📷 Southwest Florida pines | Tom Hoctor
The National Wildlife Refuge Association in Florida recently published its first blog. This monthly post - featured on our Facebook, Twitter, and the Refuge Association’s website, will highlight major conservation issues impacting our refuges throughout the state. We will offer facts, insights, and relevant opinions on various conservation topics, including land, water, and wildlife conservation and related environmental issues. We hope you will read our blog entries and engage with us. We look forward to hearing from you. If you have topics you'd like to see us cover, please contact brian@theboyergroupllc.com.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is embarking on an ambitious new effort to establish a Southwest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Area. If successful, a new conservation area would allow the USFWS to work with willing landowners to protect the lands most important to our water and wildlife in one of the most biologically diverse regions in our country.
Airplants | Tom Hoctor
Southwest Florida faces increasing threats, including rapid population growth, land use intensification, and climate change. The USFWS has examined ecological priorities within a study area including a broad swath of land from Big Cypress north to the Fisheating Creek and Peace River Watersheds, west to the Myakka River watershed, and east to the western portions of Lake Okeechobee. The study area covers a critical region for accomplishing Florida’s land and water conservation goals; effective conservation here has important benefits for people and wildlife. A new conservation area would be a subset of this broader study area; the boundary will be determined based on input from the public.
This landscape-level conservation effort would assist and complement the state of Florida’s successful efforts to protect the Florida Wildlife Corridor. The National Wildlife Refuge Association, the Florida Conservation Group (FCG), and the University of Florida Center for Landscape Conservation Planning have partnered together to assist the USFWS in protecting threatened natural communities and wildlife species in Southwest Florida. Our collective organizations are working together to assist the USFWS in providing the science foundation for this effort, as well as providing outreach and education to stakeholders on the ground.
The purpose behind this effort includes the following:
Protect, restore, and manage habitats for fish and wildlife. Aid in the recovery of the Florida panther and protect many rare and endemic species including 74 Federally and State listed Threatened and Endangered Species.
Provide science-driven landscape-level conservation. Bolster the protection of a conservation landscape composed of natural and working lands (including Florida’s unique ranching landscape) that would prevent further habitat fragmentation.
Conserve important lands and waters for the benefit of all people. Willing landowners could protect their private land through conservation easements that keep land in private hands while protecting habitat and providing important ecosystem services.
Promote conservation partnerships working with existing tools and strategies that are also flexible and adaptive including conservation easements. The State of Florida has a long and successful history of land conservation within Southwest Florida. A new conservation area will complement and assist with state and other local, regional, and federal conservation efforts. Partnerships with the state of Florida and other agencies are essential to leverage funds and effectively work with landowners to protect our most important lands and waters before they are gone.
Swallow-tailed kites | Tom Hoctor
This is a ground-breaking effort that would provide additional resources to help reduce the impacts of climate change, offer additional outdoor recreational opportunities -- such as hunting, fishing, hiking, and paddling for residents and visitors -- and protect healthy and sustainable habitats for the region’s unique species. This is good for the environment, the economy, and Florida. Southwest Florida has a rich history of conservation planning and land protection, but resources are scarce, and the need is high. The time for more conservation funding, landowner engagement, and effective partnerships is now. The conversation has started with landowners, tribes, sportsmen, partner agencies, and the private sector to ensure appropriate input and strategies to maximize this historic effort.
Southwest Florida is one of the fastest-growing regions in the United States, but concerted, science-based, and partnership-driven conservation can succeed. Planning for the Southwest Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Area is an important and exciting step forward to making conservation success a reality. The time is now.