Conservation Articles

Ned Hancock and his family of growers and cattlemen on Charlie Creek in rural Hardee County know there’s one thing none of them should do if they want to get to heaven: sell their land. Hancock’s great-aunt, the second generation of Hancocks to farm their little slice of paradise in…

Few places in Florida evoke the kind of rugged pioneer life as do the meandering creeks and tributaries of the Peace River. With its headwaters in Polk County, the Peace River and its dozens of creeks flow through swamps, flatwoods, hardwood hammocks, grasslands, and marshes before arriving in the Charlotte…

We’re proud to share that our executive director, Julie Morris, was recently recognized with a 2025 “Above & Beyond” award from the News Service of Florida, an independent news bureau providing breaking daily coverage of Florida’s government, economy and politics. The award honors the state’s 50 most influential women for…

Florida is about as pretty a place as one could imagine. Surrounded by the sea, buoyed by temperate weather, stunning natural beauty and a way of life non-Floridians literally long for, what’s not to love? Given its natural attraction, Florida is a state that accommodates approximately 1,000 new residents a…

Pictured above: Erin Myers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, and Lefty Durando, FCG Chairman and rancher, surveying for the Florida grasshopper sparrow in Okeechobee, Florida. The Great Florida Prairie—a region occupying much of south-central and interior southwest Florida—is an ecological gem that few Floridians or visitors know. The Prairie…

Forty-five years ago, cattleman Charles Stevens was asked by the Hardee County Commission to work with a regional planning council on preserving 35,000 acres of county land to keep it from being developed. Stevens, like other ranchers in the county, pushed back. They didn’t believe their old prairie lands and…