The Acreage at Big Escambia Creek

Farm Description

The Acreage at Big Escambia Creek

Welcome to The Acreage at Big Escambia Creek-a verdant, 4,530-Acre property rich in water features, stretches of pine plantations, hardwood forest areas, large wildlife habitats, and a 6-bedroom lodge. This property is ideal for the conservation-minded outdoor enthusiast, and offers opportunities not only for timber production, but for a range of wildlife and recreational options, too. It is currently being offered for sale at the asking price of in the southeastern portion of Alabama in rural Escambia County, The Acreage at Big Escambia Creek is roughly 50 miles north of Pensacola, Florida. The property is characterized as moderately flat to rolling terrain, with elevations ranging from 35 to 400 feet above sea level-typical of the Coastal Plain Region of southern Alabama.

Most of the acreage is currently classified as suitable for pine plantation management 40 or hardwood bottomlands 45. The remaining 15 of the property is non-forested area. The land encompasses five properties categorized as four compartment blocks, which are referenced in marketing materials and property summaries as Escambia 1, 2, 3 and 4.

The National Wild Turkey Federation Nwtf, Seller has retained the real estate brokerage services of American Forest Management Afm, Exclusive Agent. American Forest Management is accepting offers on the property in its entirety 4,530 acres and will not consider offers for individual tracts.

The Water

The extensive water resources are one of the best features of this property, offering a variety of recreational opportunities like fishing, canoeing and kayaking. In total there are over 265 acres of water, including over 9 miles of frontage on Big Escambia Creek and another 4 miles of frontage along Little Escambia Creek. In addition, there are several ponds created by historical sand and gravel extraction activities.

Big Escambia Creek runs north to south through western Escambia County, and is a major tributary of the Escambia River located approximately 29 miles north of Escambia Bay, Florida. The creek is a clear, gold tinted, blackwater stream with gravel bars, rock formations and white sand bars. Big Escambia Creek has a lot to offer to fishermen and recreational paddlers with over 27 floatable miles for canoes and kayaks.

The Wildlife

With an abundance of wildlife in extraordinary natural settings, The Acreage at Big Escambia Creek is a beautiful wildlife viewing and hunting tract.

With exceptionally diverse landscapes of mast producing trees, open fields, food plots, ponds and many miles of creeks and streams, the property currently supports an abundant population of wild turkeys and has a great potential for white-tailed deer management. The depth and variety of ground cover also has the potential to provide habitat for many other species such as bobwhite quail.

Forest openings have been established to further enhance plant and wildlife diversity by creating early successional habitat components and vital ecotones necessary for many species of wildlife. Openings are located in habitats with a mix of forest types providing wildlife corridors between them.

Cover and nutrients on the ponds and creeks add to the vast potential for fisheries management to produce a high-quality fishery. These ponds, creeks and wetland areas also provide habitat and food resources for various waterfowl that use the property.

The Lodge

This property includes a spacious, well-appointed hunting lodge located in the southeast portion of the property. It is positioned on nearly six cleared and fenced acres overlooking a small pond.

Approximately half of the 8,000 square footage is used for storage, while the other half contains an improved two-story heated and cooled living area. The storage area is accessible through six large overhead garage doors and has a thick concrete pad floor with enough space to store large farm equipment and hunting supplies.

The first-floor living quarters area includes a full and very functional kitchen, a large fireplace and three bedrooms. A recreational/bar area is on the second floor along with three additional bedrooms. In addition, the lodge features a large, covered outdoor sitting area overlooking the pond.

Conservation and Protection

The conservation and protection of significant, relatively natural habitats of fish, wildlife, or similar ecosystems is vital to the Nwtf's 10-year initiative Save the Habitat. Save the Hunt. Therefore, in an effort to protect the conservation values and ensure the property

will remain in a perpetually natural and undeveloped condition, a conservation easement, held by Nwtf, is currently in place on most of the property.

The easements have restrictions related to the rights of future development, commercial and residential use, subdivision, and the extraction and exploration of minerals. The easements allow the new owner to administer forest management activities, maintain existing structures, and engage in recreational activities and noncommercial agricultural use.

The Timberlands

This property is rich in timber. In total, there are over 116,788 tons of merchantable pine, hardwood and cypress timber.

The forest cover type acreage currently is comprised of 1,146 acres of loblolly and longleaf pine plantations83.3 acres of cutover 27.1 of total acres 459.2 acres of natural pine/hardwood

10.1 of total acres 2,166.1 acres of natural hardwood bottomlands

47.8 of total acres 675.4 acres of non-forest land

14.9 of total acres

The loblolly and longleaf pine plantations are growing on Piedmont and Coastal Plain soils, with an average overall site index of 64 feet for loblolly pine and 55 feet for longleaf pine base age 25.

The acreage is weighted to mid-age pine classes with an average

plantation age of almost 19 years. This

includes 753 acres of merchantable pine plantations 15 years of age with an average age of approximately 26 years. 393 acres of pre-merchantable pine plantations 15 years of age with an average age of approximately 7 years

The last complete inventory for Escambia occurred in 4th Quarter

of 2016. A strata-level cruise was administered that included 236 plots. The

database inventory has been grown and adjusted each quarter since the 2016

Inventory.