St. Marks River Valley
Strategic Management Plan

St. Marks Lighthouse, St. Marks Wildlife Refuge.

The St. Joe Company, the largest landowner in Florida, commissioned PBS&J to provide a regional analysis and develop a strategic management plan for St. Joe-owned lands within the St. Marks River Valley. The study area consisted of 69,000 acres in Leon, Jefferson, and Wakulla counties in Florida, with the majority owned by The St. Joe Company. Of the 60-riverbank miles, approximately 50 miles were in St. Joe ownership, including 30 miles of the St. Marks River. The goal of the strategic management plan was to develop land management recommendations that would allow St. Joe to create value either by improving the development potential of the lands, or by selecting conservation lands for sale or mitigation. Natural resources were evaluated as either an amenity to future development, as mitigation for development of St. Joe lands elsewhere, or as lands that could be placed in public ownership. 

The study was conducted using geographic information systems (GIS) analysis of existing data and a traditional trace overlay composite analysis of the region. Records on ecology type, habitat, historic and cultural features, water resources, and forest resources were combined into composite analysis maps that were then used to determine development constraints and capabilities. The land resources and water resources strategic management plans identified the development potential and strategies for positioning and preparing these lands; water resources for development, mitigation, or sale of the lands; and actions to be taken to manage the lands in the interim before development or sale.