Each year, Audubon honors a rancher who has demonstrated exemplary environmentally-sustainable ranching practices and makes efforts to conserve native wildlife habitat. Audubon is honored to be able to present this award to Jim Strickland this year. Jim Strickland grew up ranching with his father along the west coast of Florida in the 1950s and 1960s....Read More

The following is an excerpt from Brad Buck.   GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida agricultural leaders are calling for deeper exploration of farmers, ranchers, and forest land owners as suppliers of environmental protection as well as of food and fiber. The Florida Climate-Smart Agriculture Work Group has declared ­its ambitions to craft a plan for how the state’s...Read More

Excerpt from USNEWS.COM by Katelyn Newman Jim Strickland is a sixth-generation cattle rancher who, alongside fellow ranchers in the Sunshine State, is working to preserve Southwest Florida’s natural habitat. As the sun begins to rise and the mist breaks on a clear Florida morning, wild turkeys, white-tailed deer and pesky feral pigs rummage for breakfast...Read More

Dana Edwards May 10, 2018 GAINESVILLE, Fla. – At the University of Florida, 16 percent of those who visited the on-campus Alan and Cathy Hitchcock Field and Fork pantry mentioned the service was their sole source of food when they needed temporary assistance. While students working with the Field and Fork student gardens grow fresh...Read More

Excerpt from article by Zac Anderson in the Herald Tribune. Nearly 1,500 acres of cattle ranch close to Myakka River State Park will be protected from development and restored to native habitat after the federal government recently signed off on a conservation easement for the site. The National Resources Conservation Service, an agency within the...Read More

An excerpt from Jessica Salmond at YourObserver.com Ranchers learn to adapt when development changes the landscape. Standing in a 20-acre pasture east of Lorraine Road, Jason McKendree remembered the days when he couldn’t hear the sound of bulldozers working on a new subdivision. That was a time the Mary Fran Carroll Bridge was made of wood...Read More

The Joe What? Podcast is a series of interviews by Joao (Joe) Vendramini of the UF/IFAS Range Cattle Research and Education Center. Recorded in May 2017.Read More

Blackbeard’s Ranch is a farm that CARES. Jim Strickland owns and operates this Florida ranch just south of Myakka City and has made environmental stewardship a priority on his cow/calf operation. To see more about Florida farmers and ranchers who work to preserve the environment and to learn about the CARES program, visit http://www.thisfarmcares.org/Read More

Excerpt from Sarasota Herlad Tribune Sitting in an open air chickee hut with expansive views of the pastures and pine forests on his ranch bordering Myakka River State Park, Jim Strickland points to a tree line in the distance to show where a golf course once was planned. Before Strickland and a partner bought the...Read More