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Hidden Gem is Crown Jewel for the Estuary
by Mary Kelley Hoppe
Forest Turbiville marvels at the radical transformation. As far as the eye can see, marsh grass frames a gently sloping string of wetlands that wends its way down to Wolf Branch Creek. High tides reverse the course, allowing one pool to spill over into the next, whisking tiny cargo - juvenile mullet, snook and reds - away from larger predators.
 Hard to believe just a few years ago this gem was anything but. The untended land just below Apollo Beach on Tampa Bay's southeastern shores was a nearly impenetrable mosh pit of twin terminators, Brazilian peppers and Australian pines, invasive species wreaking havoc on Florida's coasts.
Its fortunes changed, Wolf Branch is now a showpiece-in-the-making for Hillsborough County and the Southwest Florida Water Management District.
"The county had the foresight to buy what was essentially a very disturbed piece of property, and they got a very good deal," says Turbiville, environmental supervisor with Hillsborough County's Resource Management Division, which manages the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, known as ELAPP.
The county purchased the nearly 1100-acre parcel in 1993 for $1.8 million. A comparable adjoining parcel today might sell for four to eight times that amount, according to ELAPP Acquisition Manager Kurt Gremley. That's assuming you could find one.
Two things attracted the county to the site: its location on Tampa Bay and a commitment from the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) Program to recruit funding partners to design and restore the tract. Along with SWIM, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, NOAA, and the district's Alafia River Basin Board have all helped foot the $5.8 million restoration tab.
The project is one of several SWIM restorations underway on Tampa Bay's southeastern shore. Better known projects at neighboring Cockroach Bay and Terra Ceia to the south in Manatee County have enjoyed greater visibility, in part because those restorations began earlier and continue to progress in stages as money becomes available.
Work at Wolf Branch Creek, by contrast, was undertaken all at once, and only began after funds were in hand to complete the entire wetland and upland restoration.
When phase two wraps up next summer, Wolf Branch will be the largest habitat restoration completed on Tampa Bay to date. Terra Ceia, at 1700 acres, is larger overall, but won't be finished for years. (See story in Summer 2002 edition of Bay Soundings).
All this has earned the lesser known Wolf Branch a bevy of admirers, including residents at neighboring MiraBay, an upscale waterfront home community rising out of the ground on its northern border. The county is negotiating with MiraBay's developers to create a trail system through Wolf Branch for public access.
"It's a tribute to the citizens of Hillsborough County who have twice, by vast majority, voted to tax themselves to purchase and protect environmentally sensitive lands."
- Commissioner Jan Platt
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Nature's handiwork is stunning, but this canvas got a friendly boost from the restoration team at SWIM, the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Surface Water Improvement and Management Program, which helped sculpt this wetland at Wolf Branch Creek just two years ago. At right, a reddish egret graces the water. |
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If you build it, they will come
Formerly a member of the SWIM design team assigned to Wolf Branch, Turbiville says the first task was creating a blank slate by eradicating exotic vegetation, then sculpting both isolated and interconnected wetlands to attract fisheries and other wildlife. Juvenile fish require lower-salinity habitats at critical stages of development; the wetlands are also important foraging grounds for wading birds.
Construction of phase one - involving the creation of 181 acres of new estuarine and freshwater wetlands, restoration or enhancement of an additional 134 acres of altered wetlands, and removal of exotics covering some 280 acres of uplands - began in March 2001 and was completed just one year later. Phase two, now underway, combines an aggressive upland planting program to improve habitat and combat re-infestation by exotic species with wetland maintenance to ensure success of the initial effort.
The restored property already is welcoming new residents, from roseate spoonbills, reddish egrets and wood storks to at least one bobcat. "He was foraging near the salterns," says Turbiville, referring to the salty, almost barren grounds that receive only a few inches of water on a high tide. Small fish get stuck there to the delight of hungry birds. Simply by filling a huge ditch in the existing salt barrens on site, the restoration team enabled the expansion of the rare and valuable habitat to the east.
"To take a piece of earth with little or no habitat value and restore critical wildlife habitat - it's a great success story," Turbiville adds.
ELAPP's Sweet 16
Wolf Branch Creek marks the 20th purchase for the county's ELAPP program, which is celebrating its 16th year. Established in March 1987 by voter referendum, ELAPP provided for the collection of a .25 mil tax for four years, initially raising about $21 million for the purchase and protection of environmentally sensitive lands. A second referendum in 1990 authorized the county to issue bonds up to $100 million to be retired by the levy of ad valorem taxes, not to exceed .25 mil in any one year, for up to 20 years.
"It's a tribute to the citizens of Hillsborough County who have twice, by vast majority, voted to tax themselves to purchase and protect environmentally sensitive lands," says County Commissioner and long-time bay advocate Jan Platt.
ELAPP has acquired a little more than 37,000 acres at a cost of $136 million, but what's most remarkable, says Platt, is the extent to which partnerships have stretched those investments. Almost 40% of the $136 million has come from partners, including the state, the water management district and other agencies.
ELAPP's most recent major acquisition was the 1450-acre Fish Hawk tract south of Brandon, purchased for $9.6 million with 50% funding from the district and 25% from the Florida Communities Trust.
Hillsborough County is negotiating with the developers of MiraBay to create a trail system through Wolf Branch for public access. In addition to a colorful cast of wading birds, lucky visitors to the preserve just might spot a bobcat like the one shown here.
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