CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A land deal on Black Creek may just help ease future flooding.
More than 500 acres in Middleburg will be saved for conservation.
The property is along the north bank of Black Creek, just south of County Road 220.
It takes a 4-wheel drive and hiking boots to get around the property called Ride Out Point.
Rebecca Perry and Jim McCarthy are with the North Florida Land Trust and worked to make this land deal happen. They took First Coast News on a tour of the property Friday.
Private landowners, Sandy and Cathryn Sandridge donated most of the land and sold 26 acres of the property. The property covers 578 acres in total.
They sold it to the North Florida Land Trust and the St. Johns River Water Management District also has an easement on it. The seller's goal was to preserve it.
For the most part, the land will not be touched, as stipulated in the deal's contract.
"It's worth approximately $3 million give or take," McCarthy said. "We paid $150,000 for it," McCarthy said.
Black Creek is the same creek that has seen major flooding over the years.
"We've seen two major floods," Laura Irish said.
She and her husband have lived on Black Creek for ten years.
"It got five feet inside the house,:" Irish said. "So we had to gut the whole house."
Scientists and conservationists say this recent land purchase will keep the land acting like a sponge.
That could help keep floodwaters on the property, instead of in nearby homes.
"By stopping development, it prevents increased flooding in the future," McCarthy said.
Irish likes that idea and hopes it works.
"If there's a reserve going to help with flooding, Hallelujah!" she said.
McCarthy and Perry said saving the land will help the flora, the fauna... and folks nearby.
"It's something we really want to see more of and be able to do more of," Perry said.