The Conservation Trust for Florida is working to preserve the horse farms, one of our favorite riding areas and the featured area for the Horse Farm Hundred.  Following is their announcement of their fall fund raising event:

 

CTF Fall Fundraiser Features John Strassburger as Keynote Speaker

 

The Conservation Trust for Florida (CTF) is pleased to announce John Strassburger, former editor of The Chronicle of the Horse, as the keynote speaker at our Fall Fundraiser & Awards Ceremony on Sunday, November 12 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Golden Hills Golf & Turf Club in Ocala. Mrs. Chris Machen, First Lady of the University of Florida will be the Guest of Honor.

 

John Strassburger was the editor of The Chronicle of the Horse for 20 years before retiring with his wife, Heather Bailey to Healdsburg, California to start Phoenix Enterprises LLC, under which they operate a horse breeding and training business and a writing/editing business. He is currently editing the five-book Chronicle Comment Series, collections of the best columns by himself, George Morris, Denny Emerson, Victor Hugo-Vidal, and Anne Gribbons published in the Chronicle.

CTF will feature it's Protecting Horse Country project, an educational program to inform landowners about the tax and financial benefits of conservation easements and other land conservation options. A copy of the brochure can be viewed online at www.ocala.com. (Go to the Community page and then the Equine page).

 

At the awards ceremony, CTF will honor one landowner with an award for protecting their land for future generations. CTF will feature a live art auction by some of the region's finest artists including Gary Borse, Linda Blondheim, Peter Carolin, Diane Farris, Harriet Huss, John Moran, Annie Pais, Jacquelyn Modesitt Schidehette, and Susan Starling. Wine and dinner will also be served.

 

CTF has been instrumental in obtaining funding from public land conservation programs and securing conservation easements that have permanently protected some 5,000 acres of Florida’s rural landscape. In concert with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection/Office of Greenways and Trails, CTF also initiated the Camp Blanding to Osceola National Forest Ecological Greenway, a 153,000-acre project that was placed on the state’s top ranking Florida Forever land acquisition list in 2004.

 

CTF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit land trust founded in 1999 by David Carr, whose parents were the famous sea-turtle researcher Archie Carr, and Marjorie Harris Carr (the Cross Florida Greenway located near the Florida Horse Park is named after her). CTF is headquartered in Micanopy, Florida. We work with landowners on a voluntary basis to identify and broaden land conservation options, and offer educational programs and materials to the public.

 

The event is sponsored by Alta, Inc., Barry Rutenberg Homes, Campus USA Credit Union, Central Florida Office Plus, Ron Chandler, Cox Communications, Florida Citizens Bank, Gainesville Health and Fitness Center, Hawthorne Medical Center, Hendrix Consulting,
M & S Bank, David Pais Real Estate and Landscapes, the Pearl Country Store, Petrotech, and Helen Warren - Realtor with ERA Trend Realty.

 

Tickets are $40 in advance and $50 at the door. For more information, call 352-466-1178 or go to www.conserveflorida.org.