During the past 19 years, Florida has been engaged in the largest and most ambitious land-buying program in the nation. Begun during the administration of Gov. Bob Martinez as Preservation 2000 and continuing today as Florida Forever, the program has purchased more than 3 million acres of rural Florida land for conservation to assure that open green space remains in our rapidly developing state and that the environmental splendor of our cherished heritage is retained.

As a fifth-generation Floridian whose family traces its long agricultural roots to 1635, I take a back seat to no one in my reverence for our rural lands and the commitment to preserve their character for my children and future generations. From an environmental standpoint, it is critical. From an aesthetic vantage point, it is vital. And from the viewpoint of the quantity and quality of our water supply, the purity of the air we breathe and the habitat of both native wildlife and plants, it is absolutely indispensable.

As we move forward, however, some tweaking of the program is necessary. The 3.5 million acres purchased by Florida, combined with an additional 2 million acquired by local water-management districts, means that 5.5 million acres are now under state or local management and effectively have been taken off the tax rolls and generate no payroll. If you add the nearly 3 million acres of land in Florida owned and managed by the federal government, you're talking about 8.5 million acres in that status.

If that weren't enough, insufficient funding is being dedicated to managing the land we've acquired, resulting in the desirable parcels that we've set aside being inundated by invasive plants and animals that are inexorably destroying the local fauna and flora and, in the process, fundamentally altering the character of the land we're seeking to preserve.

So how do we move forward?

I believe that when the Florida Legislature ultimately re-authorizes spending under the Florida Forever program, currently set at $300 million a year, we need to set aside a portion of the money to purchase development rights to rural property. Under that approach, at least a portion of the desirable land targeted for conservation could remain in farming or ranching.

For parcels whose development rights the state purchases, the land could remain productive, taxes would be paid, purchasing power of those working on the land would be preserved, and the property would be managed by its owner so its essential character would remain intact. At the same time, the state would have a contract in hand prohibiting the landowner from developing the property.

While the price of purchasing the development rights would be negotiable and subject to the kinds of restrictions placed on the property, such purchases typically run only 50 percent to 60 percent of what it would cost to buy the land outright.

This is not a new idea, as California, Georgia, New Jersey and many other states have programs that purchase development rights. It's time that Florida considers something similar.