LAKE WALES RIDGE CONSERVATION BANK

The Lake Wales Ridge Conservation Bank which provides sand skink conservation credits along the Lake Wales Ridge in Florida recently completed a successful prescribed burn within a 57.8 acre range of the 363.5 acre conservation bank. The conservation bank also provided results that the exotic/nuisance species cover in the scrub area has been reduced to less than 1 percent!

This 363.5-acre conservation bank, located in Polk County, Florida is one of the largest areas of pristine scrub habitat left along the Lake Wales Ridge in Florida. The ecologically significant site provides habitat for sand skinks and bluetailed mole skinks as well as numerous other threatened and endangered species.

The Lake Wales Ridge Conservation Bank has sand skink credits available as conservation measures to offset and compensate for developmental impacts.

The bank service area encompasses the entire Lake Wales Ridge and the counties that surround it, Highlands, Lake, Osceola, Orange, and Polk.

The full restoration of the property includes nuisance and exotic species eradication, tree thinning, reintroducing a prescribed fire regime, a perpetual conservation easement that permanently prevents the ability to develop the property, and a trust fund to pay for the management of the site forever.