- July 12, 2025
-
-
Loading
Loading
The Environmental Lands Management and Acquisition Committee recommended two more East County properties to Manatee County commissioners for purchase — 4.5 acres next to Rye Preserve and 13.4 acres next to Crane Park in Myakka City.
Commissioners unanimously approved the purchases June 17.
The Rye Preserve addition cost $335,000, and the Crane Park addition cost $420,000. Neither property is expected to have any major ongoing costs associated with them because both will be incorporated into the county’s current maintenance plan for their respective parks.
The current Rye Preserve consists of 530 acres at 905 Rye Wilderness Trail.
Commission Chair George Kruse said he would like to see the preserve expanded even beyond this latest addition.
“We don’t have preserves out east like we have out west,” he said. “It’s a great little preserve, but it could be a great, big preserve.”
Within the current preserve sits the Rye Family Cemetery. The cemetery is all that remains of the Town of Rye, which was named after its founder Erasmus Rye, who built the first home in the area in 1878.
Part of the reasoning to purchase the additional 4.5 acres was to buffer the cemetery from development on the north side of the preserve where D.R. Horton is building 431 single family homes for its Rye Crossing development.
The purchase will ensure a wooded, 150-foot buffer between Rye Crossing and the cemetery.
The property is being sold by Manatee Property, LTD, out of Texas.
Before ELMAC recommends a property for purchase, the property is evaluated according to its ecological quality, rarity of species or habitat, importance to water resources and connectivity to existing conservation areas.
While it’s less than 5 acres, the Rye property ranked high in every category except for rarity of species or habitat.
The mixed hardwood forest is home to gopher tortoises, which are a protected species, and Rye Branch, a 3.9-mile stream, runs through the northwest corner of the property.
Crane Park sits on 27 acres along the Myakka River, just east of Myakka City, so the park regularly floods during the summer months and has to close.
Wetlands take up about half of the additional 13.4 acres, but the other half is open forest that’s currently grazed by cattle.
Debra Woithe, Environmental Lands program manager, said the purchase of adjacent land expands the preserve and provides “higher and drier ground" for recreation.
The main amenity is access to the Myakka River, but the park also offers a playground, pavilion, picnic tables and restrooms, which have all flooded in the past.
Kruse noted that the water sometimes rises over the signs that says, “Crane Park.”
There are no plans to do so now, but the addition allows the county the option to shift some of its amenities.
Commissioner Carol Felts would like to see some trails incorporated into the addition, as well.
Woithe said any improvements will have to be written into the county's capital improvement plan. When the time comes to make a plan, the public will also be given the opportunity to provide input.
Environmentally, the additional property’s riverbanks and wetlands provide restoration opportunities to improve water quality and wildlife habitat.
County staff members are focused solely on the purchase right now, but moving forward, a grant from the Coastal and Heartland National Estuary Program could help pay for restorations.
The property also lies within the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which is a network of over 18 million acres of wilderness and agricultural land that starts in the panhandle and connects all the way down to the Florida Keys.
About 10 million acres of the Florida Wildlife Corridor have been conserved. The remaining 8 million acres are considered opportunities for conservation.
