Conservation Cowboys

In the Saddle with Pat Durden, Cary Lightsey, Matt Pearce, and Jim Strickland

Florida is the birthplace of the cattle industry in America. In 1521, on Ponce de León’s second trip to the land he’d named La Florida, the Spanish explorer brought along Andalusian cattle - something never before seen in America. Now, there are about 15,500 operations, encompassing more than 7 million acres of land with some 1,750,000 head of cattle, and more than 5,000 registered brands in Florida. These ranchlands are the keepers of Florida’s last frontier.

Can you picture it? The wild west of the south – wild Florida. Where sunburn is a badge of honor from backbreaking work, not basking at the beach.

That’s the lifestyle for Pat Durden, Cary Lightsey, Matt Pearce, and Jim Strickland, Florida’s shining examples of modern cowboy-style conservation. Nearly one-fifth of the state is devoted to the cattle industry, and these ranchers play a vital role in Florida's economic health. These men make it cool to be a cowboy, or "cattleman," as Matt Pearce prefers. They are the history and the future of Florida, truly embodying what it means to be a Steward of the land – protecting some of our state’s most critical habitats.

Matt Pearce’s roots run deep in the sunshine state. “I am a seventh-generation Florida rancher whose family settled along the western shore of Lake Okeechobee, and grazed cattle along the Kissimmee River before there were fence laws,” Pearce said. “My great-grandfather, John Olan Pearce Sr., along with eight other Florida cattlemen, traveled to Tallahassee in 1934 to lobby for private property rights, disease prevention, and flood control. They were the original founders of the Florida Cattlemen’s Association, an organization that represents over 5,000 cattlemen today. I served as the Florida Cattlemen’s Association president from 2019 to 2020, and my family has a rich ranching heritage that I’m continuing to pass down to my three children. The brand I use to identify my cattle – P1 – has been handed down several generations to the firstborn son or grandson of Pearce descendants. The brand is over 150 years old and still being used today at the Pearce Cattle Company.”

Ranches in Florida provide some of the last, vast green space in our state. They provide critical habitat to our native species, and from the swamps to the sandhills, ranches in Florida are key to supporting our unique biodiversity and an array of habitats on a landscape scale. In addition to their critical role in grassland preservation, ranches conserve landscapes in their natural conditions, keeping lands wild and harboring pockets of old Florida.

“There is no time clock to punch in and out – Mother Nature doesn’t care what you had planned. You sometimes work all year in the hope of breaking even. So, why do it?” questioned Northwest Florida Rancher Pat Durden. His family’s heritage in farming and ranching around the Gadsden County area significantly predates the Civil War. “It’s for that sunrise when the birds come to life, and you look out at your cattle grazing a dew-covered pasture on a cool morning. Or, the sunsets when you can sit and hear quail whistling while you look out and see whitetail deer grazing alongside a flock of wild turkeys. I’m not sure how to convey the feeling that comes over you at that moment. It’s a time when I reflect on my granddaddy and my dad’s sacrifices that gave us the privilege to manage and care for the land that they did before me. It’s pretty powerful, money can’t buy that feeling. It’s something that has to be fought for and protected, and the sooner we as a people learn this, the better off environmentally we will be.”

Ranches are critical in helping keep the Florida Wildlife Corridor intact, and without them, our greenways and wildlife corridors would be fragmented and lost forever. Florida’s ranchlands protect a vast amount of native habitat that is critical to the viability of many of our imperiled wildlife species like the Florida panther and Florida black bear. After the conservation lands, cattle ranches create the next greatest opportunity for environmental value in Florida. The mosaic of upland and wetland habitats on ranches can sustain virtually all the native wildlife biodiversity, while providing widespread water resource protection for Floridians.

The ranching legacy passed down through Cary Lightsey’s family is centered upon stewardship with more than 90% of their ranchland registered under conservation easements. In addition, their family has won a variety of awards for their environmental stewardship practices. “We are one of the first ranches to provide eco-tours to the public and civic organizations, showcasing our green spaces, an abundance of wildlife, clean water and air programs, and endangered species,” he added. Lightsey says that the most important thing his father taught him about ranching was that if you take care of the land and the livestock that feed on it, it will take care of you and generations to come.

“Stewardship has to do with how we manage our time, talent, resources... our entire lives. It is a beautiful concept when understood. We are blessed by having the task of caring for all that we possess in our lives such as our land, livestock, wildlife, water, air, and our earth,” said Lightsey. “We want to share our goals and to ensure that the future members of our family will have a livelihood much like the one we had...to work our land, the cattle, and wildlife, and all that goes along with it.”

The importance of the lands our Floridian conservation cowboys manage cannot be overstated. In the Northern Everglades, these ranches mimic the historical dry and wet prairies that once swept across Central and South Florida. Where the natural range of prairie hasn’t been lost to development or more intensive agricultural practices, the disruption of natural fire regimes converted these treeless prairies to forested systems over time.

Florida prairies are naturally maintained by frequent fires. Today, traditional Florida prairies occur almost exclusively on public lands that require human intervention with intensive prescribed fire. The loss of these native grasslands has resulted in the rapid decline of several species dependent on unique qualities offered by prairies. Replicating natural fire regimes on privately owned grasslands to restore the historical conditions of dry prairies is not feasible in the fragmented landscape of Florida today.

That's where the next best management tool comes into play: cattle. To those outside of the agricultural community, cattle may be an unsuspecting hero for wildlife conservation in the state of Florida. However, grazing livestock may just be the most economical and sustainable solution for conserving the declining populations of grassland- dependent species.

The critically endangered Florida grasshopper sparrow was near extinction until recent captive breeding efforts were enacted. The federally threatened crested caracara nest almost exclusively on isolated cabbage palms in wide-open grasslands. The state-threatened Florida burrowing owls were entirely dependent on treeless habitats that only dry prairies could provide. Recovery plans for these species and other imperiled flora and fauna, emphasize the critical role that rural landowners play in statewide conservation.

Jim Strickland can trace his ranching heritage back to just before the Civil War. “There are not many options for owners of big tracts of land except to sell them to developers,” explains Strickland. As the owner of Strickland Ranch and managing partner of Blackbeard’s Ranch in Manatee County, Florida, he’s dedicated his life’s work to conserving the land, waterways, and surrounding habitat of the Myakka River Valley. “It’s about saving land and ensuring smart development,” he says. “I’m not anti- growth or anti-housing, but we also have to recognize that people move here because there are so many things that make Florida special. The quality of life and opportunities for recreation means green space, good water, and a healthy environment – we need to consider those things in making development decisions, and we need to share the story of how the ranching industry promotes stewardship and conservation.”

As Florida’s population booms, poorly planned expansion of cities is cutting off natural wildlife corridors. Conservation Florida is combating these threats to our future by protecting natural and agricultural landscapes for future generations. Conservation easements in particular are a smart tool here, keeping Florida’s family farms and ranches in business, while simultaneously protecting the conservation value of the land
is significant. Maintaining green landscapes, wildlife corridors, habitats, and open spaces, while safeguarding food security and the rural communities that are dependent on the economic viability of agricultural operations, is a double or triple win.

In the last 50 years, more than 8 million acres of forest and wetland habitats (about 24% of the state) have been developed. Protecting ranches is a vital part of the conservation puzzle. It’s hard work and heart work, but glorious all the same – and helps keep Florida green. So, we urge you to think beyond the beaches, look inland, and thank a cowboy (or gal) for keeping Florida, Florida...and join Conservation Florida as we work to protect our state’s ranchlands.

About Conservation Florida:

Conservation Florida is a statewide accredited land conservancy working to conserve Florida’s water, wildlife, wild places, and protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor. The organization’s conservation projects support Florida’s native plants and wildlife, fresh water, wildlife corridors, family farms and ranches, the economy, and nature-based recreation. Since its founding in 1999, Conservation Florida has prioritized strategic and evidence-based land protection and has saved over 30,000 acres of critical habitat.