Terrestrial Programs
Critical Wildlife Areas
Critical Wildlife Areas (CWAs) are established by the FWC under a Florida Administration Code rule to protect important wildlife concentrations from human disturbance at sites where they congregate to nest, rest or feed.
Objective Based Vegetation Management
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), has lead management responsibility for approximately 1.5 million acres on 48 Wildlife Management and Wildlife Environmental Areas (WMA/WEAs) in Florida. FWC land managers, in cooperation with the Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI), have developed and are implementing an objective-based vegetation management (OBVM) approach to resource management on these Trustee-owned lands.
Habitat Restoration Projects
With lead management responsibility for 1.5 million acres in Florida, FWC staff have developed and implemented various types of restoration projects statewide. There are three aspects to restoration on FWC managed lands, hydrologic restoration, ground cover restoration, and exotic species control.
Landowner Assistance and Incentives
Over half of Florida is privately owned. The land-use planning efforts and habitat management decisions made by private landowners today will determine the future for fish and wildlife tomorrow.
Management Plans (WMA)
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has a management interest in approximately 5 million acres of natural resource land in Florida for the conservation of wildlife and habitat.
Safe Harbor
Florida's Safe Harbor program is a voluntary conservation incentive plan for private landowners who want to manage their lands to provide habitat for imperiled species.
Safe Harbor: Red-cockaded Woodpecker Program
The goal is to conserve the federally endangered red-cockaded woodpecker through partnerships with private landowners.
Upland Plant Management
The Upland Plant Management Program incorporates ecosystem management concepts involving "place-based management" that brings together regionally diverse interests to develop flexible, innovative strategies to address local upland invasive plant management issues on public conservation lands in Florida.