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Opening Celebrates Land Preservation

Tribune photo by FRED BELLET

Students from Countryside Montessori School check out the trees and terrain at the Conner Preserve at Friday's opening ceremony.

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By KEVIN WIATROWSKI

kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com

Published: January 17, 2009

LAND O' LAKES - As model airplanes buzzed overhead, a hundred or so people braved the blustery wind blowing from the north Friday afternoon to celebrate the opening of Conner Preserve, the newest addition to Pasco County's roster of public lands.

The 3,000-acre preserve is owned by the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which bought it from the Conner family more than four years ago as part of developing the Connerton community in central Pasco.

At the time the land changed hands, it had been in the Conner family for 60 years. Swiftmud preserved the land not only because of its value as wildlife habitat but also because its many acres of wetlands provide valuable space for recharging groundwater supplies.

The preserve includes most of the land south of State Road 52, between U.S. 41 and Ehren Cutoff. It extends southwest to touch U.S. 41 near the entrance to Connerton.

Swiftmud paid nearly $10 million for the land, partly with the help of the Florida Forever program, which legislators froze this week as part of plugging a $2.6 billion hole in the state budget.

"This is exactly what state government and local government working in conjunction can do," said state Rep. Wil Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, who was among the speakers at Friday's dedication.

In the years since Swiftmud bought the land, the agency has built miles of trails for hiking, bicycling and horseback riding. Backpack-style campsites will open in 2010.

The property is part of a network of Swiftmud preserves that includes the Serenova Preserve near State Road 52 and the Suncoast Parkway in west Pasco and the Cypress Creek Preserve just south of the Conner Preserve, off Ehren Cutoff. County officials hope to link the major preserves with public corridors to allow wildlife to travel among them.

Friday's events at the Conner Preserve included a display of small-scale aerial acrobatics by the Bay City Flyers, a group of radio-controlled model airplane hobbyists that has found a home on 25 acres in the preserve. Group president Charlie Poulton said the group struggled for years to find a place to call home until they struck a deal with Swiftmud.

"We want our great-grandchildren to enjoy this place," Poulton said.

Attendees also included students from Land O' Lake's Countryside Montessori School and the Academy at the Farm, a charter school based in east Pasco. Students took walking tours of the property and learned about some of the local ecology from Swiftmud staff.

County Commissioner Ted Schrader told the students they were enjoying the day in a special place.

"You kids have a chance to see something visionaries were able to protect," said Schrader, a lifelong resident of Pasco.

Also braving Friday's wintry weather were horse enthusiasts Cherie Cunningham and Ann Durlak, who live in Land O' Lakes. Both came to scout out the preserve's horse trails.

And when will they bring their horses for a visit?

"When it warms up," Cunningham said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201. Keyword: Conner Preserve, to see more photos from the opening.

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