SUBJECT
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Approve Ninth Amendment to Encroachment Management Agreement Between United States of America and Conservation Florida and Polk County to provide $1,300,000 of Air Force Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) funds towards acquisition within the Sentinel Landscape ($1,300,000.00 one-time funding).
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DESCRIPTION
Polk County (COUNTY) has partnered with the Department of Defense (DOD) to acquire conservation lands and protect wildlife corridors, such as the South Lake Walk-in-Water conservation easements. DOD provides funding for conservation land acquisitions to local governments or nonprofits that are approved as an Eligible Entity. On August 5, 2025, the COUNTY, DOD and Conservation Florida entered into the Eighth Amendment to Encroachment Management Agreement, which made the COUNTY an Eligible Entity.
The partnership between the Department of Defense, Conservation Florida and Polk County is beneficial for all parties. It allows for the purchase of Less-than-Fee properties with a willing landowner, for conservation purposes and assists the military with management of the Military Influence Planning Areas (MIPA) within the Sentinel Landscape.
The MIPA boundaries are broken down into three sections, and these areas may consist of day and night low level aircraft overflight, and military training noise during training exercises. The Sentinel Landscape is a coalition of federal agencies, state and local governments, and non-governmental organizations that work with willing landowners and land managers to advance sustainable land use practices around military installations and ranges. This partnership assists the COUNTY in establishing wilderness and wildlife corridors that protect our waters, working landscapes and wilderness areas.
In 2025, DOD requested, on behalf of the partnership, REPI funding from the Air Force to go towards acquisition of lands within the Sentinel Landscape. The Air Force agreed to provide one million,...
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