It is mid-October and the Conservation Collier Program opened Pepper Ranch Preserve for a special viewing of the Southeastern Sunflowers (Helianthus agrestis). For Floridians – they were treated to spectacular fall colors from the blooming sunflowers. The two-mile hike (one mile each way) was lined with hundreds of thousands of sunflowers leading the viewer to vistas as far as the eye can see, of stunning fields of yellows and golds.

The species of the Southeastern Sunflower are mostly wild and are native to Florida with its flowers smaller than the common sunflowers, which are cultivated for their oils and giant blooms. In terms of plants, “Native” means, those species within Florida prior to European contact and exists in habitats that existed prior to significant human impacts and alterations of the landscape.”  The Helianthus agrestis on Pepper Ranch are part of Florida’s heritage and when you remove the natural resource that have existed for thousands of years you also threaten many rare and endangered species that are only found in Florida and on this location. 

Pepper Ranch is located in northeastern Collier County west of Immokalee and is approximately 2,512 acres. It was acquired by Collier County in February 2009 

and the citizens of Collier County are the proud owners of this historic and environmentally rich and diverse property.

According to historical records, the story of the Pepper family and Pepper Ranch is intertwined with and inseparable from the history of Immokalee and Collier County. Frank Pepper acquired the land in 1926 and his family farmed corn, peppers and melons, ran cattle, and even operated a well-known fish camp on Lake Trafford for many decades.

Most of the ranch as it exists today was transformed by Frank Pepper and his family. Oil exploration and extraction began in 1987 and the remainder of the oil, gas and mineral rights are now held by Collier County. 

When Conservation Collier acquired Pepper Ranch in 2009, it was overgrown with invasive and exotic vegetation. The County has removed and treated the exotic plants in an ongoing effort to restore and protect existing habitat. There are about 600 acres of pasture at the Preserve and it is still a working ranch but park biologists indicated if you were to remove the cattle, a lot of the invasive plants would come back.

What is the Conservation Collier Program? “It was established by a local referendum in 2002 to acquire, preserve, restore, and maintain vital and significant threatened natural lands located in Collier County for the benefit to present and future generations.” According to its website, “to date, the Program has acquired and manages twenty-one preserves totaling 4,345 acres of natural lands in 21 different locations.”

In 2002 Conservation Collier was approved by voters with nearly 60% approval and were willing to tax themselves .25 mil in ad valorem collections to purchase and preserve environmentally sensitive land in Collier County. It was re-affirmed in 2006 for ten years with 82% approval and again in 2020 with 76.5% (151,080) voter approval.

On September 21, 2023, the Board of Collier County Commissioners (BCC) adopted a $615.6 million budget and the rolled back ad valorem tax rate. The rolled-back rate would not raise enough money to fund the FY2024 budget so the BCC decided to fund the $62 million shortfall by “raiding” the Conservation Collier funds. 

On October 10th, BCC adopted changes to the County Ordinance 2002-63, governing Conservation Collier giving the express power to use the program’s money for “any other County purpose deemed to be in the best interest of the public by majority vote of the BCC.” 

The Conservation Collier Program was made possible by the will of the voters through its trice successful referendum process on an issue that is often passive and sometimes excluded in the political debate – the “environment and conservation.” Commissioner McDaniel commented at the October BCC meeting that in early 2024 he will present a revised Collier Conservation program which will grant them future development rights and associated Transferrable Development Rights on Conservation Collier lands.