Florida Wildlife Conservation Guide

A collaborative online resource developed to inform effective land use planning, site assessments, and project designs to assist in the conservation of wildlife in Florida

The Florida Wildlife Conservation Guide is an excellent collection of resources about habitat and species found in Florida. The included natural history details, survey protocols, regulatory requirements, and management considerations can help users consider habitat and wildlife impacts when undertaking various land use planning processes. Many partners contributed to the Guide’s development to ensure this product would be user-friendly. For any questions or comments regarding the Guide please contact ConservationPlanningServices@MyFWC.com.

Using this Guide

The guide provides information regarding natural resource planning and wildlife conservation in four major sections.

Habitats – includes resources to identify and classify onsite habitats, and summaries of habitat threats, conservation actions, and listed species considerations.
Wildlife – includes natural history, protection status, threats, survey protocols, recovery actions, and permitting information for protected species of Florida.
Conservation and Development Planning – outlines the process for planning projects which will conserve/restore wildlife habitat onsite or considerations for development and land use change which may impact wildlife habitat.
Avoidance and Permitting – an overview of ways to avoid impacts to listed species and measures to be taken to receive a permit if such impacts to listed species cannot be fully avoided.

Acronyms

Throughout the guide, there will be acronyms for various groups, concepts, and species information. The master list below contains terms in the order encountered in the guide and the terms are also explained in their first use.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)

State Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP)

Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT)

Water management districts (WMDs)

Florida Natural Areas Inventory (FNAI)

Florida Land Cover Classification System (FLCS)

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

Best Management Practice (BMP)

Endangered Species Act (ESA)

National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)

Federally-designated endangered (FE)

Federally-designated threatened (FT)

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

Big Cypress fox squirrel (BCFS)

State-designated threatened (ST)

State-designated species of special concern (SSC)

Federally-designated threatened due to similarity of appearance [FT(S/A)]

University of Florida Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS)

United States Geological Survey (USGS)

University of Florida (UF)

Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

Critical Lands and Water Identification Project (CLIP)

Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS)

South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)

Florida Forest Service (FFS)

St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD)

Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM)

Candidate Conservation Agreements (CCA)

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP)

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)

State Highway System (SHS)

Right-of-way (ROW)

Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM)

Integrated Habitat Network (IHN)

Incidental Take Permit (ITP)

Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP)