Awards & Achievements

Indian River CARES

Evans Properties Bluefield Division was a recipient of the 2009 Indian River CARES Award from the Florida Farm Bureau. The County Alliance for Responsible Environmental Stewardship (CARES) program recognizes farm owners who have met verifiable standards of excellence in resource management. The program involves site visits by public officials who assess the implementation of state-of-the-art resource management techniques, or Best Management Practices, at the farm property. For more details, click here.

Agricultural Environmental Leadership Awards

Evans Properties received the 2000 Commissioner’s Agricultural-Environmental Leadership Award, which has been presented annually since 1994. The program spotlights the environmentally innovative farming practices of the state’s growers and ranchers. Nominees for the awards come from different parts of Florida’s agricultural industry, but they all share a commitment to protect and preserve Florida’s resources while continuing to provide agricultural products for society.

Nominations for the awards are evaluated by a committee composed of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and a host of other state environmental agencies. For more details, click here.

IFAS Best Management Practices

In 2002, The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) began a study on Best Management Practices (BMPs) of the Florida citrus industry, in order to determine the impact that grower operations have on our local waterways. The study, which is still ongoing, is designed to particularly measure impact on the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Lucie Estuary.

Participation in the BMPs study is voluntary. Its goal is to identify the BMPs that are currently in place, and from there, to create an industry standard of BMPs that can be followed. As one of the largest growers in the Indian River Citrus League, Evans Properties had already been implementing many models of best management as much as a decade earlier. We were able to significantly contribute to this program, performing an environmental assessment of our crop production operations. For more details click here.

MIL Water Conservation

Evans participated in the Florida Mobile Irrigation Laboratories (MILs) program, which is part of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS). Participants voluntarily pay for a MIL to come to their property and evaluate water conservation, usage, and environmental effects. We have been able to help in both furthering the program’s efforts and contributing to the 6.2 billion gallons of water per year conserved under the programs through the state. For more details, click here.

IFAS Soil Identification

The University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) has put together a comprehensive Field Guide to Soil Identification for Florida’s Citrus-Growing Regions. Evans was privileged to be able to contribute to the book, which is a user-friendly, practical field guide for the classification and identification of soils in central and southern Florida. For more details, click here.