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Conservation
A Race Against Time
"We've got beaver, otters, all the snake species, alligators," adds Dan Smith, a conservation biologist hired by Davis to inventory existing species and help restore the original diversity of wildlife to the plantation's acreage.
Determined to preserve a piece of old Florida as wildlife habitat, Davis, who lives in Santa Rosa Beach, bought the plantation's initial 40,000 acres for $40 million in 2002. Most recently, he paid $17.5 million for 5,200 acres near Freeport. Sam Shine of Crystal River, Davis' partner in an earlier project that saved 30,000 acres at Lafayette County's Mallory Swamp, also has contributed, buying 800 acres on Nokuse's northern edge.
Today, the plantation (pronounced nuh-GO-see, Native American for "black bear") is the largest private conservation project east of the Mississippi, Davis says. It's home to several rare animal and plant species, including the bog frog, found only at one other site, also in the Panhandle, says Smith.
A northwest Florida native, Davis, 60, buys forest lands both for his livelihood, as a land speculator, and as a calling. If our species is to survive, other species must too, he says: "All life is interconnected and interdependent."
One of the biggest deals for Davis' company, Fountain Investment, was the $86-million purchase in late 2003 from Weyerhaeuser Co. of 168,000 Tennessee acres. Fountain resold most of the land to the timber industry and donated some for conservation.
Davis sees Nokuse as a critical link in a conservation trailway to run from northwest Florida to the Big Bend, connecting several million acres, including military reservations, water management district land and national forests.
The plantation is part of the Northwest Florida Greenway, a project spearheaded by The Nature Conservancy in alliance with the military and government to conserve ecosystems while protecting the region's military mission. Debbie Keller, Northwest Florida Greenway coordinator for The Nature Conservancy, says Davis' work is "priceless."
The greenway project is still four more major tracts -- at least 100,000 acres -- away from completion, Davis says. "We're going to do this in less than five years. If it's going to get done, it needs to be done quickly because of the population explosion."
