Conservation 20/20 is Lee County’s willing-seller conservation lands acquisition and management program. In the early 1990s, Lee County had the lowest percentage of conservation lands of Florida’s Gulf counties. The 20/20 program was conceived by a broad based citizens’ group of business owners, Realtors, planners and residents in order to ensure that critical habitats, wetlands and corridors were protected to preserve economic property values, quality of life and natural resources.  

In 1996, a nonbinding referendum was passed by the majority of Lee County voters for the purpose of funding a conservation lands program through ad valorum property taxes.  Because the majority of the county voted in favor, the program was funded on an annual basis per the direction of the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC). To date, the program has acquired nearly 25,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands from preserves on barrier islands to upland habitats, wetlands and buffer land to rivers and streams. Many of these previously purchased 20/20 parcels are the reason our Caloosahatchee basin can handle three-quarters of the discharges with less of the blue/green algae than the east coast.

Conservation 20/20 manages preserves throughout Lee County, and many of the preserves are open to the public for resource-based recreational opportunities. There are more than 30 miles of marked hiking trails and hundreds of unmarked maintenance/fire lines trails available to adventurous hikers to seek out and discover.

The referendum: In early 2016, the BOCC voted to place the Conservation 20/20 program on the ballot in another nonbinding referendum. Voting Yes for 20/20 on November 8 is the citizens’ opportunity to help safeguard Lee County’s long-term economic and environmental sustainability and quality of life through continuing to protect the County’s exceptional natural resources.

For more information, visit YesOnConservation2020.org.