Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program is an example of a cooperative regional level planning and management tool for habitat and wildlife. As a NEP, the Charlotte Harbor effort offers a large cross-jurisdictional landscape approach because they: they focus on the watershed, use science to inform decision-making, emphasize collaborative problem solving and financial and staffing approaches; and, involve the public.
The Charlotte Harbor NEP consists of the basins of the Peace, Myakka, and Caloosahatchee Rivers (almost 4,500 square miles) that feed freshwater into the coastal area. In southwest Florida, barrier islands and coastal waters such as Lemon Bay, Matlacha Pass, Pine Island Sound, Charlotte Harbor, and Estero Bay are supplied with freshwater from those three rivers and nearby areas. The Charlotte Harbor estuary and contiguous coastal waters serve as a home, feeding ground and/or nursery area for more then 270 species of resident, migrant, and commercial fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Manatees, sea turtles, wood storks, and dolphins are also found in the estuary and its watershed. Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program unites government agencies with industry, concerned citizens and others in the Charlotte Harbor watershed to reach agreement on the most pressing problems to maintaining a healthy environment and on methods for solving those problems.
The Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program challenges local communities to address water quality, wildlife habitat loss, land use changes, and human-induced changes to river flows to protect uses of the estuary. The Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program is building on current efforts to maintain and enhance the estuary system. Emphasis is on taking immediate actions where the problems are known, while filling in gaps in the knowledge of emerging problems. The Charlotte Harbor program has developed a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) based on the completion of previous problem identification and characterization work, and successful consensus-building activities within the region.
For Charlotte Harbor a cooperative decision-making process is used within the program to address diverse resource management concerns in the 4,400 square mile study area. Many of these partners also financially support the Program, which, in turn, affords the Program opportunities to fund a yearly work program and projects. The CHNEP follows a task-based budgeting process to facilitate long-term funding approaches and priority setting. The focus within yearly workplans is on deliverables. The task-based approach has provided structure to CCMP implementation, workload allocation, and communication with the public. All achievements are tracked using the broad task areas.
An important part of the program is restoration of damaged or degraded habitats and hydrologic functions as illustrated by the links below:
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Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park Restoration Projects
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Lee County Master Mitigation Plan
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Island Park Regional Mitigation Site at Estero Marsh Preserve (Master Mitigation Plan's First Project)
