Tall Timbers presents $25 million USDA RCPP award and local economic impact data

Ben Celius, representing Tall Timbers, briefed the Jefferson County board on several conservation initiatives and a new Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) award administered through USDA NRCS. Celius said Tall Timbers was awarded a $25,000,000 RCPP grant to be deployed over five years across an 11‑county Big Bend region; the program offers financial assistance (reported as 75–100 percent cost‑share) and management assistance to eligible private landowners (landowners with 10 acres or more are eligible to apply).

Celius described partnerships with the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation and Florida State University's planning and development lab to support outreach, mapping and targeted conservation. The application window for the program was announced as opening Sept. 4 and closing Oct. 3 in the presentation materials; Celius offered handouts and contact information for landowners interested in applying and said funds and assistance will recur in future years if a landowner does not succeed in the current funding round.

Tall Timbers also presented economic impact updates for the Red Hills region and Jefferson County: the organization's report lists a Red Hills regional economic impact of $194.1 million in 2018 rising to $231.7 million in 2024 (a 57 percent increase), and it lists Jefferson County's local economic impact at $32,000,000 (a 42.2 percent increase from 2018). Celius said the program has funded thousands of acres of prescribed fire, hundreds of thousands of trees planted, and technical assistance for private landowners, noting 36 percent of past contracts were with historically underserved landowners (veterans, first‑time landowners, and similar categories).

Celius asked commissioners to share the information with local landowners and said Tall Timbers would leave handouts at the meeting for those interested.