Drive the back roads of Hardee County and the landscape reads like a page out of old Florida. Mesic flatwoods give way to open marsh. Forested wetlands crowd the banks of Charlie Creek, which flows to the Peace River and ultimately toward Charlotte Harbor.
It is both wild and working — two characteristics that are not mutually exclusive, but can work to support one another.
That’s the case at C&G Cattle Charlie Creek and C&G Cattle Fish Branch. Together, these two working cattle ranches span approximately 1,450 acres and are now permanently protected from development through conservation easements.
Landowner Greg Gordon’s family has called Hardee County home for six generations, and the family’s cow-calf operation dates back more than a century. For Gordon, the decision to conserve the ranches was about more than protecting his own property.
“These ranches hold the key to protecting our wildlife and the water resources that sustain us,” said Gordon. “I’m so proud to be a part of this program to conserve these lands for the Floridians and wildlife that depend on the natural resources they provide.”
Florida Conservation Group (FCG) worked with Gordon to secure funding for the conservation easements through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Rural and Family Lands Protection Program and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service’s Agricultural Land Easement Program.
The result is much bigger than two protected ranches.
A Piece of a Much Larger Landscape
C&G Cattle Charlie Creek and C&G Cattle Fish Branch are part of the Florida Wildlife Corridor, the statewide network of forests, wetlands, ranches and farms that provides connected habitat from the Everglades north toward Georgia and Alabama.
Because these lands remain in agriculture, they can continue producing food while also providing critical habitat for black bears, eastern indigo snakes, deer, turkey and many other native species that depend on well-managed private lands.
The ranches also help connect the Peace River with conserved lands to the east, filling gaps in a larger landscape that wildlife — including the Florida panther — needs to move across South Florida.
What Happens Here Doesn’t Stay Here
The conservation easements permanently protect 4.1 miles of Charlie Creek, an important tributary of the Peace River.
Water moving through this landscape does not stop at a property boundary. Charlie Creek flows into the Peace River, which continues downstream toward Charlotte Harbor. That connection makes protecting ranchlands and wetlands in the Peace River Valley important far beyond Hardee County.
The Peace River is also an important source of drinking water for Southwest Florida. The Peace River Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority draws and treats water from the river at its facility in DeSoto County, currently supplying about 26 million gallons of drinking water each day to communities across the region.
Healthy ranchlands help hold water, protect wetlands and safeguard the creeks and waterways that ultimately feed the Peace River. Protecting these landscapes helps protect not only wildlife habitat and agricultural lands, but also a water resource that hundreds of thousands of Floridians depend on.
“Protecting the Peace River Valley and, ultimately, the health of Charlotte Harbor means protecting water downstream and helping safeguard the clean water and healthy ecosystems Floridians depend on every day,” said Julie Morris, executive director of FCG.
Protecting the Peace River Valley
Despite its importance for agriculture, wildlife and water, Hardee County remains one of Florida’s more under-protected rural landscapes. That makes the Peace River Valley an important focus for conservation.
FCG is working with ranching families and conservation partners throughout the region to protect strategically important working lands — particularly properties that strengthen connections between existing conservation areas and protect the creeks, wetlands and watersheds that feed the Peace River.
C&G Cattle Charlie Creek and C&G Cattle Fish Branch show what that can look like on the ground: cattle still grazing, a family ranching tradition continuing, wildlife still moving across the landscape and Charlie Creek still winding toward the Peace River.
It is conservation that keeps Florida working and wild — protecting the land that feeds people, holds water and shelters wildlife for generations to come.