Picayune Strand State Forest in Florida is primarily comprising two major tracts of land, the South Golden Gate Estates Tract and the Belle Meade Tract. The South Golden Gate Estates Tract comprises the majority of the forest. The land which is now Picayune Strand State Forest was originally logged for cypress trees in the 1940s and 1950s. In the 1960s, a developer purchased over 57,000 acres (230 km²) to create the largest subdivision in America to be called "Golden Gate Estates". A massive system of canals and roads were built and thus began one of the original "swampland in Florida" scams.
Potential buyers were flown over the area during the dry season then subjected to high pressure salesmen who were selling lots averaging 2.5 acres (10,000 m2) apiece. Most of the land south of Interstate 75 could never be developed due to the summer flooding, and the development eventually went bankrupt.
In 1985, a plan was put into place to purchase South Golden Gate Estates using Conservation and Recreation Lands (CARL) funds under the "Save Our Everglades" program. This was an incredibly large undertaking as it involved acquiring land from 17,000 landowners. In 1998, the federal government gave 25 million dollars in aid to the State of Florida to help with land acquisition. Land acquisition was completed in 2006. Restoration efforts will restore the sheet flow of freshwater that is necessary for the continued existence of the ecologically sensitive Ten Thousand Islands and the Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve.
Read more about Picayune Strand State Forest: Location, Natural Features, Fauna, Recreation
Famous quotes containing the words strand, state and/or forest:
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—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)