Conservation News
Man buys 40,000 acres in Panhandle for private conservation
By Associated Press
FREEPORT � A businessman purchased 40,000 acres of forest land east of this Walton County town for the Florida Panhandle's largest private conservation project.
M.C. Davis, 58, of Santa Rosa Beach, said he has invested about $40 million in the land, which he plans to restore and maintain as a natural wildlife habitat. He calls it Nokuse (no-goo-see) Plantation after an American Indian word for black bear.
A little more than half of the acreage is untouched by civilization, but the rest will need work to turn it from farmland into habitat.
"I believe in stewardship," said Davis, who is in the real estate business. "It will be a wilderness once again."
Part of Nokuse Plantation links conservation lands owned by Eglin Air Force Base and the Northwest Florida Water Management District. Davis said the combined lands will provide a large expanse that will help wildlife such as the Florida black bear increase their populations.
Davis said the bears need as much as 500,000 acres to roam and repopulate without inbreeding.
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