Florida's natural treasures - from the Everglades to Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge - have come to be as fragile as they are magnificent. Thus far the Fund and its partners have protected more than 100,000 acres in the 'Sunshine State.'
Click here to read about this project in more detail.
Indian River Lagoon beckons paddlers, who come to explore mangrove forests, glimpse endangered West Indian manatees or simply bask in one of America’s most biologically diverse estuaries. Working with Brevard County, Cocoa Beach, the St. Johns River Water Management District and the Florida Communities Trust program, we recently completed a multiyear effort to protect an important lagoon feature: the Thousand Islands, a group of mangrove islands in Cocoa Beach. In 2008, we protected 279 acres to complete this project.
In partnership with the Northern Palm Beach County Improvement District, we collaboraed with ecologists, planners and engineers, to develop an innovative Greenway Master Plan for the 2,000-acre town of Abacoa. At the heart of the community, the greenway is a 260-acre multi-purpose preserve that provides habitat for the gopher tortoise, creates a network of lakes doubling as a stormwater management system, and offers recreational opportunities for residents.
We assisted the Richard King Mellon Foundation with its generous gift of a half-mile stretch of beachfront property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, the most important loggerhead turtle nesting site in the country. A total of 19,000 threatened loggerhead, 2,800 endangered green, and 13 endangered leatherback sea turtles nested at Archie Carr in recent summers.
An impressive mosaic of bald cypress, hickory, and sweet gum, the California Swamp serves as an important filtration system for the Suwannee River and as habitat for the swallow-tailed kite and black bear. We worked with Forest Systems, Inc. to negotiate a 32,000-acre conservation easement over the Swamp, among the largest easements in Florida. The Suwannee River Water Management District holds the easement, which permanently restricts development and limits timber harvesting to sustainable practices.
Everglades
Building on efforts to protect Florida’s Everglades, we continue to collaborate with local communities and Palm Beach County to purchase vital winter crop farmland and nearby lands that buffer the Everglades from development pressures. To date, we have acquired more than 16,000 acres for the district, including 5,800 acres in 2004.
At the Fund we help save wild havens: large, natural spaces for wildlife to be exactly that—wild. Your gift ensures that wildlife, like this bear cub, has the habitat it needs to thrive.
 |
|
See the landscapes and wildlife that make Florida's Kanapaha Prairie such an important place to protect.
Powered by: Phase2 TechnologyThe Conservation Fund National Office
1655 N. Fort Myer Drive, Suite 1300
Arlington, Virginia 22209-2156
Phone: 703-525-6300
Fax: 703-525-4610
Email: postmaster@conservationfund.org
