- December 13, 2025
Flagler County has taken strides to protect its environmentally sensitive lands, and is now eyeing 35 acres in Marineland.
In August, the commission approved adding the “Marineland 35” to a list of properties considered for its Environmentally Sensitive Lands Program. The 35 acres consists of four parcels located near 176 Marina Drive.
These properties contain over eight acres of “mature maritime hammock forest,” much of which along the Intracoastal Waterway has been developed into residential neighborhoods, according to commission meeting documents.
But Flagler County would not be purchasing it alone. The county has partnered with several agencies, including the North Florida Land Trust and the FDEP’s Florida Forever Program and University of Florida’s Whitney Lab to coordinate and explore purchasing the land, splitting the cost.
Land Management Director Erik Revuelta told the Flagler County Commission at a Nov. 17 meeting that the joint effort to purchase the acres is moving forward.
“We’re waiting for FDEP [the Florida Department of Environmental Protection] to choose their appraisers, so that we can piggyback on that,” he said.
The combined assessed value of the properties, owned by JDI Marineland LLC, is $6.9 million, according to Flagler County documents. The ESL Program manages $20 million for the acquisition of environmentally sensitive land, $10 million of which is earmarked for land within the Florida Wildlife Corridor.
County meeting documents from the August approval show Flagler County attempted to purchase the properties alongside the University of Florida, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2020.
Flagler County’s portion of the purchase would be the land surrounding the marina and an existing wastewater treatment plant, the associated spray field and portions of the hammock that abut the River to Sea Preserve. Flagler would be responsible for the maintenance of the wastewater treatment system after purchasing it.
The county’s ESL program, a major part of the Land Management Department, has actively been growing the conservation land in the county for years. It is intended to preserve wildlife habitats and preserve rare natural communities and ecosystems.
Revuelta’s presentation on Nov. 17 was an update on the work the department completed in fiscal year 2025. Specific to the ESL program, Revuelta said the department has processed six new ESL applications, developed a countywide conservation land priority map identifying high-priority areas, and completed the 300-acre purchase of Three Creeks Preserve, funded from state appropriations.
The county also purchased 3,800 acres of environmentally sensitive land in Espanola for $6 million, the largest ESL purchase in the county’s history.
Land conservation is just one of several areas of focus in the Land Management Department. The department manages about 12,000 acres of county-owned land, including 17 parks and preserves and five Community Trust Sites.
Revuelta’s department has four full-time employees, including himself, and they spend about 20% of their time conducting prescribed burns and another 20% searching for and removing invasive species.
In 2025, the department burned 411 acres over nine prescribed burns and treated 285 acres across 11 preserves for invasive species.
The department also spends much of its time monitoring and reporting plant and animal species found in the county preserves. In 2025, staff identified 13 new plant species previously unknown to be in Flagler County, one of which is a state-listed species.
One of the employees also found the striped newt in Flagler’s preserves, Revuelta said, a threatened species. Flagler County has the third largest striped newt population in Florida, he said.
“This is really what we’re trying to protect,” Revuelta said. “This is the point of everything we do.”
