Posted July 8, 2023

DAY 46 @ 4: 33 am ITS VERY IMPORT TO GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AND “SMELL THE ROSES”.

Please take some time to explore your own outside space. Visit a mall (wear a mask), visit a local park (take in the oxygen), go to the beach ( to the beach, not in the sand), just go for a walk ( 5 minutes at a slow pace) ALWAY WEAR A MASK, wear sun screen, sun protection clothing, etc. Bring water with you.

My Susan and I are taking a little road trip.

We plan to go to BABCOCK RANCH.

Babcock Ranch is a planned community located in southeastern Charlotte County and northeastern Lee County, Florida consisting of approximately 17,000 acres (6,900 ha).The planned community was approved as part of a public-private partnership with the State of Florida and local governments. The deal established the neighboring Babcock Ranch Preserve.

Occupying land in both Charlotte and Lee counties near Fort Myers, Babcock Ranch was named after Edward Vose Babcock, a lumber baron and mayor of Pittsburgh (1918–1922), who purchased the land in 1914. The land's primary use was logging and agriculture, and those uses continue to generate funds for maintenance and operation of the Babcock Ranch Preserve. The Babcock Ranch Preserve Act enacted by the Florida legislature in 2006 made it the first Florida preserve responsible for generating its funding under a public-private management partnership that includes the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Forest Service.

Plans for the future town of Babcock Ranch were announced in 2005 by real estate development firm Kitson & Partners as part of a complex real estate transaction that facilitated the largest conservation land acquisition in Florida history. In 2009, the company joined with Florida Power & Light to announce plans to make Babcock Ranch the first solar-powered city in the United States. A large photovoltaic power station and a network of rooftop solar panels on commercial buildings, planned to be expanded over time, are intended to send more renewable power into the Florida electrical grid than the city consumes

Nature preserve

Approximately ninety percent of Babcock Ranch's total land will remain undeveloped, including more than half of the area owned by developers Kitson & Partners, to be preserved as open space, nature reserves, or for agricultural use.

The Babcock Ranch Preserve, which includes land owned by the State of Florida and by Lee County, covers eighty percent of the ranch's original approximately 91,000 acres (37,000 ha). The preserve is self-funding, with all operations supported by revenue from the publicly owned working ranch, the first and only of its type in Florida.The preserve is being managed by Kitson & Partners until 2016, when a non-profit entity with board members appointed by the state will take over.The state plans to continue business enterprises to maintain the publicly owned land as a nature reserve with accommodations for recreation, including hunting, camping, and hiking. Solar panel farm Babcock Eco-tour

Experience the thrill of seeing wildlife in nature – alligators, birds, perhaps deer, wild hogs, wild turkeys, Sandhill cranes and more, often coming within a few yards. Travel through four different ecosystems of Florida including Telegraph Cypress Swamp.

Get up close & personal with the palmetto prairie that attracted ranchers to South Florida, head off the beaten path to explore Babcock Ranch on foot.