After four years of fundraising by a private group, Pinellas County has signed a deal with the county school board to preserve 14 acres of natural land south of Tarpon Springs.
This means the West Klosterman Preserve will remain a haven for wildlife in a densely-populated portion of Pinellas County.
A group dedicated to preserving it and keeping it out of developers' hands raised $1.5 million — with several anonymous donors chipping in. The county matched that amount. It will be purchased from the Pinellas School Board, which had declared it surplus land.
It will be added to the Mariner's Point Management Area, near where Klosterman Road dead-ends at the Gulf. It will remain off limits to the public, strictly set aside for habitat preservation.
Several anonymous large donors helped the group reach its goal. Tex Carter, president of the WK Preservation group, said earlier this year that the key was Pinellas County agreeing to chip in half of the $3 million cost. That helped spur donations from larger donors.
"When people put their mind to it, when they identify something that needs to be preserved, and when it's effectively communicated, you can make it happen," he said. "And the county made the difference."
It's the latest example of crowdsourcing being used to preserve parcels of land in suburban and urban settings.
In 2020, Sarasota area groups teamed up to preserve an area known as the Celery Fields. The former farm has been transformed into a sanctuary for scores of bird species through the efforts of scores of volunteers. It has become a must-see, stopping-off point for birders, with 226 species of birds counted in its 400 acres.
The following year, activists raised about $10 million in donations to preserve the Gladys Douglas Hackworth property in Dunedin.
Preserving land used to be the sole domain of local governments and the state of Florida. But with rampant development closing in on many more urban parcels, locals are needing to step up to preserve spaces that fly under the government's radar.
