M.C. Davis Transforms 51,000 Acres in Florida into Largest Private Restoration Project East of the Mississippi

Motivated by a black-bear conservation talk, commodities trader M.C. Davis started buying abandoned farms and low-value pulpwood lands in North Florida, eventually creating a 51,000-acre property he calls Nokuse Plantation. The initiative, described as the largest private preserve and restoration project east of the Mississippi, seeks to re-establish the longleaf pine "Piney Woods," once covering 90 million acres but now reduced by 97 percent.

Davis’s crew has thinned 22,000 acres of fast-growing pines, planted eight million longleaf seedlings and applies controlled fires to roughly 10,000 acres annually. Wildlife is returning, with black bears moving in from nearby Eglin Air Force Base and 3,500 rescued gopher tortoises released on site; future plans include red-cockaded woodpeckers and bison. To honor E.O.

Wilson, Davis built a $12 million Biophilia Center that offers free hands-on classes for elementary students. He frames the work as year 13 of a 300-year restoration timeline, underscoring the urgency of the global biodiversity crisis.