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Robinson Preserve - Transformation Begins
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by Mary Kelley Hoppe
It’s a rough ride across dirt roads at this waterfront parcel in Bradenton where bulldozers are mowing down masses of invasive vegetation and trees big enough to dwarf the earthmoving equipment.
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Photo courtesy Manatee County |
But instead of making way for new homes, the site is undergoing a transformation of another kind as Manatee County begins work on its newest and largest coastal preserve.
The 487-acre Robinson Preserve was a hair’s-breadth away from becoming Southwest Florida’s latest waterfront golf course community. Plans had been approved for 400 homes when the county approached owner Bill Robinson about purchasing the tract. Appraised at $17 million, the county acquired it in January 2003 for $10 million including a $6-million state grant. Its market value has doubled since then.
Lush mangroves fringe the peninsula that wraps around Tampa Bay’s southern tip into Perico Bayou. Farmers began tilling the inlands for row crops in the 1920s, and later raised bulb flowers for export, relying on the bay’s warm waters to provide protection from frosts. Fallow for decades, large stretches of land were overtaken by exotic species such as the Brazilian pepper tree and Australian pine that grow quickly and crowd out native plants and wildlife.
Restoration plans call for removing exotic vegetation and restoring a mosaic of native wetland and upland communities with hiking trails, boardwalks and primitive campsites. Snaking through the Preserve will be a 2.5-mile blueways trail running from the Manatee River south to Perico Bayou with connections to Roberts Bay south of State Road 64.
And in the first experiment of its kind, hardy Australian pine stumps will be turned upside down to create artificial reefs in a series of interconnected fishing lakes on site.
At least one Australian pine avoided the construction ax when workers discovered a great horned owl nesting in the tree.
“This will be an ecological gem for the region,” says biologist Tom Ries of Scheda Ecological Associates, the Tampa firm hired to design and oversee the restoration. Tampa Bay is just one of the beneficiaries. For the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, a major partner in the effort, Robinson Preserve is its largest habitat restoration project to date. The restoration will improve tidal circulation to Perico Bayou and waters to the south emptying into Sarasota Bay.
Robinson also features a number of native habitat communities, including rare high marsh saltern habitat. The strategy here, says Ries, is to keep construction crews out. “These areas need only a little help and some selective removal of exotic plants to bounce back.”
Scientists are conducting baseline vegetation and wildlife surveys before and during construction to give citizens and scientists alike a barometer for measuring the success of restoration efforts.
Building a Coastal Legacy
While significant on its own, Robinson Preserve commands even greater importance on a regional conservation scale. Across Perico Bayou, Manatee County is negotiating to purchase 130 acres of uplands and more than 150 acres of wetlands from St. Joe Corp (formerly Arvida), which is building condominium towers and homes on adjacent property. The southern tip of the Perico parcel adjoins the 119-acre Neil Preserve.
“As the crow flies, we’ll have a tremendous lasting coastal preserve stretching from Cockroach Bay to Terra Ceia Preserve south to Emerson Point, Robinson Preserve and beyond,” says Charlie Hunsicker, director of Manatee County’s conservation lands department.
Hunsicker credits numerous partners for making restoration of Robinson Preserve possible. The $5-million restoration includes funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Southwest Florida Water Management District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Sarasota Bay Estuary Program. “The partnership is proof that something beyond our grasp was not beyond our reach,” he says.
Residents got their first glimpse of the preserve-in-the-making at a public tour in June that drew more than 100 interested citizens. Additional tours are planned throughout the construction so residents can see the restoration unfold. The tours are part of an environmental education program the county is developing to help citizens learn more about the native wildlife and habitat being preserved. Robinson Preserve is scheduled to open in 2008.
Meanwhile, tractors continue to scrape and sculpt the dirt in preparation for planting and structural work next year. “It just dwarfs anything we’ve ever done,” says preserve manager Keith Bettcher.
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From Farmer’s miracle to fishing reef Local farmers once planted rows of the fast-growing Australian pine tree along the edge of their fields to protect their crops from windstorms. Only decades later did “the farmer’s miracle” fall from favor when biologists recognized the threat to native habitat from the imported trees, which spread quickly and drop needles that contaminate the soil killing plants beneath them. Now, counties are spending millions of dollars to eradicate the species. At Robinson Preserve, a few uprooted Australian pines will get a new lease on life as artificial reefs. Planted roots-side up on the bottom of lakes, biologists hope the hardy submerged structures will attract encrusting organisms and the fish that love them. |