A sprawling 584-acre stretch of Polk County citrus groves, lakefront acreage and rolling countryside along Scenic Highway 17 between Babson Park and Frostproof is heading to auction this month, following the death of owner Emery Etter. The land will be sold in 27 separate parcels, and the sale is already pulling interest from citrus growers, homebuilders and conservation groups hoping to permanently protect part of the Lake Wales Ridge.
The online auction runs October 20-22 and is open to the public, according to Tampa Bay 28, which first reported on the sale. Parcels can be purchased separately or in combination, and they range in size from five acres up to the entire 584-acre property. Land Report describes the offering as the Etter Family Portfolio, with roughly 469 acres situated just south of Crooked Lake and Babson Park, and the remaining 115 acres concentrated at Reedy Lake.
Saunders Real Estate is handling the sale through its Saunders Auctions division. Dean Saunders, owner of the firm, said the property offers opportunities for homebuilders, farmers and citrus growers alike, per the station's reporting. He added that most interest so far has come from growers looking to keep the citrus operation running rather than convert the land to other uses.
Groves, Wells and Lakefront Acreage
The Reedy Lake portion of the property includes five 5-acre waterfront parcels carrying roughly 1,484 combined feet of lake frontage, according to Land Report. Established wells already serve the citrus groves, and fruit from existing Valencia and Hamlin orange trees will convey with the sale. The approximately 469 acres south of Crooked Lake and Babson Park offer rolling elevations with views of surrounding lakes, groves and the broader Central Florida countryside, the listing notes.
The 584 combined acres are being offered at auction, with citrus groves among the property's features. The listing markets the property for several possible futures, including continued citrus production, land banking, agricultural investment, or potential future development down the line.
Conservation Groups Eye a Wildlife Corridor
Among the parties circling the auction is Green Horizon Land Trust, a nonprofit founded in 1991 that works to preserve and protect environmentally sensitive land through partnerships with communities, agricultural groups and government agencies. The organization is working with other groups and agencies to pool resources and potentially bid on the property, according to the station's report.
The property sits between Crooked Lake and Tiger Creek Preserve, a location that Rachelle Selser, executive director of Green Horizon Land Trust, said could connect environmentally sensitive areas along the Lake Wales Ridge. Selser envisions a future that combines farming with wildlife corridors, trails and other conservation uses on parts of the land. She said the acreage could support wildlife connectivity, aquifer recharge, stormwater treatment and continued agriculture all at once.
That kind of connectivity matters to the broader ridge system. The Lake Wales Ridge Wildlife and Environmental Area includes scrub, pine flatwoods, marshes and seepage slopes that are critical to wildlife, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, which notes that preserving remaining natural areas on the ridge is critical to recharging the Floridan aquifer, the state's principal source of drinking water. Green Horizon's own tally shows the group had helped place nearly 6,000 acres into conservation status as of 2021, per its published records, with most of its preservation lands concentrated in Polk, Osceola and Citrus counties.
A Shrinking Industry Faces a Crossroads
Polk County citrus groves have increasingly given way to residential and other development in recent years, and citrus greening disease and other challenges have taken a toll on the broader industry. The numbers bear that out statewide: Florida's total citrus acreage fell to 165,359 acres in 2026, down 21% from the prior year's survey, according to Citrus Industry, a net loss of 42,827 acres in a single season. Orange acreage alone dropped 22%, to 143,650 acres, even as new plantings slowed to just 5,200 acres.
Polk County still leads the state in citrus acreage, with 37,529 acres, despite losing 10,944 acres from the previous season, the same outlet reports. Yet even as acreage shrinks, production climbed: Florida's 2025-26 citrus crop totaled 15.7 million boxes, up 7% from the season before. Separate reporting from WGCU found that Florida citrus acreage overall is down 75% since 2020, with growers entering the 2025-26 season working just 208,183 acres, 24% fewer than the year before.
Land itself has only grown more valuable even as groves disappear. More than 28,700 gross acres of Florida citrus groves changed hands in 2024 at an average of roughly $13,700 per acre, a 47% jump in per-acre price compared with 2023, according to Citrus Industry's analysis of Saunders Real Estate transaction data. Of the 128 citrus land transactions tracked that year, 34 were in Polk County and 27 in Hardee County.
Whatever happens with the Etter property will depend entirely on who wins the bidding and how the new owners choose to use the land. For now, the auction stands as a snapshot of the pressures reshaping the Lake Wales Ridge: citrus growers trying to hold on, builders eyeing new ground, and conservationists racing to stitch together what undeveloped land remains.
