Wildlife habitat conservation can occur through thoughtful land use planning, developmental design features and best mangement practices. Below are topic areas and links that can serve as jumping-off points to explore and pursue means to better conserve Florida's wildlife habitat.
Transportation Planning - Wiki
Transportation infrastructure (roads, highways, interchanges, railroads, bridges, drainage culverts, ditches and swales) has tremendous impacts on Florida wildlife (both site specific impacts and cumulative impacts from the result of land access, hydrological modification and shear acreage affected by the infrastructure). We can plan and design our transportation infrastructure to minimize these impacts so that wildlife can continue to survive.
Florida has an abundance of golf courses that occupy many thousands of acres of land and water. Many developments are planned around golf courses. These community features offer reasonable opportunities to incorporate wildlife conserving aspects and we hope to better identify wildlife habitat design guidelines for golf courses.
Communities - Develop a Logical Green Infrastructure Framework - Wiki
Green Infrastructure is a communities natural life support system - an interconnected network of land and water that supports native species, maintains natural ecological processes, sustains air and water resources and contributes to the health and quality of life for the community, its people and wildlife. In the patchwork of fully acquired and “protected” lands, working rural landscapes or suburbanized and fully developed urban lands, Green Infrastructure represents the complex integration of areas that will sustain Florida’s wildlife. As we look to the future, it is our challenge to ensure that the full complement of native species remain here with us.
Data and Analyses for Wildlife and Habitat Planning - Wiki
Local habitat data and its analysis is at the crux of a community's effort to sustain wildlife. Though some species are generalist and can find adequate food, water and shelter in a wide variety of landscapes, many of Florida's endigenous species are specialist and require particular landscape/habitat features. Sustaining the natural diversity of wildlife requires a good understaning of species needs and an understanding of the types, extent and viability of your community's habitat types.
Tools for Communities to Use for Wildlife and Habitat Green Infrastructure Planning - Wiki
In striving to sustain or restore wildlife habitat's requisite green infrastructure, Florida communities have a significant chest of planning and design tools. Use of the tools and following a logical community green infrastructure framework requires some level of vision and sustained cognizance of the vision. Various tools are addressed under this section.
Rivers, Creeks, Wetlands and Other Environmentally Sensitive Areas - WikiRivers, creeks, wetlands, ravines and karst features offer obvious natural corridors and patches that support wildlife food, water and cover needs. These landscape features need to be conserved and enhanced within developing areas. They form the initial first level backbone of conerved wildlife habitat areas.
Rural, Agricultural and Silvicultural Lands (Wildlife as a part of working landscapes) - Wiki
Florida's rural areas harbor some of our best remaining wildlife resources. Ranchland and forestland in particular, and even well managed croplands that plan and provide adequate buffers and no-til zones near environmentally sensitive landscape features can sustan a diversity of wildlife. There are a number of existing specialized programs and tools along with a other emerging innovative land planning and BMP tools that can be used to ensure these rural areas remain undeveloped but productive working landscapes supportive of a mix of habitats and wildlife.
