The northeast florida region is being rapidly developed, with consequent loss of habitat for the black creek crayfish

Protecting black creek crayfish habitat will also protect habitat for a number of other listed species, including sand skink, eastern indigo snake, gopher tortoise, gopher frog, florida pine snake, eastern diamondback rattlesnake, florida scrub JAY, red-cockaded woodpecker, and the endangered plants etoniah rosemary and clasping warea. Urgent action is needed to conserve remaining natural lands and high-quality habitats to protect threatened and endangered species populations. Unprecedented amounts of state and federal funding are currently available for fee simple land acquisition and conservation easements through the florida forever program administered by the florida department of environmental protection, the rural and family lands protection program by florida department of agriculture and consumer services, the florida water management districts, and the regional conservation partnership program under USDA-natural resources conservation service. Funding of over 400 million is currently allocated to the ocala national forest to osceola national forest (O2O) portion of the florida wildlife corridor. PLC assists these programs with acquiring lands to protect the black creek crayfish and other threatened or at-risk species. Private non-profit land conservancies such as PLC perform a vital role assisting state and federal agencies to identify suitable lands for protection and cultivate relationships with landowners to facilitate public acquisitions of lands in full fee or as conservation easements. The federal and state programs provide acquisition funds, but usually do not fund landowner cultivation, due diligence, and planning expenses. Public support for private land conservancies is needed to fulfil their mission. Conservation efforts must be conducted at the regional scale to protect landscape linkages and species reproduction and seasonal migration processes. This project will identify suitable private properties in the project area for public acquisition or conservation easement to benefit the black creek crayfish and other species mentioned above. PLC will contact landowners to gauge their interest in conservation of their property, follow-up with interested landowners to educate them about public land acquisition programs and conservation easements, submit applications for properties to be included in an acquisition boundary if not already, and facilitate the public acquisition of willing landowners properties in full fee or by conservation easement