Mitigation Park Program

Introduction

Gopher Tortoise

Attempts to protect listed wildlife through land use regulations in Florida have frequently involved the "on-site" preservation of habitat within the boundaries of a development. Such efforts are often opposed by developers who perceive on-site protection as a direct challenge to a project's financial viability. Additionally, many biologists have had cause to examine the utility of on-site protection and its usefulness at protecting wildlife populations. The primary criticism of on-site protection is that it often results in the protection of small and isolated preserves that are subject to high levels of disturbance from surrounding residential and commercial development. Additional shortcomings associated with on-site protection include:

1. An inability to provide meaningful mitigation for impacts to species that have large home range requirements (i.e., pine snake, indigo snake, southeastern kestrel, red-cockaded woodpecker);
2. The isolation of on-site populations from other populations which may reduce reproductive success and lead to local extinction;
3. An inability to conduct land management practices such as controlled burning within on-site preserves because of the risk to nearby residences, highways, and commercial facilities;
4. Insufficient land use control over on-site preserve areas which may result in vandalism, dumping, arson, and construction of facilities that are not compatible with wildlife; and greater human-induced disturbance, mortality, and predation as a result of the increased levels of vehicular traffic and introduction of domesticated pets.

Mitigation Park Program

In response to some of the problems associated with "on-site" mitigation, the Commission has authorized the development and implementation of the Mitigation Park Program as an alternative wildlife mitigation strategy. The goal of this program is to provide an off-site alternative for resolving certain wildlife resource conflicts. In practice, this program consolidates mitigation throughout a geographical region and directs these efforts toward the acquisition of large and manageable Mitigation Parks. Each park is publicly owned and ranges in size between 350 and 2,000 acres. Management activities are tailored to emphasize the protection and enhancement of habitat important to upland listed wildlife.

Fox Squirrel

In general, the program increases the biological effectiveness of mitigation while permitting developers to maximize the intended use of their property. More specifically, it (1) provides an opportunity to direct wildlife habitat protection and acquisition efforts to the most biologically important sites in a region; (2) can consolidate many otherwise small and isolated protection efforts into larger units which maximizes resource protection efforts; (3) allows public access and use of mitigation lands that are managed by the state for the long-term protection of wildlife resources; and (4) from an economic perspective, use of mitigation parks is a cheaper form of mitigation than preserving acreage within a development, and developers retain greater use of a project site for development.

Implementation

Most Mitigation Park facilities are developed in cooperation with other local, state and federal agencies, usually following the signing and execution of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU's function is to establish an orderly process for administering monetary transactions and to provide a process for land acquisition and management.

Developers who direct monies to the Mitigation Park program make their deposits to the Commission's Land Acquisition Trust Fund in care of the appropriate regional mitigation park account. Site selection is initiated by first developing a list of potential acquisition sites, evaluating candidate against a set of selection criteria, and then grouping sites according to priority. Lands that are eventually approved by the Commission for acquisition are purchased according to acquisition procedures established in s. 259, Florida Statutes, and title is vested with either the Board of Trustees, or another appropriate government entity.

Chris Tucker Pine Flatwoods

The responsibility for the management of lands acquired through the Mitigation Park program rests with the Commission. These parks are managed primarily to enhance listed species populations, particularly those animals for which state and federal approvals are required prior to their being impacted by new land development. All mitigation parks are designated by the Commission as Wildlife and Environmental Areas, and are open to the public for low-intensity forms of recreation such as wildlife viewing, hiking and nature study.

Funding for land management within the Mitigation Park program is generated through an endowment-based format which allows the program to be virtually self-funding. Management fees that are collected from the sale of mitigation credits are deposited into separate management endowment accounts, and invested with the State Board of Administration. Only the interest that accrues on behalf of the management endowment is used to fund management expenses, thus preserving the earning power of the endowment and the availability of management funds for future years.

To date, the Mitigation Park program has received over $33 million in deposits and has purchased nine mitigation sites in seven of the state's eleven regional planning councils. Land purchases in excess of 9,700 acres have been completed and are currently under management by the Commission. For additional information concerning this program, please call Shane Belson, the Commission's Mitigation Park Coordinator at (407) 846-5300.