Over the years, Ginnie Springs became an integral part of the Marcus Mills’ weekend plans. He recalls the days he’s spent lazily floating down the Santa Fe River with friends, lounging and sipping on ice-cold beers.
But within the next year, Mills, a 22-year-old UF computer science major, and other North Central Florida residents will have two other nearby springs to escape to.
By the end of March, The Alachua Conservation Trust plans to purchase five new properties in the city of High Springs. It’ll be turned into a nature preserve called, “The Santa Fe Springs Project,” said Heather Obara, the trust’s spokesperson.
The Alachua Conservation Trust is still working to raise the remaining $200,000 it needs to close the real estate deal for the properties, said Melissa Hill, Santa Fe River Basin project coordinator. To fundraise, she said the organization has applied for grants and has launched a social media campaign.
The 254-acre property, which sits about 30 miles from UF campus, where the Olustee Creek and the Santa Fe River meet, includes 1.3 miles of river and two freshwater springs, Hill said.
Hill said that because the land has two springs, it’s been a priority for the state and water management district for decades. This priority list of land includes properties that are expected to have the largest positive impact on conservation efforts in the state, according to a Florida statute.
“The property itself having two springs is very unique,” Hill said. “There are very few projects in the state that protect two properties in one fell swoop.”
Through the project, Hill said the trust plans to protect the nature preserve while also providing public recreational access such as hiking and birding trails. Admission to the property will be free, she said.
By owning the land that the springs are on, the trust will be able to control how the land is managed and ensure that conservation is the top priority, Obara said.
Obara said the organization will be able to prevent any kind of residential development in the area, such as adding drinking water wells or septic tanks near the springs and river, which would reduce the quantity and quality of water in the springs.
“By placing the springs and surrounding areas in conservation, we are preventing the land from being developed in the future for homes or some other intensive land use,” Obara said.
Currently, the trust does not plan to allow swimming at the larger spring in order to reduce the potential for litter in the spring or river, Obara said. Land management staff and interns with the organization will regularly visit the preserve to help maintain it.
“Our goal as an organization is to protect really critical properties that are beneficial for wildlife, but also for people,” Hill said. “So this project, Santa Fe Springs, really focuses in on water quality and quantity.”
Five individual private property owners are selling the land, Hill said.
Four of the five property owners are related, and the properties have been in their family since the 1800s, said Tom Kay, the executive director of the Alachua Conservation Trust. The fifth seller has owned his property for the last 50 to 60 years.
Kay said what makes the property unique is not only the depth of the springs — which are anywhere from 70 to 160 feet deep — but also the lack of development on the land surrounding them.
“You see two houses the entire time you are paddling three or four miles,” Kay said. “Which is pretty unheard of on the Santa Fe River.”
Ginnie Springs
