CLAM committee backs conservation easement for Saint Mary's Farm with limited public access and owner-managed oversight

The Conservation Lands Acquisition and Management Committee on Nov. 16 voted to recommend that the Nassau County Board of County Commissioners approve a conservation easement over Saint Mary's Farm, protecting about 599 acres and roughly 2.42 miles of Saint Mary's River frontage for a staff-cited purchase price of $2,100,000.

Staff said the Baseline Documentation Report (BDR) was prepared by the North Florida Land Trust (NFLT) and that the easement text is intended to protect water quality, habitat corridors and scenic rural character while allowing working-lands practices compatible with the conservation purposes. "There will be no commercial harvesting of the forestry at all," Crystal Watson, an NFLT contractor who worked on the package, told the committee when asked to clarify timber and forestry language in the deed.

The proposed easement narrows the protected footprint from the parcel's total acreage to approximately 599 acres, with the owners reserving two outparcels and retaining fee title. Public access under the easement is limited; staff said the easement allows two single-day, full-day public events per calendar year and includes language permitting a canoe landing subject to annual conditions in the Easement Management Plan (EMP). Staff and consultants described the access language as a negotiated compromise that balances owner liability and public benefit.

Committee members probed multiple aspects of the easement, including: the precise scope of grantor rights to remove timber for de minimis personal use or hazard removal, whether controlled (prescribed) burning would be allowed (staff said burning is part of existing forestry management and would be addressed in the EMP), the existence of high animal-safe fencing on the property, and invasive-species control. Crystal Watson said invasive-species treatment, specifically eradication of cogon grass mapped on the property, would be the grantor's responsibility and would be addressed in the EMP.

The package includes natural-resource documentation; members noted a particularly tall spruce pine on the tract that one member said was the national record for that species. Committee members cautioned against publicizing sensitive resource locations.

After discussion the committee approved a motion recommending the Board accept the easement. Staff said the county and the grantor will prepare an Easement Management Plan within one year; the county will retain inspection and enforcement rights and will approve the EMP to ensure it does not impair the conservation purposes set out in the deed.

Next steps: staff will forward the recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners; the county and the grantor must complete and approve the EMP and staff will schedule periodic monitoring visits to ensure compliance.