Last week, North Florida Land Trust (NFLT) named Ramesh Buch as its new director of conservation acquisitions.
Buch has 30 years of experience in the environmental field with 25 years in land conservation. Buch will serve on the nonprofit’s leadership team and will oversee all aspects of its conservation activities including acquisitions, landscape initiatives and community conservation projects. He will be responsible for conservation planning and all real estate services and will work with private landowners as well as government agencies to facilitate all of NFLT’s conservation efforts.
“We are looking forward to having someone of Ramesh’s caliber on our staff and leading our conservation acquisitions department,” said Jim McCarthy, the president of NFLT. “Ramesh’s experience and knowledge will be a real benefit to our organization. He will fit in great with our leadership team and will work closely with all our departments as we continue to conserve and manage land in Northeast Florida and beyond.”
Buch comes to NFLT after serving as director of the real estate services program for the St. Johns River Water Management District since 2016. During his five years with SJRWMD, he managed the real estate office including negotiations for land acquisitions, conservation easements, leases and use agreements. His department handled 143 transactions totaling 25,400 acres worth $46.5 million.
Before his work with SJRWMD, Buch spent 15 years as the program supervisor for the Alachua County Forever Land Conservation Program with the Alachua County Department of Environmental Protection where he was responsible for all aspects of the land conservation and stewardship program. He supervised the evaluation of 250,000 acres nominated for conservation through the program and negotiated the purchase of 24,000 acres worth $106 million utilizing private, federal, state and other partnerships. Buch was an environmental resource project supervisor for the Environmentally Endangered Lands Program with Miami-Dade County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management where he also served as a biologist.
Buch earned his bachelor’s degree in marine science and biology with a minor in chemistry from the University of Miami. He also began work towards his master of agriculture degree in fisheries science at Texa A&M University. Buch is a licensed real estate salesperson in Florida, a certified park and recreation professional with the National Recreation and Park Association, a certified public manager and holds a certificate in supervisory management from Florida State University. He has also been published in the Journal of Landscape and Urban Planning, the Journal of Conservation Planning and CitiesGoGreen Magazine.
North Florida Land Trust is a not-for-profit organization that seeks to protect the natural resources, historic places and working lands (farms and ranches) throughout north Florida. Founded in 1999, NFLT has preserved tens of thousands of acres of land through donation or purchase of land as well as conservation easements. NFLT is funded largely by private and corporate contributions and works closely with willing landowners and public agencies at all levels of government, not-for-profit partners, and foundations.
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