Commissioner’s Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award Goes to Blackbeard’s Ranch
Blackbeard’s Ranch Commissioner’s Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award Blackbeard’s Ranch is a 4500-acre working cow-calf operation located on the Myakka Prairie in Manatee County. Blackbeard’s is one of the last large intact ownerships in a region facing changes and development. The current owners believe it is critical to protect our natural and agricultural landscape; they bought Blackbeard’s in 2014 with the intention of protecting the property. Managing partner Jim Strickland is pursuing conservation easements with the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program and Florida Forever. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) just completed a Wetland Reserve Easement on