LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A private grass airstrip in rural northeastern Lake County is becoming the focus of a broader debate over aviation growth, wetlands and wildlife habitat — including the flight paths of one of Florida’s most distinctive birds.
That bird is the Swallow-tailed Kite, a striking black-and-white raptor recognized by its sharply divided tail and graceful, soaring flight.
The airfield at the heart of the issue is Deep Woods Ranch Airport, an existing private-use facility identified by the Federal Aviation Administration as FD86 and associated with DeLand. Lake County planning documents locate the property along Deep Woods Road, east of Deer Haven Road in the Paisley area.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is seeking to transform the property into an aviation-training site.
However, documents reviewed by News 6 indicate that a state permit tied to the project has not yet been completed.
The St. Johns River Water Management District told News 6 Wednesday that an Environmental Resource Permit application from Embry-Riddle remains under review. District officials said they have asked the university for more information and are awaiting a response before moving ahead with the evaluation.
A 12-page Request for Additional Information, or RAI, dated July 7 and obtained by News 6 outlines the issues regulators still want addressed.
The document includes 37 numbered requests.
Several of those questions involve the potential effects of the project on wildlife, wetlands and aircraft activity.
The airstrip is already there — the proposal involves expansion
A key point in the discussion is that Deep Woods Ranch is not a proposed new airstrip. The facility already exists.
The FAA identifies Deep Woods Ranch Airport by the location code FD86.
County records trace the property’s aviation history back decades. At a May 2025 Planning and Zoning Board meeting, a representative for the applicant said a conditional-use permit for a private airstrip and related structures was issued in 1987. A county action in 2006 later broadened the group permitted to use the private facility. Lake County’s 2006 commission minutes confirm that change.
Embry-Riddle’s proposal centers on the development and expansion of the existing airstrip for aviation-training operations.
Lake County records from 2025 describe a rezoning request covering roughly 118.69 acres. County staff said the proposed aviation-training facility would initially focus on paving the existing airstrip. Under the concept presented at the time, approximately 80% of the property would remain open space.
The documents also outline the proposed access route: County Road 42 to Deer Haven Road, followed by Clay Lake Road and Deep Woods Ranch Road. Both Clay Lake Road and Deep Woods Ranch Road were described as unpaved.
The property’s remote setting is central to the questions surrounding its potential impact on wildlife.
Why Swallow-tailed Kites are drawing attention
Swallow-tailed Kites pass through Florida during migration before continuing south toward Central and South America. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the birds begin moving through the state during the summer as they make their way toward South America.
Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, located in the wider region, has documented particular significance for the species.
A 2008 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conservation plan reported a pre-migration gathering of more than 900 Swallow-tailed Kites at the refuge and described it as the second-largest pre-migration roosting colony in the southeastern United States at the time. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Those figures are historical and should not be read as a current population count. But they demonstrate why the landscape has long been significant for the species.
At the Avian Reconditioning Center in Apopka, Chief Operating Officer Nicole Jones told News 6 the center has experience rehabilitating injured Swallow-tailed Kites.
Jones works in the center’s education, outreach and rehabilitation operation.
Her concern centers on the overlap between birds that spend much of their time airborne and increased low-altitude aviation activity.
“You have birds interacting in an area where you’re gonna have not only flying aircraft but low-flying aircraft,” Jones said.
She said repeated disturbance could affect how the birds use a roost.
The concern does not mean an expanded airstrip will necessarily injure birds. The effects of future operations would depend on factors including where and when aircraft fly, the intensity of operations, wildlife activity and what mitigation measures are ultimately used.
But ARC already knows what happens after some Swallow-tailed Kites are hurt.
A 100-foot room just to learn to fly again
For a relatively slender bird, a Swallow-tailed Kite needs an unusually large rehabilitation space.
Jones said the center cannot simply place an injured kite in one of its smaller enclosures. Because the birds need to regain the ability to soar and maneuver, they may require ARC’s largest flight enclosure — roughly 100 feet long.
That creates a second issue: capacity.
ARC operates with only four staff members and relies heavily on volunteers. Jones explained that multiple large birds needing rehabilitation at the same time can create what she described as “musical chairs” among species competing for the center’s largest flight space.
If more Swallow-tailed Kites needed lengthy rehabilitation, Jones said, that enclosure could be unavailable for other species that also require it.
That is a hypothetical concern — ARC is not reporting an influx of kites caused by the Deep Woods project, and flight-training operations contemplated by the project have not begun under the pending state permit.
But it illustrates why ARC is paying attention.
State regulators asked 37 questions
The regulatory record adds another layer.
The St. Johns River Water Management District received Embry-Riddle’s application for an Individual Environmental Resource Permit for the Deep Woods Ranch Airfield Development.
On July 7, the district sent Embry-Riddle a 12-page letter stating that additional technical information was needed to sufficiently review the application.
The 37 requests cover a wide range of subjects.
Among them:
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Wetlands and surface water: District staff wrote that they were unable to fully evaluate direct wetland and surface-water impacts from the information originally provided. They requested a fuller accounting of work including timber harvesting, grubbing and grading within the Ocala National Forest.
Wildlife and FAA safety areas: The district asked for documentation showing required FAA safety zones in relation to wetlands and surface waters, specifically referencing Wildlife Hazard Assessment Areas and Habitat Management Areas. Regulators also requested information showing expected aircraft elevations during takeoff and landing over wetlands and surface waters.
Wildlife surveys: The RAI says wildlife surveys conducted in 2024, 2025 and 2026 were referenced in project materials but had not been provided to the district. Regulators requested those surveys and additional survey work covering the entire project area, including portions within the Ocala National Forest.
Wood storks: The district wrote that proposed wetland and surface-water impacts fall within the core foraging area of multiple known wood stork colonies. Staff said they did not yet have enough information to determine whether listed-species mitigation would be required.
Florida wildlife review: The application has also been forwarded to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, according to the RAI. The district said additional information or plan modifications could be requested after FWC comments are received.
The RAI also raises questions involving stormwater design, floodplain impacts, groundwater, mitigation and the full extent of work proposed on federal land.
One section notes that the project appears to fall within the Tick Island–Mud Lake subwatershed and identifies Tick Island–Mud Lake as a nutrient-impaired waterbody within the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, an Outstanding Florida Water.
What “public interest” language in the document actually means
One of the strongest sentences in the RAI requires context.
The district wrote:
“The applicant has not demonstrated that the project is not contrary to the public interest.”
That does not mean regulators determined that the project is against the public interest.
Instead, the district said the environmental narrative submitted with the application did not contain enough information to adequately address all seven criteria in the state’s required public-interest test. Regulators requested a detailed response to each of those criteria.
In other words, it is an unresolved permitting requirement, not a final judgment on the project.
The same distinction applies to the 37-item RAI generally: the requests are not 37 violations. They are 37 categories of additional information or clarification regulators say they need before completing their review.
What Embry-Riddle says
News 6 sent Embry-Riddle several questions Wednesday, including questions about wildlife analysis, anticipated flight activity and specific measures that could be used to reduce the possibility of aircraft disturbing or striking birds.
The university responded with a statement:
“Embry-Riddle continues to work closely with Lake County and other regulatory agencies as we responsibly develop a safe, limited footprint in the area.”
The university added:
“The university follows applicable regulatory guidance, requirements and established safety practices, including appropriate analysis and consideration of wildlife hazards, as part of our ongoing planning and operations.”
The statement did not specify what wildlife-hazard analysis has been completed specifically for Swallow-tailed Kites at Deep Woods Ranch, provide anticipated flight numbers or detail what operational protections could be used if wildlife monitoring identifies a concern.
The university’s statement does, however, confirm that it says wildlife hazards are being considered as part of its ongoing planning.
Where the permit stands now
The St. Johns River Water Management District gave News 6 a direct update Wednesday.
The district said the permit application remains under review, but that the agency has requested additional information from the applicant and is currently awaiting a response.
That means the permit has not been issued.
The July RAI also makes the immediate next step explicit: under district rules, construction on the proposed project cannot begin until the district issues the permit.
The letter initially gave the applicant 90 days to respond, while also explaining that additional time can be granted under certain circumstances.
So for now, the project exists in two different realities.
There is already an airstrip in the woods.
There is also a plan to do substantially more with it.
And between those two points sits an ongoing regulatory review asking questions about water, wetlands, wildlife and what future aircraft operations could mean for the landscape around them.
For Jones, the reason to pay attention is visible inside ARC’s 100-foot flight enclosure.
Swallow-tailed Kites are built for the sky. When one is injured, even recovery requires room to fly.
And at a wildlife rehabilitation center with only so much room, Jones said each additional patient can matter.
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