{"id":59401,"date":"2025-11-24T22:41:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:41:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59401\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:41:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:41:06","slug":"goethe-state-forest-expanded-with-21600-acre-land-acquisition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/59401\/","title":{"rendered":"Goethe State Forest expanded with 21,600-acre land acquisition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">DUNNELLON, Fla. (WCJB) &#8211; The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) acquired 21,600 acres within the Waccasassa Watershed Florida Forever Project in Levy County to expand the <a href=\"https:\/\/links.us1.defend.egress.com\/Warning?crId=691b7351814ecd76deb68d0b&amp;Domain=gray.tv&amp;Threat=eNpzrShJLcpLzAEADmkDRA%3D%3D&amp;Lang=en&amp;Base64Url=eNpNitFKwzAYRp_Gy7_506QJEbwog-lkUugYym5G1qQ22DXSxMbu6a3bzT6-m3M4XYzf4ZGQ3g1fAWj26SdjezfZcc4afyarLZJb85Cvl6eUstboJvyXC6_9aEOEd9eb1o12MdXPCDcbFtpFHe0dP3sbOwv3mlCCFBGp0ooxXSijgUspc90IaNC2wBEFKM0kcCo1FyeFEhngdaQfDmlXm6MPr1XZfQy_Rhg5xzoVq80s9m8XJV_oBrg7lE-c0T8aF0xp&amp;@OriginalLink=links-1.govdelivery.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/links.us1.defend.egress.com\/Warning?crId=691b7351814ecd76deb68d0b&amp;Domain=gray.tv&amp;Threat=eNpzrShJLcpLzAEADmkDRA%3D%3D&amp;Lang=en&amp;Base64Url=eNpNitFKwzAYRp_Gy7_506QJEbwog-lkUugYym5G1qQ22DXSxMbu6a3bzT6-m3M4XYzf4ZGQ3g1fAWj26SdjezfZcc4afyarLZJb85Cvl6eUstboJvyXC6_9aEOEd9eb1o12MdXPCDcbFtpFHe0dP3sbOwv3mlCCFBGp0ooxXSijgUspc90IaNC2wBEFKM0kcCo1FyeFEhngdaQfDmlXm6MPr1XZfQy_Rhg5xzoVq80s9m8XJV_oBrg7lE-c0T8aF0xp&amp;@OriginalLink=links-1.govdelivery.com\" target=\"_blank\">Goethe State Forest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The property, located in central Levy County, contains two tributaries of the Waccasassa River, Magee Branch and Otter Creek. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Rayonier Inc., which began restoration efforts in 2021, sold the property to the DEP.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">In addition to protecting wildlife and water resources, the acquisition provides new opportunities for public recreation, including hiking, hunting, fishing, and wildlife viewing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThis acquisition is a major step in protecting Florida\u2019s natural landscapes at scale,\u201d said DEP Secretary Alexis A. Lambert.\u201cBy connecting this 21,600-acre property to Goethe State Forest and neighboring conservation lands, we are filling critical gaps in the Florida Wildlife Corridor and creating continuous habitat for wildlife to thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wcjb.com\/newsletter\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2025 WCJB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DUNNELLON, Fla. (WCJB) &#8211; The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) acquired 21,600 acres within the Waccasassa Watershed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,36126,30,29,36125,36127,36128,36129],"class_list":["post-59401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-department-of-environmental-protection-dep","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-goethe-state-forest","tag-levy-county","tag-waccasassa-river","tag-waccasassa-watershed-florida-forever-project"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59401","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=59401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}