Tampa Bay
Adoption of Habitat Protection Goals and Strategies
Category: Intertidal, Wetland, and Upland
Cost: Information
not provided.
Description: Tampa Bay Estuary Program partners adopted a
goal of restoring the historical balance of emergent wetland habitats through
a strategy of preserving existing high-quality habitats and restoring those
that experienced the greatest losses. The preservation strategy identified
and ranked intertidal and wetland sites and associated uplands considering
twenty-three separate criteria including the contribution the sites would
make to water quality improvement, natural freshwater inflow to the bay, and
diversity of native species.
Outcome: Most of the twenty-eight priority protection sites
identified in "Restoring the Balance," the Tampa Bay Estuary Program
master plan for habitat restoration, were incorporated into the Southwest
Florida Water Management District's (SWFWMD) Save Our Rivers/Preservation
2000 plan, the major land acquisition program operating in the Tampa Bay region.
Between 1995 and 1997, a total of 1,833 acres of the13,434 acres identified
in the SWFWMD plan as the "Tampa Bay Estuarine Ecosystem" were acquired
for preservation and future restoration.
Contact: Holly Greening, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, email:
hgreening@tbep.org
Citation: "Setting Priorities for Tampa Bay Habitat
Protection and Restoration: Restoring the Balance," 1995, Technical Publication
#09-95, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, prepared by Lewis Environmental Services,
Inc. (R.R. Lewis III and D. Robison).
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