Florida's interstate land bridge over I-75 just south of Ocala, served as the Nation's first land bridge to serve both wildlife and people by connecting protected land areas across a major highway. The bridge provides safe passage for a number of species, (humans included), as part of the Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway. Florida houses yet another similar wildlife channeling greenway over I-95 near Palm Coast. A third bridge has recently been envisioned over I-4 in Volusia County to connect portions of the Tiger Bay State Forest.

Although development pressures in the state have experienced some degree of stagnation recently, the overall trend of residential and transportation development in the state, and its expanding encroachment upon vital wildlife territories, continues to rise. Proponents of wildlife transportation crossings in the form of under and overpasses across hazardous roadways have a good foundation for hope, as more and more ideas of habitat protection and connection are considered in the course of new highway and neighborhood development projects. Biodiversity planning and the connection of protected spaces through projects such as these have much to offer in the way of effective habitat conservation in Florida's future.

Undertakings of the wildlife overpass magnitude can be very expensive indeed, limiting the number of protective crossing infrastructure projects that may be accomplished in the near future as the costs of materials, labor, etc. increase. It also becomes increasingly expensive and difficult to retrofit old roadways in desperate need of help for wildlife crossing safety. Furthermore, with Florida Forever's demise on the horizon, and uncertain plans as to a successor program, the acquisition of important preservation areas to connect faces similar limitations in coming years. It becomes increasingly clear that the continued advocacy of wildlife habitat planning in the realm of transportation development will be of paramount importance for the future of endemic Floridian species in the face of development pressures. 

Check out the article online at:

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/state/orl-corridorslid08jan07,0,1996352.story?page=1

For more information on wildlife bridges and other crossing structures, check out: http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.americantrails.org/i/resourceimages/landbridge2600.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.americantrails.org/resources/structures/CreativeCrossings.html&h=305&w=600&sz=67&hl=en&start=35&um=1&tbnid=rI8nXSn-tqkVhM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=135&prev=/images%3Fq%3DFlorida%2Bwildlife%2Boverpass%2Bi%2B75%2Bphotos%26start%3D20%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

For more information on wildlife habitat planning and transportation, check out info on our site: Transportation Planning, Design and Management to Support Wildlife

The endangered whooping crane, near extinction in the 1940's, has received a boost in recent years from the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership and ultralight aircraft guidance technology. The group and their reintroduction strategy made manifest effectively guided 17 of the 76 wild migrating whooping cranes in North America to wintering habitat in Marion County this year in January, later moving to the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Refuge in Citrus County. Aside from the 76 Wisconsin-Florida birds, the only other migrating population of whooping cranes nests at the Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada and winters at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Whooping cranes are named for the nature of their loud unison calls. They live and breed in wetland areas, where they feed on crabs, clams, frogs and number of aquatic plants. They are rather distinctive, often reaching a height of 5 feet by adulthood, with white bodies, black wing tips and red crowns on their heads.

The Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership (WCEP), an international coalition of public and private organizations, is administering the reintroduction project in an effort to return this endangered species to its historic range in eastern North America.

Check out the article online at: http://www.bringbackthecranes.org/media/2008/NR27Jan08.htm

More information on the migration can be found online at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/10/061005-whooping-cranes.html

Professor Maehr of the University of Kentucky recently authored a guest column to the St. Petersburg Times and Pasco Times regarding habitat devastation facing the Florida black bear population residing in the Greater Chassahowitzka Ecosystem (GCE) in light of development plans associated with the Sunwest Harbourtowne Development of Regional Impact. Maehr reacts to findings presented by Sunwest consultants, who failed to find signs of bear activity within the area affected by the proposed Harbourtowne DRI. Having spent years studying bear populations in the area, Maehr contends that Sunwest researchers, having found no bears, were far behind in data collection with only 29 days spent surveying a variety of species in one area.

The presence of bears in the area necessitates special consideration and completely different actions and location choices than those proposed by Sunwest's DRI. Harbourtowne is positioned to eliminate and isolate 500 acres of crucial bear habitat in the GCE, which according to Maehr help support a tiny population that has already been pushed much too far toward extinction by human encroachment. Action is necessary to promote more reliance on university-sponsored data collection and scientific evidence in the evaluation of potential DRI effects on wildlife habitat in the GCE.

Check out the article online at: http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article474391.ece

More information on the Sunwest Harbourtowne DRI can be found online at:

http://www.sunwestpasco.com/

More information on Florida black bears can be found online at: http://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/education/interactive/springscoast/blackbear.shtml