At all levels. St. Joe employees understand the importance of keeping Northwest Florida unspoiled. Whenever JOE plans a new community, the first wave ashore is a platoon of naturalists and landscape architects, experts to guide in placement of construction, and in restraint.
St. Joe regularly partners with environmental groups, government agencies and committed individuals and community activists to preserve and protect natural resources and imperiled species. Preserves for black bear and gopher tortoises have been established. Buffering and land-use restrictions provide habitat for any number of other threatened plants and animals. JOE builds its beach houses behind coastal dunes, not on top of them like many others do. Private docks are not allowed in sensitive areas.
Education continues once the building is done. Protective covenants police new homeowners, guiding them in choosing native vegetation and respecting open spaces. Neighborhood education seminars are part of an on-going effort to open the eyes and minds of Florida’s newest residents. JOE biologists counsel landowners: remember why you came here, relish and protect it.
Property owners benefit from such careful allocation of the land.
In St. Joe developments as much as two-thirds of the land is used as parks and other conservation areas, allowing for nature trails, camping and exceptional wildlife viewing. At a development called RiverCamps on Crooked Creek, for example, two-thirds of a 1,500-acre preserve will remain in conservation, saving in perpetuity the marsh grass, wildlife habitat and creeks. Miles of shoreline are among the most sacred of St. Joe’s protected holdings. The allure of the sea is, after all, behind the desire of so many to live in or to visit Florida.
St. Joe is proud of having gone far beyond legal requirements when it comes to the biggest issue of our age: the environment. JOE has won prestigious national, state and regional awards for its conservation efforts.
After all, legal and financial dictates are important. But there is a moral responsibility here, too, for the company that holds sway over so much of Florida. It is a public trust between us, the stewards of today, and the children of tomorrow.
In the end, our efforts will be judged by those future generations. We hope that as those future generations look back, St. Joe will be almost invisible and regarded simply as quiet stewarts of the land.