The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

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Did you know that one of the great grassland and savanna landscapes of eastern North America is ripe with protection opportunities?

The Everglades is a top Nature Conservancy priority and with your support, we have helped protect more than 600,000 acres within the immense landscape of the greater Everglades over the last 50 years. Speak up now for the Northern Everglades

Our focus for the last several decades has been on the Northern Everglades, a 170-mile swath of mostly working cattle ranches, longleaf pine savannahs and seasonal wetlands that historically flowed unheeded from headwaters just below Orlando into Lake Okeechobee. These landowners are more interested today than ever in the conservation opportunities being put forth.

Recent successes include:
 

• More than 50,000 acres is being permanently protected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the Farm Bill’s Wetlands Reserve Program. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack came to Florida in August 2010 to announce $100 million in financial assistance to acquire conservation easements on nearly 24,000 acres in four counties, adding to $89 million last year to buy conservation easements on 26,000 acres over five ranches.

• A 150,000-acre refuge and conservation area is being planned by the U.S. Department of Interior through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The plan for the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area has been drawn and is out for public comment. A final report is expected by early 2012, authorizing 50,000 acres in outright ownership and 100,000 in conservation easements that connect or buffer many of the current conservation properties in the landscape. 

• The ecologically rich Avon Park Air Force Range in the center of the Northern Everglades has been awarded $2 million in 2011 through the Department of Defense to enhance military readiness by purchasing conservation easements from willing sellers along its borders.

Wildlife, Water and a Way of Life

Here's why protection and restoration of the nearly 4 million-acre Northern Everglades is vital to Florida’s ecological and economic health.

• Biodiversity: Many imperiled animals and plants call the Northern Everglades home, and its variety of globally rare habitats and natural communities hold profound biological significance. The Florida black bear and panther, the Eastern indigo snake and gopher tortoise, and birds such as the grasshopper sparrow, snail kite, wood stork, crested caracara and Florida burrowing owl are all native to the region.
• Water resources: South Florida’s freshwater resources depend upon rainfall in the greater Everglades watershed, but it has been modified for agriculture and urban development. The watershed once stored large amounts of rain during wet seasons, slowly releasing water in drier times. Today, floods overburden Lake Okeechobee’s dikes, stressing coastal estuaries’ delicate balance and aggravating water shortages in South Florida.
• Ranching community: Cattle ranches cover nearly one-sixth of Florida’s landmass and much of its remaining native habitat. They also provide employment and contribute significantly to the local tax base. Ranchers use management techniques compatible with conservation goals of natural lands. A well-managed ranch provides some of the same ecological functions as a protected area, and serves as a wildlife corridor between otherwise isolated public lands.

What the Conservancy is Doing to Conserve the Northern Everglades

• Facilitating the protection and restoration of wetlands. For more than two decades, the Conservancy has identified conservation properties, assisted and encouraged ranchers to protect and restore critical lands, and provided expert testimony to Washington decision-makers in support of the region’s protection. Restoring natural wetlands on select ranches will improve historic water flow patterns in the watershed.

For example, our work with ranchers facilitated the July 2010 investment of $89 million in conservation easements for the Fisheating Creek basin – one of the least-altered tributaries to Lake Okeechobee. The USDA’s Wetlands Reserve Program will restore nearly 40 square miles of private land for future generations, often reducing taxes for the landowner while protecting wildlife habitat.

• Encouraging efforts to create new national wildlife refuges. In April 2010, President Obama announced America’s Great Outdoors program, which includes conservation of large, iconic landscapes. The Northern Everglades was named a top priority. The Conservancy is working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on proposals to create two new national wildlife refuge sites and expand an existing one that will conserve imperiled species and their habitats.
• Documenting the effectiveness of wetlands restoration. At the Conservancy’s 12,000-acre Disney Wilderness Preserve in Kissimmee near the headwaters of the Everglades, our scientists have demonstrated best practices for restoration of former ranchlands. Within this innovative mitigation project, we evaluate the potential of wetland areas to serve as natural water storage areas and increase water quality.
• Saving Hatchineha Ranch. Despite having one of the country’s highest concentrations of threatened and endangered species, the ranch’s 5,134 acres were slated for suburban development before the Conservancy purchased it in 2009. Restoration of impacted wetlands within this large conservation landscape will be a major milestone in the Conservancy’s Northern Everglades strategy.
• Serving on advisory and management councils. The Conservancy helps advise the state and federal agencies working in the Everglades on a variety of issues, including land protection strategies and responses to invasive, non-native species. We also lead several innovative Cooperative Invasive Species Management Areas, known as CISMAs, which help private landowners control invasive species on their property. We help provide needed fire to the land of our state partners and remove invasives through the Central Florida Ecosystem Restoration Team.

Why the Conservancy?

With solid, regional relationships and a wealth of natural resource information, the Conservancy is a proven leader in the effort to protect the Northern Everglades. We’re excited about recent interest in the region’s protection, yet recognize that much remains to be done.

In fact, today we have an unparalleled opportunity to conserve and restore a fully functional, reconnected wetland corridor in the Northern Everglades. A window of opportunity is wide open – and the time to act is now!