Brevard County, Florida "192" ping.Let me know if you want on or off this ping list.
(not associated with the county government)
Posted on 06/15/2011 9:09:38 AM PDT by Colofornian
ST. CLOUD, Fla. — Most Utahns are unaware that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints owns one of the biggest ranches in the country — and it's nowhere near the Beehive State.
Because of its prominent location, millions have seen the ranch without realizing what it was. But managers are opening the curtain; they have a message they want the public to hear.
______________________________
From St. Cloud to:
Orlando Airport: 10 miles
Kennedy Space Center: 15 miles
Magic Kingdom: 22 miles
______________________________
The cowboys are up before dawn, but this is not the Old West.
They ride out into Florida fog to punch cows — a lot of cows. In all, there are 44,000 of them, producing over 30,000 calves each year.
"It's good cattle country. At times it can be a hard environment to run cattle in," said David Genho, cattle development manager at the Deseret Cattle and Citrus Ranch.
Over the decades, the cattle have been specially bred at the ranch to thrive in a tropical climate.
Along with the cattle, the ranch has groves and groves of citrus fruit. Every year, it produces enough oranges to make 50 million glasses of orange juice.
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Deseret Cattle & Fruit
- 500 billion gallons of rain fall the ranch receives annually (1.5 times the volume of Utah Lake)
- 290-300,000 acres (450 sq. miles)
* 165,000 acres of pasture land
* 75,000 acres of wetlands
* 60,000 acres of timber
* 1,700 acres of citrus orchards (producing 50 million 8 oz glasses of orange juice annually)
* 920 acres of row crops (450 acres of potatoes for Frito Lay Chips)
- 44,000 cows
- 33,000 calves born annually
- 1,400 bulls
- 1,400 miles of fencing
- 380+ documented species of vertebrate animals- many threatened or endangered
* 245 birds
* 53 fish
* 33 reptiles
* 31 mammals
* 20 amphibians
- 90 employees
- 61 years of operation (acquired in 1950)
- 45 hunting clubs have rights to use land
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But there's also a profusion of wildlife. To see it all you have to walk through jungles, or take a wild ride on an airboat across a thriving aquatic habitat — where you run a pretty good chance of getting crossways with an alligator.
"Occasionally they'll take a calf; and just last week one of our cowboys had his favorite dog that went down to get a drink and … that was the last of him," said David Wright, environmental affairs manager at the ranch.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints acquired the property in 1950, and Florida grew up around it.
"Just the scale of it is hard to grasp," said environmental consultant W. Michael Dennis. "We're in this remote area, but yet it's still very close to all the urban centers of central Florida."
It's not far from Disney World, for one. It covers nearly 300,000 acres — more than 450 square miles spanning much of the distance from the Orlando airport to the Kennedy Space Center.
Urbanization is creating challenges "with the pressures for water, the pressures for land, the pressures for transportation corridors," Dennis said.
As legal and political controversy rises over those issues, ranch managers are now proudly displaying what they've done for the environment.
"The ranch has been a good steward of this land for 60 years," Dennis said.
The ranch won a Florida environmental leadership award for creating a one square mile wetlands reservoir to purify storm water runoff.
"The natural wetland vegetation takes up any nutrients that are found in the water; the nutrient levels are already very low," said Erik Jacobsen, general manager of the ranch.
The reservoir is now a haven for wildlife. "We've documented over 380 species on the ranch. Some are protected and some are rare," Jacobsen said.
They created a rookery, a nesting area, for thousands of birds by re-landscaping. It created island sanctuaries protected from predators by a moat full of alligators.
"We want to protect the environment; and that's been part of our responsibility since we've been here," Genho said.
On a broad scale, they've achieved an award-winning stewardship approach with a carefully designed mosaic of wetlands, pasture and timberland.
"Just the nature of our ranching operations is a huge benefit to the surrounding area because of the diversity of habitat it creates for wildlife," Jacobsen said. "It creates a huge area for groundwater recharge."
Rather than pumping precious groundwater, ranch managers capture and use surface water almost entirely. The ranch is currently battling a lawsuit that's aimed at turning over some of that water to surrounding communities.
"I think through cooperation we can come up with solutions that will be able to sustain the water supply in the area for years to come," said James Payne, manager of properties at the ranch.
Recently the ranch was honored for its environmental stewardship of the land. It won a "best in the region" award from the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.
hollenhorst@ksl.com
Very interesting; thanks for sharing local knowledge.
Not quite true, Deseret Ranch LLC and “the Church” has forced the area to remain unincorporated for much of the last 20 years, significantly reducing the value of adjacent land as there are almost no municipal services.
The whole ranch will some day become a metroplex (with upwards of a half millino residents) according to the State of Florida master plan called Project 2060. Figure 6 on page 15:
http://www.1000friendsofflorida.org/PUBS/2060/Florida-2060-Report-Final.pdf
That plan was made during the peak of the RRE bubble... however the Deseret Ranch LLC was/is on board eventually turning the ranch into MCsuburbia.
Brevard County, Florida "192" ping.Interesting conundrum. Sounds like they are interfering with watershed replenishment but are doing so in lieu of drawing from the watershed.
“Although the LDS church is a tax-exempt organization, its for-profit entities generate “unrelated business income” that is subject to federal, state, and local income and other taxes.”
Thanks for the information. If that’s true, it lessens the outrage, but still leaves me with many questions about them.
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It seems all the land from the power lines along I95 all the way to St. Cloud is in this parcel.
When they bought the land no one wanted it and it was largely swamp. They escavated and drained it before all the environmental controls we now have went into effect. ( Disney did much the same thing and is a city in control of their own standards.)
Large squares where the cattle are held have no fences and animals are moved with portable bridges when necessary. (Cowboys in trucks can be seen from the main highway.)
They purchase locally and their people support our local businesses when they shop. It is not all bad, but secretive.
Do not let your hot air balloon cross into their property when landing. You will have to walk in and carry it all out! We were warned and made a fast and wet landing to avoid it one time!
For those reading and not familiar with this area...this is bordered by the new city of Viera. Central Brevard and soon to be the largest community in the county.
Trying to counter the caterwauling of libtard lynch mobs with facts!
***...Now that’s a real healthy physical and spiritual mission field for the Mormons!***
Just curious, but do the Mormons still require city Mormon teens to “volunteer” to do a day’s hard labor on the church owned lands?
The Church does own a number of farm properties. As you know, we have some welfare properties whose produce is used to supply food for the needy. These are operated strictly for charitable purposes and legally qualify for tax-exempt status.Then we have some commercial farm properties. I spoke earlier of the reserves of the Church. Prudent management requires that this money be put to use. In that process, we have purchased and hold some good, productive farms. They are well operated under capable management, and they yield a conservative rate of return. We have felt that good farms, over a long period, represent a safe investment where the assets of the Church may be preserved and enhanced, while at the same time they are available as an agricultural resource to feed people should there come a time of need.
Again, all such commercial properties are taxed under the government entities where they are located. Not only do they pay property taxes, but also income taxes on any profits. So it is with all of the commercial operations of the Church.
This was from Gordon Hinkley in 1991.
FWIW farmers and ranchers like these enterprises. Good neighbors and properties are kept up. A phone call to them in times of distress will garner more volunteers than you could ever use.
Sort of puts to the lie your contention... [Vigilanteman]
Thanks for the information. If that’s true, it lessens the outrage... [OldNewYork]
These are operated strictly for charitable purposes and legally qualify for tax-exempt status....Again, all such commercial properties are taxed under the government entities where they are located. [MartialMonk, quoting Hinckley the "prophet"]
Some of Lds' ranches & ag properties are indeed tax-exempt as Martial Monk, citing the Lds "prophet" indicated. Others are not.
It doesn't change what I quoted earlier from another article: LDS, Inc. has more than $1 billion in for-profit property in Florida.
So, a non-profit entity runs for-profit businesses -- with for-profit property worth over $1 billion just in FL alone. Now replicate my all its other holdings in Utah, Hawaii, Idaho, Washington, etc.
Just as for-profit businesses are able to make donations with its grant-giving to liberal entities (abortion, homosexuality, etc.) -- my guess would be that if you look under the hood -- these "for-profit" entities wind up "donating" much to the Lds umbrella.
Hence a chunk of it washes back to "non-profit" Lds, Inc.
“... but still leaves me with many questions about them” was the end part of what you quoted from me above.
You’ve hit on a few of them there.
Asking Colofornian for information on Mormons is sort of like asking Julius Streicher for information on Jews.
Can't be.
BFD! You are free to buy your potato chips from somebody other than Frito-Lay. And I’m free to buy my car insurance from somebody other than Progressive.
After tax profits go to the owner.
So what is it that bothers you about C’s info, since they always use lds sources?
The same thing which bothers me about Julius Streicher’s information on Jews, quoted from mainly Jewish sources.
So you are bothered by lds information - I so get that. I am also bothered by mormonISM.
If you still don’t get it, try googling “Julius Streicher” and “Der Strummer”. I can’t make it any clearer than that.
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