Subject:
Title
2026 grant application for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission Gopher Tortoise Habitat Management Assistance Funding.
label
Recommended Action:
Recommended Action
Approval by the Pinellas County Utilities Director to electronically submit the 2026 grant application to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission for the Gopher Tortoise Habitat Management Assistance Funding.
• Grant request of $29,923.00 with no matching funds required or committed.
• Expenditures and Revenue will impact Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.
• The Department Director is authorized to approve this file based on the attached memo - Delegation of Authority and Improved Grant Procedures.
• Revenue for this grant is not represented in the FY26 Operating Budget. The Office of Management and Budget confirmed expenditure budget, however, revenue for this grant has not been budgeted. Approval of this grant will generate unanticipated revenue in the amount of $29,923.00 and could be recognized by budget amendment.Body
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Strategic Priorities:
Resilient Infrastructure and Environment
1.4 Improve environmental quality
1.5 Strengthen resilience and adaptation
Summary:
The return of over-grown, fire suppressed upland habitats by conducting selective hardwood canopy removal, to increase groundcover forage for gopher tortoises, and promote long-term habitat management using prescribed fire. Cut hardwoods will be girdled and treated with herbicide to prevent regrowth and promote reestablishment of pine dominated community. Once canopy reduction is complete, native groundcovers will naturally recruit, as Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been observed in adjacent, previously treated units. This will provide additional forage for tortoises and meet the required coverage for desirable habitat criteria.
Background/Explanation:
The proposed project area is a continuation of restoration units funded by FWC in 2020, 2021, and 2022. The goal is to continue the prior successful hardwood reduction restoration activities into adjacent suitable gopher tortoise habitat. These are all within management units within the designated Core Conservation Area of Cross Bar & Al Bar Ranches (CB/AB). CB/AB consists of 12,381 acres, owned and managed by Pinellas County Utilities (PCU), and is primarily used as a regional well field operated by Tampa Bay Water (see attached Location Map). Al Bar Ranch was purchased specifically for, and effectively functions as, a conservation buffer to the potable supply wellfield on Cross Bar Ranch. Cross Bar/Al Bar is not under a formally designated conservation easement but is privileged with regulatory protection under Tampa Bay Water’s Consumptive Use Permit for potable public supply. Wetland augmentation on both sites, also regulated with WMD water use permits, is part of an overall ecosystem plan to maintain naturally occurring water levels in the wetlands on site and maintain baseline levels of ecological services. Current management of CB/AB is based on a mixed-use resource management plan developed for the site in 1992, which called for the creation of high yield pine plantations while balancing the water supply program, agricultural operations, and wildlife habitat management.
Fiscal Impact:
The grant application request is for $29,923.00 with no cost share required. Expenditures and revenues will impact FY26, Utilities operating budget under the Land, Forestry and Wildlife cost center.
Revenue for this grant is not represented in the FY26 Operating Budget. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) confirmed expenditure budget, however, revenue for this grant has not been budgeted. Approval of this grant will generate unanticipated revenue in the amount of $29,923.00 and could be recognized by budget amendment.
Delegated Authority:
The Department Director is authorized to approve this file based on the attached memo - Delegation of Authority and Improved Grant Procedures
Staff Member Responsible:
Jeremy Waugh, Director, Pinellas County Utilities
Partners:
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission
Attachments:
Intent to Apply Acceptance Memo
Grant Applications (2) - includes location maps
Delegation of Authority and Improved Grant Procedures Memo