{"id":185150,"date":"2026-03-10T03:36:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:36:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/185150\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T03:36:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T03:36:28","slug":"d-ranch-preserve-deals-with-floridas-extreme-drought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/185150\/","title":{"rendered":"D Ranch Preserve deals with Florida’s extreme drought"},"content":{"rendered":"

OSTEEN, Fla. \u2014 The majority of the state is\u00a0still\u00a0dealing with extreme drought conditions.<\/a><\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

D Ranch Preserve in Osteen is dealing with Florida’s extreme drought
\n
Conservation Florida<\/a> says even though there\u2019s some water on the property, animal habitats are experiencing drought conditions<\/p>\n

The nonprofit believes its dry season should run for another two months at the preserve<\/p>\n

These conditions\u00a0can severely disrupt nature by causing widespread plant death, habitat loss, and reduced water quality.<\/p>\n

At D Ranch Preserve<\/a>, about one third of the 476-acre preserve is made-up of wetlands.<\/p>\n

Conservation Florida stated that even though there is some water on the property,\u00a0animal\u00a0habitats are experiencing drought conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is our piece of old Florida that we get to turn around and share with the public,\u201d said Chelsea Folmar, director of Land Protection with Conservation Florida<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Because of a donation from an anonymous donor, Conservation Florida is able to permanently protect the land.<\/p>\n

Like all things, it\u2019s at the mercy of Mother Nature.<\/p>\n

\"Frank<\/p>\n

Frank Decot is visiting the D Ranch Preserve for the very first time. (Spectrum News 13\/Devin Martin)<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is going to be the first one that shows you the drought conditions because they\u2019re the most ephemeral. They\u2019re going to fill up the fastest and drain the quickest,\u201d Folmar said. \u201cRight now, as you can see, it\u2019s dry as a bone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Folmar says many animals call the preserve home, including alligators, bobcats, racoons, sandhill cranes, gopher tortoises, and cattle.<\/p>\n

Right now, Folmar says, wildlife has to adapt to these difficult conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though it doesn\u2019t look like it right now, this area actually is wet enough during the summer that ducks breed here,\u201d Folmar said. \u201cAs these seasonal droughts get longer and more frequent, the wildlife that depend on these resources have to shift their behavior to accommodate what\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Decot is visiting the D Ranch Preserve for the very first time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He was there at a time when he knows the challenges nature is facing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He says we all need to do our part to protect the environment.<\/p>\n

\"Conservation<\/p>\n

Conservation Florida says even though there\u2019s some water on the property, animal habitats are experiencing drought conditions. (Spectrum News 13\/Devin Martin)<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s an important thing to make sure people are being cautious and taking precautions to help to make sure they\u2019re not contributing to a chance for a wildfire,\u201d Decot said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For the cattle that call the preserve home, they\u2019re doing what they can to get by.<\/p>\n

\u201cLately they\u2019ve been chewing on the palmettos. That could very well be because of the drought conditions. Without the rain, the grass is going to grow a lot slower, which means they\u2019re going to be depending on less desirable food sources,\u201d Folmar said.<\/p>\n

Folmar\u00a0says their dry season should run for another two months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She is hoping the wetlands will be back to normal by early summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OSTEEN, Fla. \u2014 The majority of the state is\u00a0still\u00a0dealing with extreme drought conditions. What You Need To Know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185151,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[274,17174,43147,28,30,29,115,139,278,2261],"class_list":{"0":"post-185150","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-app-top-stories","9":"tag-app-weather-stories","10":"tag-devin-martin","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-florida-headlines","13":"tag-florida-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-orlando","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-volusia-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185150\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}