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SWIM Program Marks 20 Years
Restoring Tampa Bay
By Mary Kelley Hoppe
 Volunteers plant marsh grass along the shore at Schultz Preserve. |
Snaking through a dense thicket of
mangroves at E.G. Simmons Park northwest of Ruskin, Brandt Henningsen pauses at a tiny sunlit clearing. Before him, a
forest of red mangrove trees spread their
arching roots into the mud, awaiting the
incoming tide and the tiny fi sh that will
seek shelter here.
“This to me is just a work of art,” says
Henningsen, a senior scientist with the
Southwest Florida Water Management
District’s Surface Water Improvement
and Management (SWIM) Program, which marks its 20th anniversary this year.
Straddling a tidal creek winding its way
out to Tampa Bay, the fl ourishing mangrove
fringe gives no hint of its rebirth. In the
1960s, dredging to create upland for a new
county park erased a mangrove island anchoring this spot, leaving behind a stagnant
dead-end boat basin. Decades later, it would
be given a new lease on life as one of the first
coastal habitat restoration projects designed
by the SWIM program.
Modest by today’s standards, the 14-acre
restoration at E.G. Simmons Park completed
in 1990, was then the largest coastal restoration on Tampa Bay. The site was resculpted
to create meandering tidal creeks and salt
marshes that eventually were recolonized by
mangrove seedlings fl oating in on the current.
Mature mangroves now provide a booming
nursery, flush with fi sh darting in and around
the crimson roots and birds nesting in canopies 20-feet high in places.
The SWIM program has gone on to restore
more than 2,000 acres of coastal wetlands and
uplands at nearly 60 sites around Tampa Bay. But its reach extends much further. In the
state’s southwest district, the program covers a 16-county region, and has completed
more than 240 projects on priority lakes,
estuaries and rivers within its jurisdiction,
from the Rainbow River in Marion County
south to Charlotte Harbor. While its main
focus is habitat restoration, SWIM also conducts aerial seagrass
mapping and water
quality studies, and
designs stormwater
treatment systems.
The legislation creating the
state’s Surface Water Improvement
and Management program in 1987 was the
fi rst concerted effort to restore saltwater
and freshwater systems throughout Florida.
Implemented by the state’s fi ve water management districts, it provided badly needed
funding to begin replenishing critical fi sheries and wildlife habitat lost to development. These same wetland and upland habitats not
only shield coastal areas against storms and
erosion, they also fi lter pollutants carried off
the land in stormwater runoff.
Before the SWIM program, funding for
habitat restoration was scarce. “In those days
when you got $5,000 to $10,000 you thought
you were in the big money,” says Mike Perry,
the program’s fi rst executive director, who
now oversees the Lake County Water Authority. The new legislation brought more
than $5 million to the region in the early
years, about half
of which was earmarked for Tampa
Bay. “Without that,
we never would have
been able to show
the benefi ts of largescale restoration,”
he said.
Tampa Bay was designated a priority water
body in the legislation, at the urging of then-Governor Bob Martinez and the Agency on
Bay Management, an advisory committee of
the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council
that lobbied hard for the program.
Fortunes Turn
After decades of pollution and disregard,
Tampa Bay was beginning to rebound. Water
quality was improving and seagrasses began reclaiming long-barren areas. The turning
point came in 1980 when the City of Tampa
replaced its aging sewage treatment plant
with a new advanced wastewater treatment
facility, which reduced by 90% the nitrogen
in its discharges to the estuary.
Countering losses and damage to coastal
habitats, however, would prove far more difficult. “You can’t just talk about restoration,”
said Perry. “It was time to put down the pencil and pick up the shovel.”
Since the 1950s, about half of the marsh
and mangrove wetlands rimming Tampa Bay
have been dredged and fi lled, mostly to create
dry land for residential development. Some
habitats have declined more rapidly than others, especially low-salinity streams that are
important nurseries for young snook, redfi sh
and tarpon. Coastal development also has
claimed critical foraging areas for birds like
the white ibis. With its curved orange-red
beak and habit of traveling in flocks, the ibis is
one of the most recognizable of Tampa Bay’s
wading birds. But despite its familiarity, it is a
species in trouble.
Scientists estimate that its population may have declined by as much as 70% in the last
35 years, prompting the Florida Fish and
Wildlife Conservation Commission to designate it a “species of special concern.”
Ibis nest along the coast but require freshwater crayfi sh and insects to feed their young,
which cannot tolerate the saltwater animals
their parents eat. As small freshwater ponds
have given way to evelopment, the parents
are forced to travel farther and farther inland
to find food.
These specialized habitats fi gure prominently in SWIM restoration plans. “We try
to create a mosaic of habitats to support a
wide variety of animals,” says Henningsen,
who has been with SWIM almost since its
inception and designed many of its restoration projects. The agency works closely with
the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, whose bay
restoration blueprint calls for restoring the
historic balance of coastal habitats to 1950s
levels.
Those goals include restoring at least 100
acres of low-salinity habitats every five years,
while preserving the bay’s 18,800 acres of
marshes and mangroves. From 1995 to 2001,
more than 378 acres of low-salinity habitats
were restored, far exceeding the original target. Another 2,350 acres of marsh and mangrove habitat were restored from 1996 to
2003. Much of the work is credited to SWIM,
which today employs a dozen biologists and
engineers and has an annual budget of $12 to
$14 million. Funding is supplemented by the
water management district’s basin boards, local government partners and grants.
“We’ve gone from 20- to 40-acre projects to restoring 200 to 400 acres of habitat a
year,” says Jennette Seachrist, director of the
local SWIM program.
Meanwhile, the SWIM program is working
with cities and counties to clean up pollutants
fl owing directly to the bay from stormwater
outfalls that drain neighborhoods, roads and
commercial areas. Prior to 1984, the state
did not require stormwater treatment for developments.
“We look for regional systems so we can
treat larger stormwater areas,” says SWIM
engineer Janie Hagberg. “But it’s getting
harder and harder to fi nd those projects because less land is available.”
Land, Partnerships Critical to Success
Conservation lands purchases by state
and local partners proved pivotal in the early years of SWIM. In 1987, Hillsborough
County voters overwhelming approved a
quarter-mil property tax to create the Environmental Lands Acquisition and Purchase
Program (ELAPP), patterned after a similar
program in Pinellas County. Three years later, Governor Martinez established Preservation 2000, the largest state conservation land
acquisition program in the country. The 10-year program bankrolled $300-million a year for the purchase of environmentally sensitive lands with funding from bonds and documentary
stamps. The Southwest Florida Water Management District and local governments began acquiring parcels for preservation and restoration, including prime real estate along Tampa Bay.
Public lands have provided vast laboratories
in which to test techniques for restoring impaired habitats. Nowhere have those opportunities
been more evident than along the southeastern shores of Tampa Bay. Purchases
of large and small tracts from the Alafia River to the Manatee River have enabled the SWIM program to restore almost 20 miles of estuarine shoreline. A string of preserves now extends from north of Apollo Beach to Emerson Point in Bradenton, surviving and thriving in the midst of the region’s housing boom.
“Land is being gobbled up (by private developers), but the opportunities are still there,” says Ruskin resident and Southshore activist Mariella Smith, who recently nominated
an 1100-acre parcel along the Little Manatee River for county purchase. “You start putting all these pieces together and SWIM is really connecting habitats into wildlife corridors.”
 At Cockroach Bay, volunteers lend a hand installing plugs of marsh grass along a restored tidal lagoon. |
At Cockroach Bay near Ruskin, the SWIM program is in the final phase of a 650-acre restoration touted as one of the most successful
coastal restorations in the state. Hillsborough
County acquired the farmlands and shell mines bordering the state aquatic preserve
in 1991. Three large shell pits, which once supplied fill base for roadways, have been transformed into shallow tidal lagoons that connect to a series of braided channels, islands and coves spilling out into Tampa Bay. In 2006, hundreds of volunteers helped plant 22,500 plugs of marsh grass along the shoreline,
accomplishing the feat in under three hours. The lush inlets boast some of the best flats fishing in the bay.
“All three lagoons pop off and send water out into Cockroach Bay, and when the tide is high, allow water back in, creating different
salinities for different species of fish,” says Henningsen. One of the ponds treats stormwater
runoff from neighboring agricultural lands.
“I think people probably didn’t believe you could restore something back to its natural
state, but SWIM has proven that it can be done,” says long-time bay advocate and former
Hillsborough County Commissioner Jan Platt, who pressed for SWIM legislation as chairman of the Agency on Bay Management in the late 1980s.
Just across the Manatee County line at Bishop Harbor, restoration continues on the 2,000-acre Terra Ceia State Preserve. Finger-fill canals, all that remains of failed plans for a luxury waterfront community, will be reconstructed
into meandering tidal channels punctuated by small islands. More than 400 acres of uplands have already been cleared of invasive Brazilian pepper and Australian pine trees, and replanted with native slash pine, oak trees and wax myrtle.
 SWIM crews designed and constructed this braided tidal creek at Cockroach Bay near Ruskin to provide low-salinity fisheries habitat. |
Nestled between Cockroach Bay and Terra Ceia, on a 2,400-acre parcel once proposed
for a new power plant, SWIM is about to begin its biggest transformation yet. The district and Hillsborough County purchased the property, known as the Rock Ponds, from Tampa Electric Company in 2004. Local lore has it that the property was the site of a gaming
and drinking establishment popular during
the Prohibition era.
The project is likely to be the last of the grand-scale habitat restorations on Tampa Bay, according to Henningsen. Restoration is expected to take 10 years or more.
Public-Private Partnerships
“We’re getting to the point where there aren’t any more large public tracts available on the bay,” says Seachrist. Future projects will be smaller, but she expects plenty of them as local governments face state mandates to clean up impaired waters in their jurisdictions. Officials also hope to forge partnerships with private landowners who control some of the largest and most environmentally significant lands in the bay system.
Hopes may be rising following a 12-acre salt marsh restoration completed in June on an abandoned fish farm near Apollo Beach. TECO had purchased the land straddling Newman Branch Creek as a buffer between its Big Bend power plant and neighboring residential
communities. Tom Ries, founder of the nonprofit group Preserving the Environment
through Ecological Research (PEER) and a former SWIM biologist, approached TECO about working with SWIM to restore the parcel. TECO agreed to allow public access
and placed a conservation easement on the property, guaranteeing that it will never be developed. Ries helped secure federal grants and SWIM chipped in funding and restoration crews. The restoration is adjacent to the utility’s Manatee Viewing Center.
“This could help open the door for other private property owners to work with us,” says Henningsen, who acknowledges that partnerships are more likely to appeal to large companies with sizeable land holdings if issues
such as public access can be resolved.
“At the end of the day, I hope this helps people appreciate the foresight of our public land acquisition programs,” he adds. “A hundred
years from now, these may be the only green spaces left.”
HABITAT RESTORATION
Since its inception in 1987, the SWIM program has restored more than 2,000 acres of coastal and upland habitats in the Tampa Bay watershed. Another 2,300 acres are under construction or in design.
 Storm sewers are blamed for flushing a steady stream of trash into the bayou. |
#15 Clam Bayou Nature Preserve
Located between St. Petersburg and
Gulfport, this 120-acre habitat restoration and stormwater treatment project
expands upon the 1995 award-winning
Osgood Point restoration. Beginning in
2007, SWIM crews will regrade fi ll material and mosquito ditches to recreate
estuarine and freshwater wetlands and
coastal upland habitats. Two stormwater treatment ponds will be constructed to fi lter polluted runoff from outfalls
draining 850 acres of city lands developed before state stormwater rules were
enacted. A third treatment area is planned, pending additional land acquisition.
The preserve includes nature trails, a canoe/kayak launch, and observation decks
overlooking the bayou and Boca Ciega Bay.
#24 Emerson Point Preserve
Completed in 1999, this 30-acre restoration
of tidal channels and lagoons was sponsored by
the SWIM program in conjunction with Manatee County. The preserve is home to the Portovent Mound, one of the oldest Indian temple
mounds in Florida. More than 180 feet long by
80 feet wide, the fl at-topped hill shaded by ancient live oaks was built more than 1,000 years
ago by ancestors of the Timucua Indians. The
barrier island also features a replica of an Indian
midden constructed with recycled fi ll material
from the restoration. Nature trails and an obervation tower provide stunning vistas of the
bay and Sunshine Skyway Bridge.
#16 Cockroach Bay
Aquatic Preserve
Located near Ruskin, this
500-acre restoration project
sponsored by SWIM in cooperation with Hillsborough County and the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection
will be completed in 2008. Fallow farm fi elds and shell mining
pits have been converted into a
mosaic of freshwater, saltwater
and upland habitats, including
a series of shallow tidal lagoons
with graduating salinities to accommodate different species of
fish. The lagoons, which connect to a newly created braided
creek spilling out into the bay,
were constructed by filling
deep shell pits on the property.
Crews also salvaged an original salt barren after removing
135 tons of trash. Volunteers
planted more than 22,000 plugs
of marsh grass along the restored shorelines (see picture
page 7). The preserve includes
a boat ramp and paddling trails
through mangrove forests.
 |
#35 Schultz Preserve
Completed in 2004, this
120-acre restoration project at Port Redwing features rolling sand dunes,
tidal lagoons, salterns
and freshwater wetlands. Dune communities were
strategically positioned
to protect the northwest
shoreline against erosion
from waves generated by
passing ships. A rolling berm on the south end of the property provides a buffer between the preserve and future port development. The project included
creating a winding tidal lagoon punctuated by artifi cial reefs that are among
the largest and most complex in Tampa Bay. The reefs were hand-placed
to provide optimum fl ow-through, different sized openings and relief off the
bottom. The preserve is named in honor of the fi rst warden of the National
Audubon Society’s Tampa Bay Sanctuaries, Fred Schulz, and his wife Idah.
It is located in an area known as “the kitchen,” long revered for its seafood
bounty.
#30 Hendry Delta
Completed in 1989, this three-acre
salt marsh restoration at the mouth
of Redfi sh Creek was the SWIM program’s fi rst restoration project. Marsh
plants used in the restoration were harvested from a spoil island in Hillsborough Bay. The delta was formed from
bay bottom material dredged during
the construction of Port Manatee.
#43 Mobbly Bay
Wilderness Preserve
Located in Oldsmar, this peninsula at the north end of Old
Tampa Bay includes broad areas
of sensitive mangrove habitat as
well as coastal hammocks and
pine fl atwoods. The SWIM program completed restoration of
14 acres of low-salinity wetlands
here in 1998. Construction is
expected to begin in 2008 on the
second phase of the restoration,
a 140-acre project led by Pinellas
County. Plans involve naturalizing a canal that receives treated
wastewater from a sewage plant,
restoring additional low-salinity
marshes, and establishing a littoral shelf along an existing brackish water pond. Dense forests of
exotic vegetation have already
been removed from the site. The
City of Oldsmar is planning an
education center and other public use facilities at the north end
of the property. Plans also include hiking and canoe trails as
well as a public fi shing pier.