August 18, 2026
By: Laura Kinsler
Environmentalists have something to celebrate this month after Volusia County closed on 1,800 acres of conservation land.
The county, through its conservation program, Volusia Forever, paid $20.1 million for River Bend Ranch, a 1,300-acre property located at 1411 Osteen Maytown Road in Osteen. The purchase was unanimously approved by the Volusia County Council in May. Volusia County also partnered with the state to purchase the “Pearl of Volusia” as a conservation easement for $8.3 million — $379,000 coming from the county. The 500-acre property sits between Caraway Lake and Lake Dias in DeLeon Springs. This deal was approved unanimously in February.
Daryl Carter, Joe Skinner, Jonathan Clayton and Robby Doyle of real estate investment firm Maury L. Carter & Associates, Inc., represented the sellers in each transaction — Alan Ashlock for River Bend Ranch and Scott Vanacore for the Pearl of Volusia.
The River Bend Ranch land has more than two miles of undeveloped frontage on the St. Johns River, plus another 1.3 miles of frontage along Deep Creek. The property is adjacent to Deering Preserve at Deep Creek, a 1,385-acre county-owned conservation area. Together with the newly acquired property, Volusia County now owns a contiguous block of more than 2,680 acres of conservation land.
Before last week’s sale, about 1,170 acres of the River Bend Ranch was slated for development. A concept for the property called for a conservation subdivision with 192 homes, nine of which would have been riverfront. Under those plans, more than half the property would have been preserved.
River Bend Ranch sits in the Florida Wildlife Corridor, which encompasses 18 million acres of forests, rivers, ranches and farms that connect the Everglades to the Georgia and Alabama borders. River Bend Ranch is home to white-tailed deer, gopher tortoises, Florida sandhill cranes, black bears and a variety of wading birds. Its habitats include upland pine, cypress swamp, freshwater marsh, wet prairie and cabbage palm hammock.
Carter, president of Maury L. Carter & Associates, described the property in one word: Diverse.
“This is a very rare property, and it supports a tremendous diversity of plants and animals and wildlife,” he told GrowthSpotter. “There’s so much happening in central Florida in terms of growth. But in a very short period of time, you feel like you’re in another world, just an oasis of nature and beauty and wildlife and serenity.”
On the Pearl of Volusia’s 490 acres is 2.7 miles of lake frontage as well as rolling pastures, live oaks and longleaf pine sandhills. Wildlife on the property includes white-tailed deer, Osceola turkeys and fox squirrels… The sale marks the highest price per acre paid for a conservation easement in Volusia County — about $17,000 per acre.
“We are happy to play a small part in the preservation and conservation of wild Florida,” Carter said. “It’s nice to know that pieces of wild Florida are still going to be there for our kids and future grandkids.”
Read the full article: https://www.growthspotter.com/2026/08/18/volusia-county-secures-1800-acres-of-conservation-land-in-two-deals/