Pasco County has long worked to protect natural lands and identify ecological linkages across the county. Its Environmental Lands Acquisition and Management Program, known as ELAMP, provides a framework for acquiring environmentally sensitive lands.
Cypress Creek Preserve itself sits in central Pasco County east of Land O’ Lakes, where it was originally purchased to provide flood protection and serve as a public water supply, per the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Cypress Creek is a tributary of the Hillsborough River, and the preserve’s floodplain helps filter nutrients out of runoff before it reaches the waterway, the water management district notes. The preserve also offers roughly 19 miles of designated or marked trails, with a west gate accessed off Ehren Cutoff, also known as County Road 583 — the same corridor named in this week’s acquisition announcement.
A Decades-Long Push to Link Pasco’s Wild Lands
The idea of connecting preserves like Cypress Creek and Connerton isn’t new. Pasco County’s Comprehensive Plan has for years identified a wetland network between the Connerton tract and the Cypress Creek Wellfield as a critical ecological linkage worth protecting, according to the county’s Conservation Element. That same planning document established ELAMP through Resolution No. 04-233, creating formal procedures for the county to acquire natural lands.
A county habitat study identified seven critical linkages between publicly owned conservation tracts, and reporting from The Laker/Lutz News has detailed a broader proposed corridor network meant to connect development areas including Starkey Ranch, Crossbar, Connerton and Cypress Creek. Those corridors are intended to function as protected pathways for wildlife as varied as bears, panthers, salamanders and frogs, the outlet reported. The county’s plan also directs officials to evaluate opportunities to purchase land or conservation easements within those critical linkages through ELAMP, and states the program should seek to permanently protect environmentally sensitive lands.
Part of a Growing Pattern of Land Purchases
This conservation work fits a pattern of steady land-buying under ELAMP. Since the program began in 2004, Pasco County has acquired more than 8,600 acres for conservation, according to Tampa Bay 28. Earlier this year, the county completed one of its largest preservation purchases to date, acquiring nearly 1,900 acres of the 4G Ranch property in Land O’ Lakes, the station reported. Tampa Bay 28 also reported an ELAMP acquisition of 127 acres in the Anclote River corridor near New Port Richey, purchased from developer Gary Blackwell for $3.2 million.
Officials told the station that five additional environmental-land projects were under active consideration in 2026, suggesting the Ehren Cutoff purchase is unlikely to be the county’s last move this year. Separately, Pasco County’s own program webpage states it has secured about 8,688 acres since 2005, though that figure comes from a different accounting and shouldn’t be read as confirming the more precise more-than-8,600-acre tally reported elsewhere.
What Land Protection Can Cost
Securing these corridors can require substantial investment. A Tampa Bay Times report described options to buy or conserve about 2,500 acres for an estimated total of $20 million to nearly $80 million, underscoring the scale of investment involved in protecting wildlife corridors across the county.
For more than two decades, county planners have worked to identify and protect ecological linkages, including the wetland network between Connerton and the Cypress Creek Wellfield.
