EXPANDING FLORIDA FOREVER

The 4,500-acre mitigation parcel is currently on the Florida Forever Priority List. Tarmac plans to donate the property to the State of Florida after it has been successfully restored. In this way, at no additional cost to Florida Forever, the TCA will increase the property managed and controlled by the State and expand the wildlife corridor surrounding the Waccasassa Bay Preserve State Park.


PROTECTING PLANT SPECIES AND WILDLIFE

Habitat management to benefit wildlife will be of high priority, particularly those species listed as endangered or threatened by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FFWCC) or the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). The site is proposed to become a Strategic Habitat Conservation Area for a number of species, including the Gulf salt marsh mink, bald eagle, little blue heron, one-toed amphiuma, limpkin, Florida pine snake, swallow-tailed kite, and eastern indigo snake. It also has the potential to provide a protected area for rookeries of the snowy egret, great egret, as well as the little blue heron.

Wildlife species, including the Florida black bear, once present in the area, may see a return when their natural foraging sources have been restored. Within the TCA, emphasis will be placed upon maximizing species diversity, while at the same time providing a habitat where they can thrive, through a combination of habitat quality improvement and protection.


A GRADUAL RETURN TO A NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

The natural foundation of hydric hammocks consists of a canopy of mixed tree species, including laurel oak, sweetbay, live oak, water oak, red maple, and loblolly pine; a subcanopy of cabbage palm, swamp dogwood, and swamp bay; and a ground layer of spikegrass, millet beakrush, and blue palmetto. The proposed mitigation activities in the TCA are designed to restore the historic character, while minimizing short-term disturbance.

These activities will focus on:

• Restoration of hydric hammocks from pine plantations
• Enhancing existing wetlands
• Restoration of coastal hydric and hydric hammocks from cleared natural hammock
• Enhancing existing coastal mesic hammock

Restoration and enhancement will include removing all slash pine and reducing the density of loblolly pines; supplementing existing vegetation with seedlings if natural restoration does not occur; soil remediation if necessary once logging debris is removed; and removal of nuisance species to allow natural vegetation to become established.

With conservation plans in the TCA, further loss or degradation of the hammock will be avoided. Placing this land under a conservation easement will ensure that this ecologically valuable corridor, unique to the Nature Coast of Florida, is restored and preserved forever as an addition to the conservation land in Levy County.