This is information on the Black Bear Corridor (FYI).
I attended a meeting yesterday, a committee meeting, and yes, some of the players are Rick Lint chairperson, 2 other USFS people, Linda Devours just to name a few of the players. FDOT was represented, and I believe OGT was represented along with someone from Marion County and a few others.
The website is
www.sr40.com. There is a public meeting in January 18, 2007 at Silver Springs Cypress Room, at 4:00 pm. till 7:00 pm. There will be public displays etc about what they want to do. There will also be another one on January 25th but I don't know where. They have already in South Florida brought land to preserve for the Black Bear Corridor. Which is below.
Black Bear May Gain Corridor In Pasco
By JULIA FERRANTE The Tampa Tribune
Published: Nov 24, 2006
NEW PORT RICHEY - A 210-acre parcel long sought for Florida black bear habitat has been added to Pasco County's preservation acquisition list.
County commissioners on Tuesday authorized their attorneys and Environmental Lands Acquisition and Management Program officials to order appraisals and negotiate with the owners of Aripeka Heights, which is west of U.S. 19 off Aripeka Road.
Aripeka of Pasco LLC, a partnership involving Inland Homes and LandBuilder of Tampa, purchased the property from the Berdeaux family in December after another developer secured approval for 235 houses, according to county property records. As a condition of county approval, a bear corridor was to bisect the development and the habitat was to be managed by a federal or state agency.
The developers were counting on the Southwest Florida Water Management District, which once sought to buy the property from the Berdeaux family, to manage the bear corridor, but the district was not informed and did not agree to the arrangement, district officials said. One of the partners in Aripeka of Pasco, John Buehler, subsequently nominated the land to the county preservation program.
Members of the Gulf Coast Conservancy in Aripeka, which once nominated the property for county purchase without the Berdeaux family's consent, applauded the decision. The group long has sought to incorporate the property into a bear corridor stretching from Citrus and Levy counties to the Sea Pines subdivision in Hudson.
A study conducted from 1997 to 2002 by the University of Kentucky found one female bear living in Aripeka and several males traveling through the area.
The Florida branch of Defenders of Wildlife, a nonprofit group based in St. Petersburg, also encouraged the county in a recent letter to preserve the land to protect threatened black bears.
The county's preservation selection committee evaluated the land and found it has exceptional wildlife and wetlands habitat.
Environmental Lands Program Manager Rene Wiesner Brown said the Aripeka Heights property is part of the Coastal Marshes Ecological Planning Unit and includes rare sandhill habitat and high-quality wetlands. A committee examining the land found gopher tortoise and federally listed scrub jay habitat.
Also Tuesday, the commission agreed to pursue purchase of 206 acres along Cypress Creek in Wesley Chapel within an area identified as a critical linkage. Bobcats, deer, barred owls, Florida mottled ducks, red-shoulder hawks, roseate spoonbills and sandhill cranes have been found on the property. The land is north of the planned Cypress Creek development of regional impact, which includes a mall, smaller commercial businesses and houses.
Brown said the potential preserve includes trails that could be incorporated into a county system.
"Although this is an urbanizing area, there is a lot of wildlife usage in this area," Brown said.
Commissioner Pat Mulieri, who represents Wesley Chapel, commended Brown and the preservation committee for finding a preserve in her fast-growing central Pasco district.
The board rejected a third possible acquisition of 49.8 acres - almost entirely wetlands - at Cabbage Slough, also near Cypress Creek.
The selection committee recommended against the purchase because the property already was set aside as part of the Cypress Creek DRI as a condition of the development's approval. It is not in a critical linkage.
Commissioner Ted Schrader questioned why the county would not want to take over management of the wetlands to ensure protection. The property cannot be developed because it is almost entirely wet.
Brown said committee members were concerned that if they agreed to buy the property and take over management of the wetlands for the developer, other builders would seek to have the county do the same. Managing the property is an expense, and the county program has limited funding.
The environmental lands program was created in 2004 after voters approved the Penny for Pasco, a 1-cent local-option sales tax. A portion of the tax revenue partially funds the preservation program along with road projects, new schools and fire stations.
