Tom Ries didn’t set out to create one of the most successful regional environmental non-profits in the nation. He’d been working for the Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD) and then as a partner with the environmental consulting firm Scheda Ecological Associates for over 20 years when one of Scheda’s first development clients asked for help designing a marina on the Manatee River in Palmetto in 2000.
While working on the design concept – which included one of the first large-scale living shorelines in the state – the client asked about a 26-acre site across the river that she wanted to sell. Another developer had approached her about building retail space, but she was hoping to keep it more natural. She asked Ries for help, but when he approached the City of Palmetto with a plan to buy the land for a park, they didn’t have the funds.
They did, however, approve of him asking for funds from the Florida Community Trust, which agreed to buy the land if there was a plan to restore the site. Ries went back to SWFWMD and asked if they’d restore the site if the design and permitting were in place, then persuaded the developer to fund that work. “The answer was a resounding yes,” Ries recalls. “So the developer paid Scheda for the design, SWFWMD made it happen and the City of Palmetto accepted responsibility for maintaining the site and adding park amenities.”
The result was the Palmetto Estuary Preserve, which won the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council’s Future of the Region environmental award in 2002. With that success story under his belt, Ries created Ecosphere Restoration Institute as a not-for-profit specifically to focus on public-private partnerships to restore natural areas in the Tampa Bay region.
Until his retirement in December 2022, Ries spent his days as a consultant for Scheda (now ESA) and his nights and weekends working on Ecosphere and creating a string of 25 projects impacting nearly 2,220 acres in Hillsborough County alone. Now retired – from taking a paycheck at least – Ries and Ecosphere are celebrating their 20th anniversary on November 17 with a fundraiser at Ulele Springs, one of Ecosphere’s most visible restoration projects on Tampa’s popular Riverwalk.
“It’s our first fundraiser in 20 years and it’s great to be held at Ulele,” Ries said. “We want to highlight our accomplishments and involve new people in our work going forward, so this is the perfect location with perfect timing, since I can now spend much more time on Ecosphere.”
Their plate is already full with major projects both locally and statewide, beginning with a $5 million initiative to replant coastal seagrasses statewide, including Tampa and Sarasota bays, the Indian River Lagoon, and St. Joseph’s Bay in the Panhandle. Other ongoing projects include:
- Newman Branch Creek, Ecosphere’s longest-running project, began in 2002 as a partnership with TECO near its Manatee Viewing Center. Since then, the partnership has resulted in seven different projects restoring 70 acres of abandoned agricultural properties and 100 acres of land that’s now under a perpetual conservation easement. Recently it secured funding from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program to implement a living shoreline project along the Newman Branch Canal system to demonstrate that nature-based shoreline stabilization techniques are better options than seawalls.
- The Thomas Tract, adjacent to the Fred and Ida Schultz Preserve in southeast Hillsborough County, is an abandoned fish farm being transformed into climate-ready habitat managed for tarpon and other recreationally important fish by SWFWMD. The site also will include the region’s first large-scale butterfly garden planted specifically for monarchs, funded through a US Fish and Wildlife Service grant that Ecosphere procured.
- MacDill Air Force Base encompasses one of the region’s largest undeveloped coastal properties and Ecosphere has been instrumental in helping them restore historic mangrove forests by removing spoil mounds that attract invasive species and restrict tidal flows that mangroves need to survive. It also has created 17 acres of salterns, hypersaline areas that are among the rarest habitats in Tampa Bay. Ecosphere is currently seeking grants to implement a five-acre marsh restoration project for rare black rails, a small ground-dwelling bird that lives in salterns and high marsh habitats and was recently listed as endangered.
- Design and permitting is underway for living shorelines at three adjacent residential sites on the Hillsborough River, the first private multi-owner living shoreline project in Hillsborough County.
- Ecosphere is also working on design and permitting plans for three residential canal owners in conjunction with the City of St. Pete Beach with funding from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program. When complete, the engineering plans will then be given, free of charge, to the surrounding waterfront landowners so they can easily implement the living seawall design on their property.
- Purity Springs in Tampa is another spring enhancement site that Ecosphere secured funding for the City of Tampa to implement. This site also includes a living shoreline component that will stabilize the eroded shoreline and provide an example for the surrounding residents to consider for their sites.
“It’s pretty amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish over the last 20 years,” Ries said. “Creating these public-private partnerships is a small niche in the restoration of Tampa Bay, but it’s going to be even more important going forward. There’s not as much land available for purchase by government agencies, so private owners will need to be more involved in restoration initiatives if we are to maintain this momentum.”
To make reservations to attend the 20th anniversary celebration, visit https://donorbox.org/events/510467