Preserving 189 Acres to Protect the Santa Fe River

ALACHUA COUNTY ‒ Alachua County Forever (ACF), the County’s environmental land acquisition program, has purchased 189 acres of land from Betty and Joel Matthews. The acquisition of this property protects over half a mile of frontage on the Santa Fe River. ACF purchases are funded by the Wild Spaces and Public Places initiative, which was re-authorized by voters in 2022. The one-half-cent sales tax provided funding for this $841,798 Matthews conservation land purchase. Since its inception Wild Spaces and Public Places has protected 32,879 acres in the county.

The Matthews property is the second Alachua County Forever acquisition of 2023 and is located west of CR 241 between Odom Preserve and Bonnet Lake Conservation Preserve along the Santa Fe River. According to ACF, protection of the Matthews property connects the family’s past history of land ownership in the County to the future and preserves their name to the conservation area. The Matthews family commitment to the protection of this land was critical to the conservation and purchase of this property.

This property protects the wetland floodplain forest and key uplands on the Santa Fe River’s south bank. The Santa Fe River is a unique, spring-fed system, the protection of which is one of the highest priorities of the Alachua County Forever program. Only one mile downstream from the property is an unnamed fourth-magnitude spring, and the first magnitude Santa Fe Spring is only 0.3 miles further. Protection of lands like the Matthews property helps to safeguard the drinking water supply of North Florida and protects the water quality of the river itself and the springs that flow into it.

Decades of efforts by public and private conservation partners have assembled an expanding corridor of protected land along the Santa Fe River which the purchase of this property helps secure further. The commitment of the Matthews family to the protection of this land was critical to the conservation of this property.

Future plans for the property include longleaf pine habitat restoration and nature-based public recreational access, highlighting a sweeping view over the floodplain forest into Union County and a pristine section of the Santa Fe River in Alachua County.

ACF was established in 2000 with the purpose of acquiring, improving, and managing environmentally significant lands that protect water resources, wildlife habitats and natural areas suitable for resource-based recreation. The preserves are purchased to protect and enhance the natural and cultural resources found on the properties. Some preserves own a variety of upland and wetland habitats, which provide wildlife habitat and support aquifer recharge. Some preserves are part of local and statewide efforts to protect and maintain significant wildlife corridors and protect areas of diverse habitats and relatively mature and diverse undisturbed forest within an area of Alachua County which is rapidly urbanizing and increasing in population.

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