§698n Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

Summary

Creates the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve in the St. Johns River Valley, Florida, where the Timucuan Indians lived. The Preserve includes the lands and waters shown on the map titled “Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve,” map number NA–TEHP 80,003–A, dated July 1987, which is kept at the National Park Service. It also includes about 500 acres next to Fort Caroline called the Theodore Roosevelt Preserve (donated by Willie Brown). About 8.5 more acres in Nassau County are added as shown on the map “Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve American Beach Adjustment,” map number 006/80012, dated June 2003; the Secretary of the Interior must update the Preserve boundary to include that land and keep the map on file. The Secretary of the Interior may acquire land inside the Preserve by donation, purchase with donated or appropriated funds, or by exchange, but cannot buy non-wetlands without the owner’s consent. State-owned land may only come in by donation or exchange. The Secretary must manage the land to protect its natural ecology under National Park Service rules. Boating, boating activities, hunting, and fishing are allowed under federal and state law, though the Secretary may set areas or times when hunting or fishing is not allowed for safety. Nothing here stops a proposed multiunit residential/resort project on Fort George Island or changes the laws that apply to that project.