the Green Swamp rules in the name of consistency. The change was approved later in the year after some clarification about its impact.

In August, Polk officials agreed to pay $20 million for a 1.272-acre ranch in the upper reaches of the Peace Creek Drainage Canal with an eye toward replumbing the area to treat stormwater runoff from the urban and ranch lands in the canal’s drainage basin to reduce the amount of pollution that reaches the Peace River.

Meanwhile news broke that Gov. Ron DeSantis was quietly pushing a plan to clear wildlife habitat at several state parks to make way for hotels, golf courses and pickleball courts. The plan drew widespread protests by Sierra and other groups and ithe dea went away, at least for now. DeSantis, for his part, dishonestly claimed he knew little about the idea though subsequent examination of public records proved otherwise.

Two significant developments occurred in September.

BS Ranch & Farm. which had been operating a soil treatment plant near Saddle Creek on the outskirts of Lakleland shut down operations, creating turmoil for septic tank companies and their customers. At year’s end there was no news about the development of a proper site to treat this waste in Polk County. This was a black eye for the development-friendly County Commission, who pushed the project through despite red flags concerning the facility’s operational integrity.

The other was the vote to water down proposed impact fee increases after local developers protested. This leaves the burdens of the impacts of growth on the general public.

In October, local officials were besieged with complaints about flooding following heavy rains that accompanied hurricanes that blew through the area during the fall. The flooding affected a variety of low-lying areas that had flood risks. At year’s end, county commissioners were discussing how to put prospective buyers on notice about the hazards these properties face.

Also, curbside residential recycling ended in unincorporated Polk County as had been announced in 2023. Some drop-off locations are available, but they are sometimes overloaded. The move was approved because of changing market conditions and the fact that there was extensive contamination in recycling carts, which in some parts of the county were treated as second garbage carts.

In November the County Commission approved the first purchase under the revived environmental lands funding program approved by voters in 2022. That involved a $24 million purchase of 1,225 acres on the Lake Wales Ridge.

Also in November voters approved a constitutional amendment regarding the right to hunt and fish. Sierra and other groups had opposed the amendment because its vague wording had the potential for allowing some unintended consequences.

In December state officials announced the purchase of the Florida FFA Foundation conference center on Catfish Creek and Lake Pierce in eastern Polk County. It will become part of Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek State Park.

MISSING FRIENDS

Paul J. Fellers died in August at the age of 91. Fellers was a long-time local environmental leader who exposed generations to the wonders of Polk’s natural resources through his bird and wildflower trips.

Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet voted this week to approve two more important conservation purchases in Polk County.
The 113-acre Future Farmers of America Foundation property, which went on the market earlier this year, was purchased for $7,450,000.
The property includes a conference center and cabins and frontage on Lake Pierce and Catfish Creek adjacent to Allen David Broussard Catfish Creek State Park.
That park is overseen by Lake Kissimmee State Park.
There have been discussions for several years about providing cabins for park visitors in addition to the recreational vehicle and primitive camping that already exists.
How this will work out will be decided in the park’s management plan.
The other purchase approved this week was a conservation easement on the764-acre Kuder Ranch property between Interstate 4 and the Holiday Manor subdivision.
This purchase will. provide a development buffer for Hilochee Wildlife Management Area’s Osprey Unit against urban encroachment from Haines City.
The purchase price for the easement. was $5,950,000.

Richland Communities. a private development corporation, has purchased the 4,158-acre 5R Ranch near Lake Wales for $50 million, the Lake Wales News reported this week.
The property has been owned by the Rupp family since the late 1970s.
There were no immediate plans to develop the property, which lies between Lake Wales Airport and Alturas-Babson Park Cutoff Road.
The property was proposed for development decades ago, but the proposal occurred during a wet year, which revealed the fact that the property contained extensive wetlands.
The project was abandoned.
The ranch was also one of the sites used for an experimental establishment of a non-migratory flock of whooping cranes in the 1990s.

Polk’s Environmental Lands Program is fiscally sound and making progress as it proceeds into its second phase following a successful 2022 grassroots referendum to renew the property tax to buy and manage more lands, Polk commissioners learned Monday.
The first phase. which emerged from a 1994 referendum, acquired 44 properties totaling 26,000 acres. During that 20-year run, 132 sites were nominated. The lands were purchased using $29.3 million in local funds authorized by the referendum and $81.2million from other partners to stretch the program.
So far under the second phase, 23 of the 31 properties nominated have been recommended for potential acquisition.
Two acquisitions totaling 1,874 acres have already been approved. Others are pending. The program has raised $17 million and has the potential to obtain $31.1 million in partnerships.
Staff members Gaye Sharpe, Polk’s parks and natural resources director, and Tabitha Biehl, land and water resources manager, told commissioners another ley part of the program’s success is the fact that 25 percent of the tax funding is set aside for current and future management costs.
Sharpe said other counties have had to close sites they purchased because they had not set aside money for management.
That management fund, which has increased by $5.6 million under the current program, also allowed Polk’s sites to remain open during the period between the expiration of the first tax referendum and the approval of the second referendum.

The Polk County Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to purchase a 649-acre tract near Babson Park for $5,245,000, the second purchase under the revived Polk County Environmental Lands Program.
The site owned by the Friedlander family is located off Friedlander Road and Golfview Cutoff Road adjacent to the former county southeast regional landfill.
Although the site is dominated by pasture, it contains some rare scrub plant species and rare animals including whooping cranes, caracara and fox squirrel have been documented on the site.
There are very few invasive exotic species on the site and it has a good potential for habitat restoration., according to the technical evaluation that occurred during a site visit.
It could also provide public recreation once a management plan is developed
County Manager Bill Beasley told commissioners part of the site could be used for monitoring groundwater in connection with the old landfill.
During Tuesday’s meeting commissioners also approved a $3.3 million project to restore wetlands at the edge of Dundee to improve water quality in nearby Lake Annie.

Highlands County commissioners are in the preliminary stage of authorizing a vote to establish an environmental lands purchase program.
On Oct 1 commissioners voted 4-1 to approve a two-year contract with the North Florida Land Trust to work toward an effort to evaluate community support for a 2016 referendum.
There is no determination at this point about whether the referendum will occur and what the funding source will be.
At the Oct. 1 meeting it appeared the emphasis may be on purchasing conservation easements on agricultural lands to reduce development pressure in outlying areas of the county where infrastructure does not exist to support new development.
On Nov. 7, commissioners approved $68,509 to advance what is being called the Ridge to Rivers Conservation Plan. This refers to the area between the Lake Wales Ridge and the Kissimmee River.
There will be a series of workshops and other public meetings during the study period. Stay involved.

During recent commission meetings in Bartow and Lakeland, residents whose homes flooded were looking for answers and so were elected officials who were. well, deluged with questions about their future. It is an apt and well-timed question.
The flooding was the result of perhaps climate-change-fueled record rainfall in the Lakeland area-in fact, several times the normal amount for October–and homes located in lowlands.
In places like Lake Seward. which was a swimming hole in the 1950s, a 1996 consultant report prepared for the County Commission after an earlier wet period, made two main conclusions.
One was that the neighborhood was likely to flood repeatedly in the future.
The other was that any approach to deal with the problem was likely to be expensive.
In fact, none of the places where flooding occurred were that surprising. The only surprise was how far and fast the water rose.
County Commission Chairman Bill Braswell wondered if there were a way to include warnings accompanying sales, noting the unwary may buy land during dry periods with no warning that there will be times when they will need a boat to reach their homes.
There was also some discussion of documenting the extent of flooding this year to guide future development approval decisions.
There are also other factors at work.
They include sometimes outdated stormwater runoff facilities, changes in the amount and velocity of stormwater runoff as new roads rooftops and driveways replace natural habitat and the continued reliance on the alleged “pre-post match” engineering calculations for runoff from developed properties that sometimes seem to fall short.
Fortunately. these tragedies could not have come at a more opportune time for people living in unincorporated Polk County.
County planners and consultants are in the process of writing a major update to the county’s growth plan and development regulations.
Dealing with this issue should certainly be part of it.