The Legacy of a Red Hills Hunting Plantation: Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy

14. Tall Timbers Land Conservancy: From Association to Accreditation

237 14 TallTimbersLand Conservancy From Association to Accreditation In the premier huntingplantationregionoftheRedHillsandgreaterAlbanyarea,the Tall Timbers Land Conservancy has saved some of the South’s best remaining Longleaf Pine-Wiregrass forests; miles of river frontage along the Flint, Ochlockonee, and Aucilla Rivers; scenic canopy roads; and historic sites. The Tall Timbers Land Conservancy is the Southeast’s leading regional land trust in the number of acres conserved (110,000). In addition, Tall Timbers is one of only six such organizations in Georgia and Florida to havebeenawardedaccreditationbythenationalLandTrustAccreditationCommission. But beyond just the number of donated conservation easement acres, Tall Timbers Land Conservancy trust lands have a great importance because of the quality of the habitats protected, which include rare remnants of near-pristine forest and riverine ecological communities that were almost lost to this and future generations. These easements protect critical upland wildlife habitat and wetland ecosystems that affect the region’s quality of life by providing clean air and water to the residents of south Georgia and north Florida and perpetuate traditional rural uses of land such as sustainable forestry, farming, and recreational hunting. The success of this private land conservation effort has been due to the visionary leadership and stewardship ethic of landowners, strong public support, and the dedication of conservation staff. In December 1988, representatives of six organizations met at Tall Timbers’ historic Beadel House to discuss the need for a coordinated effort to save the environmental heritage of the Red Hills area. Among the representatives were Leon Neel and J. Larry Landers of Tall Timbers; John Cook, George Wilson and Tavia McCuean of the Florida and Georgia chapters of The Nature Conservancy; Dale Allen of The Trust for Public Land; Nancy Tinker of Thomasville Landmarks; and Kevin McGorty of the Historic Tallahassee Preservation Board. Each organization was working independently in the Red Hills seeking landowner support for conservation easements, conducting biologi-                     238 · Part III. Evolving the Institution figure 14.3. Above left: One of the early meetings of the Red Hills Conservation Consortium to map out strategies to protect the region. Tall Timbers Archives. figure 14.4. Above right: Walter Sedgwick was a key figure in the formation of the Red Hills Conservation Association, the forerunner of the Tall Timbers Land Conservancy. Tall Timbers Archives. cal or historic site surveys, making assessments of scenic roads, or working in some other capacity related to their missions. The alarming rate of Tallahassee’s urban sprawl prompted the meeting. Tallahassee’s growth had expanded the city limits from 6.3 square miles in 1950 to 62 square miles by the late 1980s and threatened to overrun the Red Hills. Over two-thirds of new development was occurring in Leon County’s northeast quadrant, heading straight toward the Georgia border. Tens of thousands of acres of prime plantation and farm land had been converted to fashionable residential subdivisions. The ecological consequences of that land consumption were not lost on Walter Sedgwick , the only plantation owner to attend the December 1988 meeting. Sedgwick later became president of his family’s land company, which consisted of four plantations and a mill operation in the Red Hills. His interest in demonstrating the economic viability of stewardship forestry placed him on the cutting edge of that emerging field, and he was on the boards of Tall Timbers, the Pacific Forest Trust, and the Land Trust Alliance. He realized that if action was not taken, Tall Timbers Research Station would someday become another CentralPark surroundedbyaseaof development.Hisleadershipinthe development of this conservation initiative was invaluable to its success. The group agreed there needed to be a coordinated approach to informing landownersofthe multiple conservationvaluesoftheir propertiesandthetoolsavailableto them if they chose to pursue conservation options. They drafted an action plan that was written by Sedgwick and sought the participation of a core group of landowners. Because of its mission and status in the Red Hills community, Tall Timbers was chosen to coordinate the effort. With the full support of the Tall Timbers Board, research station director LarryLandersdevotedconsiderabletimeandtalentoverthenexttwoyearstotheeffort. The success of the initiative rested with the buy-in and participation of the larger Red Hills plantation community. Landers invited Sedgwick, Kate Ireland, and Leigh H. Tall Timbers Land Conservancy: From Association to Accreditation · 239 Perkins Sr. to serve in an advisory capacity to help the budding conservation study, and to that end, a meeting between these landowners and conservation organization leaders was held at Tall Timbers on February 12, 1989. Ireland...