Rayonier in Nassau County, Florida: 87 Years of Stewardship - Seite 3

"I found forestry in part because I had this influence of Rayonier folks-they were people I respected and looked up to," he says. "It's been a rewarding career. In forestry, you're managing what's naturally on the landscape, using wisdom and science to organize it and make it efficient."

Jeremy is proud to be a forester because of the many benefits to natural ecosystems. With modern science-based management practices, our forests provide clean water, clean air and critical wildlife habitat, all while supplying society with important products like lumber, plywood and paper.

"I hope people see a lot of the good that's already been done here by Rayonier," Jeremy says of Nassau County. "And I hope in the future they'll see the six or eight generations of forestry still happening behind the scenes."

Some Nassau County residents are already able to see behind the scenes as customers with Rayonier's Hunting & Recreation Program.

In this program, Rayonier land is open to residents and visitors to Nassau for hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, and foraging. Currently, we have more than 900 customers in Nassau who are accessing our land to enjoy the outdoors with family and friends.

Wildlight: Sustainable Community Development

In 2007, Rayonier's relationship with Nassau entered a new chapter when the County's leadership approached our company to establish a public-private partnership, the result of which is the Wildlight development. At that time, population growth was on the horizon and the County wanted to be prepared.

Local leaders didn't want to sit back and watch as developers capitalized on Nassau's growth rate, buying up smaller parcels of land and developing them in a haphazard way with no thought to the bigger picture.

Instead, they asked Rayonier, one of the County's largest landowners, to work with them on a whole-landscape plan to prepare for inevitable population growth. This way, the County could follow a methodical, strategic approach-planning for residential neighborhoods, schools, police stations, parks and more in a logical way.

Rayonier's leaders were excited to work with the County.

"I've been in this business for 30 years and you rarely see this happen in development," says Chris Corr, Rayonier's Senior Vice President of Real Estate Development. "It's uncommon to have the opportunity to think on this larger scale, but because of Rayonier's land ownership that's what we've been able to do."