First Ecosystem Management Agreement (EMA) with the St. Joe Company
On October 11, 2004, the St. Joe Company and the department established the First Ecosystem Management Agreement (F.S. 403.0752). This EMA Area (EMA #1) encompasses 31,369 acres of St. Joe owned lands within Bay and Walton counties.
This agreement is the first such agreement entered into with The St. Joe Company. The agreement encompassed an area of 31,369 acres and provides for conservation for more than 20,760 acres of St. Joe owned property in Bay and Walton counties. The department and the federal government have urged St. Joe to take a comprehensive, regional approach to conservation and development that would provide for predictable community growth while affording greater protection to natural lands along the Emerald Coast.
St. Joe Company has extensive landholdings in Northwest Florida, some of which is earmarked for residential, commercial and recreational development, which require environmental permits. The agreement provides protective guidelines for activities associated with building roads, homes and community infrastructure.
As part of this agreement, St. Joe is setting aside thousands of acres of high-quality habitat for preservation. The conservation areas create a two-pronged “Bay to Bay” wildlife corridor linking public land from Choctawhatchee Bay to St. Andrew Bay, preserving the ecological integrity of two of Northwest Florida’s most rapidly developing watersheds, and providing wetland, water resource, and wildlife protection within the watershed of Lake Powell, an Outstanding Florida Water.
EMA 1
Annual Reports
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2011 Annual Report Map, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
For more information contact Russell Sullivan at 850-595-8300 or Russell.Sullivan@FloridaDEP.gov.
