Wildlife Corridors & Conservation Lands
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
By Ann Paul, Tampa Audubon President
It’s such a simple concept, really. Bridges for wildlife between nature preserve areas are a good idea, whether the bridge is for large, charismatic species, or smaller ones, like butterflies and rabbits.
This is the basis for the Wildlife Corridor Project and also the thinking behind so many of the purchases in Hillsborough County of the best environmental lands for long-term conservation.
For instance, the entire Hillsborough River shoreline and the bottomland hardwood habitats that line it are in preserves of one type or another, all the way from the county line to the University of South Florida. There are advantages to this.
It insures that houses aren’t built in the upper portions of the Hillsborough River - upstream of where the drinking water for Tampa is extracted. No inadvertent pollution entering the river’s water. No development along the shoreline, no gas stations with leaky tanks, no pesticides running off from lawns, no businesses accidentally spilling some kind of pollutants in the river. And so we have clean water to drink in Tampa, and we have a wildlife corridor for turkeys, alligators, bobcats, turtles, and other wildlife to traverse. We have large expanses of soggy land for fish, frogs, and tadpoles. Wading birds, including Wood Storks, egrets, herons, ibis, and spoonbills.
We don’t have homes there that get flooded when the Hillsborough River leaves its banks after rain falls in the Green Swamp in Polk County.
Other river systems in our county are protected too – Alderman’s Ford and other parks strung upstream along the Alafia River mean clean, fresh water during high rainfall periods enter a large reservoir run by Tampa Bay Water. The reservoir’s water supplements groundwater pumping and means our residents have a reliable water supply.
The trees and foliage in these conservation lands add oxygen and fresh, clean air to our atmosphere, allowing our children and elderly to breathe freely.
Using wildlife corridor thinking is good for our county’s water supply and for the wildlife that is part of Hillsborough County’s natural heritage. Wildlife that people from all over the United States and other nations come to see and that our own residents value as they canoe or kayak, fish or bird-watch, hike our parks and preserves, or swim and sail in our bay.
Wildlife corridors are a fundamental win-win. Natural area protection is supported by our residents every time it comes on the ballot. Our leaders should support these progressive, conservative programs every year because our citizens want the open spaces, the rivers protected, springs to flow, and our birds and other wildlife to thrive. And we’ve been clear about it, over and over.
Let’s tell our elected officials to fund the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act and purchase lands through our Florida Parks, water management districts, state forests, and other conservation land programs. And let’s do it now, before it all becomes giant distribution warehouses, apartments and condos, roadways, shopping centers, and AI complexes. Wildlife corridors plus natural area conservation. It’s all a win-win.
To learn more about the biological value of wildlife corridors, visit:
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