Alico completes sale of conservation land to Florida for $28.5 million

With sale, Alico will no longer pursue controversial water storage project

Fort Myers-based Alico Inc. has sold another sizeable chunk of its farmland to the state for preservation.

On Friday, the company — one of America's largest citrus producers — announced that the state, through its Florida Forever program, purchased 10,702 acres of its Alico Ranch land in Hendry County for $28.5 million.

The land sits on the west side of Alico's ranch. It's the company's second such sale of conservation land to the state in what's known as the Devil's Garden area, a prime area for Florida panthers.

Combined, the two purchases have added more than 16,000 acres to the state's Devil's Garden conservation project.

Well south of the Caloosahatchee River, Devil's Garden is north of Big Cypress National Preserve and east of the Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest. The name Devil's Garden stems from the Seminole Wars of the 1800s.