Heidi: So, Traci, I am so thrilled to have you on the Fluent in Floridian Podcast to talk about the work that you're doing in the conservation state for our great State of Florida. Thank you for being on the show.

‍Traci: Oh, thank you for having me. I'm really excited to be here.

‍Heidi: Yeah. So, let's dive in and talk about your life and how you got to where you are. So you're a sixth-generation Floridian. I want to know where did you grow up and how did your family's deep roots shape your connection to the state?

‍Traci: Oh, my goodness. Yeah, thank you. That's a good question. I am a sixth-generation Floridian. I was born down in Miami, actually. Really, I was born in Homestead.

‍Heidi: Me too.

‍Traci: Yeah, so I'm a Miami girl. I grew up in Miami, and then I went to school up in Tallahassee at Florida State and then put down roots in central Florida. So, a little bit of everywhere. But yeah, I mean, there's no doubt that being a sixth-generation Floridian has had an impact on my career and on my passion for the mission at Conservation Florida. I'll share something that's been really meaningful to me is just how much our state has changed, not just in my lifetime but since my family has been here.

And just to sort of put that into context, my granddad in his one lifetime when he was growing up, so he was born in the 30s until he passed last year, there were about 2 million people in Florida when he was born. And then today, heard over 22 million people. And so that's the growth our state has faced in just one lifetime, and we're projected to exceed 30 million people in the next few years. And with that growth comes, in my opinion, a responsibility to also protect what makes this state so special.

And there is no doubt, and again, this is a very biased opinion, that Florida, I want to live here, other people want to live here, and I get it. It is the best place to live, work, raise a family, get outside, and explore. But we are rapidly losing our special places, and what makes Florida so incredible, and that's the green areas and clean water and just sort of the wildness of our paradise. And so seeing it change has influenced my career in a big way. And there's a lot of love in my heart for what we do.

‍Heidi: I think it's so fascinating how you talked about how the state has changed. And in your career, you were a public defender, and now you're in a position where you're defending the beautiful nature of Florida and all of our beautiful resources.

So talk about how you went from growing up in Miami to coming to Florida State and then moving into this role where you're defending the public. And then, we're going to transition into how that experience has guided you in your current role.

‍Traci: I appreciate that question. When I went to law school, I knew that I wanted to work in the nonprofit sector or in really the service sector. I didn't know what exactly that would look like. And then, after I graduated from law school, there was an opportunity. I was in the early 20 teens, if you will, and I had the opportunity to work as a public defender and serve our community in that way and to be the voice for people who could not otherwise afford an attorney.

And so cut my teeth in litigation and really, really loved the value and really, really valued being able to do something good with my degree. As I grew in litigation, and in my role at the Public Defender's office just wasn't the right place for me. I had to ask myself, "All right, what do I want to do with my career? What fulfills me?"

And I had a lot of really good mentors who sort of walked through that line of questioning with me. And above all, I have a great love for our state, as you heard, and a job opportunity arose to lead Conservation Florida. And I threw my name in the hat, and it was the biggest leap of faith and the best thing I've ever done to be able to work here and do this.

‍Heidi: So for those who are not familiar with Conservation Florida, can you just tell us a little bit about the organization and what you all are doing?

‍Traci: Yeah. So Conservation Florida is a statewide nonprofit land conservancy. So working from Pensacola down to the Keys to protect Florida's water and wildlife and wild places, and connect what's called the Florida Wildlife Corridor, and conserve that green swath of land. And so, as a nonprofit land conservancy, we are focused every day on protecting land on conserving land.

And in Florida, that looks different every day. Recently, we just announced as a conservation of about a hundred acres of coastal marsh, so of beachside, just incredible coastal habitat. But before that, we announced a closing on a conservation easement on ranch land down in the Northern Everglades.

Prior to that, we protected some acreage down in the Everglades and the Fakahatchee Strand. And so, for us, it is truly North Florida down to the Everglades, from wildlands to coastal communities, to ranch lands and agricultural landscapes and everything in between. We're very lucky to get to do this work, but it's acre by acre that we are going to protect the sustainability of our state.

‍Heidi: Yeah, it's amazing that when I talk to people who are not from Florida, they only talk about our beaches.

‍Traci: Yeah, yeah.

‍Heidi: Do you experience that when you're talking to people and they are just blown away by when you talk about the environment, how vast our topography is, and how different it is from north to south?

‍Traci: Yeah. And we actually feel a little bit of a responsibility to tell the story of some of the wild places that sort of go under the radar. And I think our ranch lands and our timber lands, they're some of the most critical in the conservation landscape in Florida. But they often, like you said, just go. They're not thought of at all and go way under the radar as far as parts of Florida, that can be just absolutely stunning.

And for me, our ranch lands are some of the most gorgeous landscapes I've been lucky to experience in Florida. So we feel a responsibility to not only conserve lands like that but also talk about it and advocate for it and share it so that others can really imagine what we call beyond the beaches.

‍Heidi: Yeah, beyond the beaches. I love that. So, since joining Conservation Florida, you've secured over $100 million in land conservation. Can you talk a little bit about that and what that means for folks who may not understand when you talk about land conservation exactly what you're doing?

‍Traci: Yes. So, when you really boil it down, land conservation, land protection is real estate. We're either buying or accepting donated land and everything that goes into that land transaction, or we're buying or accepted... accepting donated easements, conservation easements, and that's also real property. And so for us, every day, we are working in essence in a real estate adjacent space, with meeting landowners to assisting with the land protection process to closing.

And then, as a land conservancy, we hold those conservation easements, and we also hold properties and then manage properties for conservation long term. So there is a big part of this work that is in the real estate world, and there's a huge part of this work that's in the land management space, right.

So we're taking care of the lands and managing, and we're advising land owners on managing lands for conservation. And there's also the advocacy and the outreach aspect and sort of the community engagement portion of this where we're inviting Floridians in to get involved and to learn more and to learn about our varied landscapes. And all of that goes into land conservation, why it's so important in Florida.

‍Heidi: And for the person who's listening is really protecting that land from development too.

‍Traci: Yeah. Yes, yes. 

‍Heidi: Let's talk about that because booming right now. As you mentioned, we may have 30 million people in the next couple of years, and you need housing and roads, and we have the trains that are now expanding, airports, things like that. So how does the work that you do create that balance between what we need to live, housing and all of that development, and then also just protecting what makes Florida so unique from an environmental perspective?

‍Traci: That's a really good question, and I will start by saying that Florida is growing by about a thousand people a day.

‍Heidi: Yeah.

‍Traci: And to put that into perspective, that's a city the size of Orlando moving to Florida every single year. So new Orlando year after year after year. And yes, we have to have somewhere for these folks to live and work and we want... At Conservation Florida, we believe that the work that we're doing contributes to a strong economy and provides additional places for Floridians, new and multi-generational, to get outside and recreate.

So there's absolutely a balance. We are not anti-development at Conservation Florida, but we are definitely pro-looking at the big picture, looking at the science and saying, "Okay, our state's growing. We have that data. We know where people are going, we know what metropolitan areas are going to grow. We have the forecasting of where future development is likely to be.

And we also have the information to... that points where is most important to conserve for water health and air quality and natural habitat for our native Floridian species, our plants and our animals, that also rely on Florida to thrive." So if we want to have a healthy Florida for future generations, if we want to have a healthy Florida for our native species, we know what we have to do.

We need to grow where we should and then conserve where we should. So we say we need a... what we save and what we pave is going to really dictate the future of our state. And it's true. We're not saying don't pave. We're saying make sure we save what we need to save so that we can have all of us experience a healthy future for Florida.

‍Heidi: Oh, I love that. And as I shared with you as we were preparing for the show, I have a grandson now, and I think about I want to be able to take him to the beach and I want to take him hiking through the woods, and I want to take him fishing and all those things that I experienced growing up in Florida. I mean, we did all those things. We were outdoors playing all the time.

‍Traci: All the time.

‍Heidi: Right.

‍Traci: Mm-hmm.

‍Heidi: And so that's something that I am so happy to hear that that's your focus is to preserve the beautiful nature of Florida for future generations. That's amazing.

‍Traci: It's a great...

‍Heidi: Just amazing.

‍Traci: It's a great gig. 

‍Heidi: I know. I can tell.

‍Traci: At Conservation Florida, we have and we really pride ourselves on building a conservation table where everybody can sit. And so, if you love Florida, we invite you to join us because we have a role for you. There's a way to get involved that's meaningful so that you can be a part of this mission. And so, hey, I'll talk to you about this later.

‍Heidi: Okay. Yeah. Call me. I definitely would love to support what you're doing. So, let's talk about the recent documentary series Protecting... Protect Our Paradise, that won in Emmy. So, can you tell everyone about that and what inspired you to take on this project?

‍Traci: Yes. So we did. We worked in partnership with Crawford Entertainment, thanks to the generosity of a Floridian family out of Tampa who underwrote the project and without whom we could not have done this, to launch a six-part docu-series called Protect Our Paradise that talked all about the environmental challenges that Florida is facing and a very realistic way that Floridians who maybe connect with that topic can get involved.

So we highlighted the folks who are doing the hard work, from our state agency partners to scientists, to nonprofits, to local leaders, and then really examined how we can all do better and do something about, or really, I should say, do something for our state. And so it was a real honor to get to work alongside Crawford Entertainment. Again, thanks to the generosity of the Bellini family, but we are extremely proud to announce that it just won an Emmy, and we hope that this... Yes. And I was very proud, very, very proud of that.

I think I did a happy dance for like five days, but I hope that it encourages others to watch it. It aired across the State of Florida, which was wonderful on local television, and now it's live-streaming on a channel called Discover Florida, and it's streaming for free so everybody can watch it, everybody can learn, and hopefully revisit some of the beauty of Florida from our springs to our estuaries, to our ranch lands, to a bombing range, to our coastal reefs. It's got a little bit of everything. And I think it'll connect with most people.

‍Heidi: What was the most remarkable experience that you had when you were producing that? Because I watched the trailer, and I watched a little bit of the video, and I saw you talking and just this passion about what you were saying. So what was one of the most remarkable experiences that you had during the filming of that?

‍Traci: Oh, goodness. There were a ton.

‍Heidi: Yeah.

‍Traci: For me, after doing some reflection, I found this is not always easy work, right.

‍Heidi: Yeah.

‍Traci: We are witnessing some tough things sometimes, and we're not always able to protect... we're not always able to protect all the land that we want to and or fundraise enough to secure a property or get ahead a large transition of a property that really should have stayed green, let's say, for water, health, or otherwise.

But in producing the show alongside Crawford, we got to meet so many Floridians who are wildly passionate about our state, and they're from all sorts of backgrounds and from all different corners and working on all these different forms, from advocacy to planting native plants so that manatees can thrive, all these different sectors, government and artists and philanthropists and volunteers and park rangers and everyone in between.

And that really filled my cup to know it can feel a little bleak sometimes in this space, but getting to see and talk to and capture all of these folks doing really important work actually filled my cup. And that was really nice. It was really, really nice.

‍Heidi: And now you got a tribe, it would seem.

‍Traci: Yeah. Yeah, I hope so. We need all hands on deck. We need all hands on deck to do this work.

‍Heidi: That is amazing. So Conservation Florida is celebrating 25 years this year, right?

‍Traci: Yes, yes, yes. 

‍Heidi: That is remarkable. So, how has the organization evolved, and what are some of the key things that happened over this 25 years that really stand out to you?

‍Traci: Good question. Our organization definitely, definitely evolved, and I think what's really cool is we were founded by a group of Floridians who were really passionate about the environment around a kitchen table in Micanopy, in Micanopy, Florida.

‍Heidi: Wow.

‍Traci: And now, today, we are a statewide land conservancy and doing a lot of good conservation work in partnership with many folks around the state. And so the growth of our organization has been extraordinary, and that means that the impact of our organization has grown significantly, but we never really want to let go of our roots because starting as a kitchen table nonprofit, we were a little scrappy and entrepreneurial, and we don't really ever want to completely get away from that, right.

We want to always have that little chip on our shoulder that I think is the difference between accomplishing something that feels impossible and walking away from it. And so we take a lot of pride in looking back and reflecting on our roots and the why behind why we were founded, which is to protect agricultural land when it wasn't popular to, and to connect corridors when it... before it was a really popular thing to talk about as well, and to do it with a ton of passion. So big, big shifts over the last 25 years, and I'm really glad to be celebrating it.

‍Heidi: Yeah. What is your vision for the organization?

‍Traci: Yeah. Oh, gosh. We have no plans to slow down. We have no plans to stop being entrepreneurial and bold and maybe even a little bit crazy in our approach because we totally believe that we can protect with our many partners enough land in Florida to have a sustainable future for our state. And optimism, I'd say, is lacking sometimes in the environmental space.

But our vision is a future of Florida that is very bright, that includes... it includes economic prosperity and significant conservation. And we can have both, and we certainly will have both. And for us, that means focusing on the lands that are most necessary to conserve. Many of those lands are agricultural, so we'll keep those lands producing and feeding America.

We'll continue to prioritize lands that have significant value for water... freshwater recharge to make sure that we're really long-term protecting our drinking water. Also, providing places for Floridians and our guests to get outside and recreate and experience wild Florida so that we can continue to build a conservation community and a Floridian community that recognizes, like you said, what makes Florida so unique and so special. It's the wildness of it all.

‍Heidi: Yeah. Yeah. It's a good balance to have. And earlier, you mentioned corridors, and I want to talk about your efforts to being a strong... your work being a strong advocate for the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which our firm actually had the pleasure of working on the very first Corridor Expedition, 100 days, 1000 miles, with Carlton and-

‍Traci: Yes.

‍Heidi: ... his team, which was quite remarkable. So let's talk about the Florida Wildlife Corridor, the initiative, and the work that it's doing to protect at-risk species like the Florida Panther, which I was reading an article that said it was a record high of Panther deaths last year-

‍Traci: That's true.

‍Heidi: ... which is just so sad, and actually wore my little animal print-

‍Traci: A little wild. I love it.

‍Heidi: ... my animal print in honor of our beautiful wildlife, especially the Panthers. So, talk about the Florida Wildlife Corridor and the work you're doing to support it.

‍Traci: Yeah, thank you for that question, and I appreciate the wild flair in your outfit today. We were definitely inspired, I'd say, to keep prioritizing connectivity and corridor conservation after the awesome expedition Carlton and Mallory and Joe produced and experienced. And the science has been something that's been a driving force for us all for the last about 20, 25 years now. And it's really grown a lot in support, thanks in huge part to those expeditions and the awesome storytelling around why it's so important.

And now we get to with our state partners and our federal partners and landowners and local government and philanthropists and, gosh, artists and everyone in between. We have this vision. We get to work on this vision for our state. So there's about 17 million acres in Florida that exist today that are green and are connected. There's sort of a swath of green from Pensacola and Alabama down to the Everglades, and it consists of wildlands. It consists of current conservation lands and current agricultural landscapes.

‍Heidi: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

‍Traci: And the science suggests that we, as we grow, can conserve lands that will keep that sort of greenway, that swath of green, green and connected so that mammals like our most wide-ranging species like black bear, Florida Panther, and our tiniest species that are relying on many of those endangered habitats can thrive. But beyond that, we have a ton of plants and water systems that are also relying on this corridor and significant economic impact relying on the corridor.

So, at Conservation Florida, we're focused on the land protection side of the house. And so we work with the landowners within that landscape to figure out how best to conserve their land and explore the many conservation and land protection paths that are available to them, and hopefully find a solution that works for the family or landowner and is a great outcome for the corridor.

‍Heidi: Yeah. And remarkably, they've... it's been very positive.

‍Traci: Yes.

‍Heidi: I mean, people have been saying, "Yes, of course," which is wonderful over the last decade that since this has been going on.

‍Traci: Yeah, I have to say just for a second here that our state leadership over the past four years has overwhelmingly supported this vision and funded this vision.

And so we've seen significant funding for our state's most successful conservation programs, the Rural and Family Lands Protection Program and our Florida Forever Program that has empowered and enabled organizations like Conservation Florida to get to work.

And it definitely inspires me to keep going, but also to keep advocating for funding for programs like that and those programs because they're so critical to the momentum we're experiencing.

‍Heidi: Well, what you're doing is remarkable. And for those who are probably listening and saying, "How can I get involved?" So how [inaudible 00:23:54] Floridians, whether it's individuals or businesses or even policymakers get involved in conservation efforts?

‍Traci: Yes. Well, please, please reach out to us. You can visit Conservation Florida at conservationfla.org or on social media @conservationflorida. We'd love to engage with you there, share the stories, talk about it at the dinner table. We heard earlier that a group of passionate Floridians around a dinner table, I mean, they've impacted thousands and thousands of acres in the state because they had that conversation.

You can do the same, and there's room for you at our table. And we'd love to have you get involved, volunteer with us, support our work. We cannot do this work without the support of Floridians. And we're lucky to have a growing group of Floridians who are like, "Wait a minute, I do care about this. I've never really thought about it, but oh my gosh, I was driving down the street the other day, and that forest that I've seen every day for the last 10 years on my way to work, it's gone. And I'm not happy about that."

And so we've had a lot of Floridians reaching out lately as they experience the change in their community. So support our work, get involved that way. Become a monthly donor or just speak up. Go to... Get involved in your local growth plans, get involved in your local conservation arena, but just don't do nothing.

‍Heidi: Yeah.

‍Traci: Don't just stand by. Do something.

‍Heidi: So Traci, before we wrap up, I want to know, when you're not advocating and fighting for Florida's beautiful, natural landscapes, what do you do on your downtime?

‍Traci: Oh, my 

‍Heidi: I'm sure it's outdoors, right?

‍Traci: There's a lot of it. Yes. Well, I'm very lucky to be a mom to a little girl, so she keeps me pretty busy, but I'm also an equestrian, and so I love to horseback ride. And, for me, I really get a lot of my nature fixed that way with [inaudible 00:25:52] barn. But I also do... I enjoy hiking, and so experiencing a lot of Florida state parks, our local preserves, our state forests, national parks, et cetera. It's just the best.

‍Heidi: Yeah, Florida is such a beautiful location, and on my birthday, my family's like, "What do you want to do?" I said, "I want to go to a state park, and I want to go hiking, and I want to do those kinds of things." They're like, "Really?" I'm like, "Yeah." I love being outdoors. It's the best part of Florida to me.

‍Traci: It's so cool. It's so fun. And no matter how many times I get outside, it never ceases to amaze me. We got outside around New Year's and did our first hike of the year down near Naples in the Greater Everglades system. And this is actually land managed by the Department of Agriculture, and it was just a regular morning. And all of a sudden, we looked down and found Florida Panther tracks, and I just about cried because it's just such a rare thing to come upon.

‍Heidi: Yes.

‍Traci: But there was evidence of our state animal and it super endangered species. It made me more grateful to have this job than probably ever just to see that the work that we're all doing in Florida really matters.

‍Heidi: Wow. What a great way to close. So Traci, thank you so much for being on the Fluent in Floridian Podcast. I hope that others who are listening and watching are just as inspired as I am for the work that you're doing and the story that you shared with us today. So thank you so much.

‍Traci: Thank you. I really appreciate it. I really... I'm honored to have the opportunity to talk about it, so thanks for having me.

‍Heidi: Thank you.