Wildlife Habitat Planning Strategies, Design Features and Best Management Practices for Florida Communities and Landowners
1000 Friends of Florida and the Florida Wildlife Federation in cooperation with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are working on a multi-year project to develop a document addressing wildlife habitat planning, developmental design and best management practices directed at Florida communities and landowners. The project builds upon the Florida’s Wildlife Legacy Initiative and Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy (CWCS) as developed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It focuses on a habitat approach, looking for ways to translate concerns and identified needs under the “Legacy’s” documents into appropriate actions that can be taken at the local level to keep common species common (as well as helping to avoid reduction or loss of the identified threatened or endangered species).
The end product this effort is aimed at producing a Florida-based document (Summer 2008) targeted to community planners, landscape architects, landowners, developers and active citizens similar to our award winning document, "Protecting Florida's Springs - Land Use Planning Strategies and Best Management Practices" published in 2002.
The project recognizes and will document the opportunities that exist to further wildlife habitat conservation, restoration and habitat connectivity through use of local or inter-local planning strategies, design features and best management practices. Presently there is an unconsolidated mix of these materials available to local governments and landowners. Most existing data and materials are geared to the professional biologist and wildlife conservation professional. The information often tends to be species specific, targeted to threatened or endangered species only and difficult to understand or translate into on-the-ground actions and projects by community planners, landscape architects, landowners and developers. This project will work to help rectify this and produce a document with information useful to local land use planners, practitioners, landowners and others.
As an adjunct to this effort, we have this project web site, www.Floridahabitat.org that was launched in September 2006. The website is serving the project as a means to evolve the diverse subject content and seek input from others by:
• Opening accessibility to the general public through both the web site information and the Blog);
• Offering coverage of a more complete assemblage of wildlife habitat planning and best management practices assessed and edited for use in the final manual;
• Allowing for a secure online working project working group environment (via a TAC work group log-on environment); and
• Providing a developed platform for the eventual online version of the completed electronic version of the manual.
The overall project (the developing manual and the web site) will be successful only if we receive input from a wide variety of professions and individuals throughout the state. Please help us by identifying wildlife and habitat conservation tools from your area of expertise or that have been used in your community. For more information contact Dan Pennington at (850) 222-6277 or mailto:dpennington@1000fof.org. .
Presentation - 2007 Everglades Conference in Orlando.
Presentation - Introduction to the Effort: "Wildlife Habitat Planning Strategies, Design Features and Best Management Practices for Florida Communities and Landowners." Introductory Presentation to the TAC - September 07, 2006 by Charles Pattison, Executive Director, 1000 Friends of Florida.
Additional generous support for this effort has been provided by the Martin Foundation, the Batchelor Foundation, Jane’s Trust and the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
