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Project name: |
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Heart Mountain Farm
- Fisheries Habitat Restoration Project |
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Project number: |
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7006 |
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Project status: |
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In Progress |
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Grant Administrator: |
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Gulf of Mexico Foundation (for NOAA) |
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Grantee: |
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Preserving the Environment thru Ecological Restoration, Inc. |
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Project location: |
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Hillsborough County, Florida |
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Grant period: |
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Jan 1 - Dec 31, 2008 |
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Grant amount: |
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$65,000 |
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Land Ownership: |
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Hillsborough Environmental Lands Acquisition & Protection Program (ELAPP) |
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Lat/Long: |
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27.7067° -82.4884° |
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Types of Habitat: |
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Marsh, mangrove and seagrass
communities |
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Project leader: |
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Thomas F. Ries
Board President
PEER Inc.
5892 E. Fowler Ave.
Tampa, Fl. 33716 |
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Species Benefiting From Restoration:
• Snook (Centropomus undecimalis)
• Redfish (Sciaenops ocellatus)
• Spotted Sea Trout (Cunoscion nebulosus)
• Atlantic Sturgeon (Acipenser oxyrhynchus)
Acres of Habitat To be Restored:
Approximately 3.5 acres
Project Summary:
To restore critical oligohaline habitat essential for
fisheries utilization for this portion of Tampa Bay. This
project will restore/create up to 25 acres of oligohaline and
mesohaline environs. In addition, the balance of the site
will be restored by the removal of the exotic vegetation and
planted with native transitional and upland plants. This will
result in the restoration of the entire 43-acre site.
Project Objectives:
The objectives are to restore oligohaline habitats for the
Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve and Tampa Bay in general. In
addition, all of the exotic vegetation will be removed from
the site (both wetland and upland areas). The site will be
planted with native vegetation with the help of volunteers to
help instill a sense of site ownership since this site will be
open to the public. Educational signage will also be installed
(in the future) to educate the public of the critical
importance of these types of areas for fisheries and avifaunal
species.
Community Involvement:
The community will be involved with this project in the form
of a large scale volunteer planting effort. This will be
organized after the construction has been completed and will
entail the installation of approximately 50,000 intertidal
plants which could be planted in two distinct volunteer
events. PEER staff have coordinated many of these types of
plantings (up 23,000 plants were installed in a 3 hour
period). These volunteer opportunities are extremely
productive, not only in the money saved, but more importantly
in the educational and civic pride results that are achieved.
We have already contacted a number of local volunteer groups
(Tampa Audubon, East Bay High School, Bay Buddies, etc.) and
all have expressed an interest in assisting us with these
planting events.
