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Watchdogs Ponder Preserve Uses

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 12, 2007

Updated: 12/10/2007 10:44 pm

WIMAUMA - Just inside the gate, a sign carries a message that seems pretty clear: "This site has been protected for the purpose of mitigating the impacts of land development on wildlife populations and their habitat."

The sign marks an entrance to Bullfrog Creek Scrub, a 1,620-acre stretch of woods and scruffy shrubs between U.S. 301 and Interstate 75, south of fast-developing Big Bend Road. Bullfrog Creek snakes through the trees on its way to Tampa Bay, and the piece was acquired in 1996 through Hillsborough's Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program, largely to preserve that stream.

In a former cow pasture on the creek's north side, saltbush blooms glisten in the sun. Hardly any people visit the site. County workers keep the rough dirt drive passable for maintenance purposes, but no one without a four-wheel-drive would willingly venture over the ruts left by feral hogs and fickle weather.

Who would miss a little corner of the tract?

That's the thinking of more and more officials faced with trying to provide road improvements for a growing population that has pushed the price of land higher and higher.

Earlier this year, county officials negotiating with the Florida Department of Transportation to widen U.S. 301 suggested putting a series of stormwater retention ponds on the Bullfrog scrub site.

The ELAPP general committee, made up of county residents and officials paid to oversee the program, has deflected similar requests over the years.

"A stormwater pond, as required by DOT, is just kind of a hole in the ground," said Peter Fowler, a division manager with Hillsborough's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department.

"It just doesn't do anything for habitat or the environment. ... We don't need drainage ponds on ELAPP sites. It's really almost contrary to what we do."

This year, after investigation and hand-wringing and compromise, the committee agreed to allow the conversion of about 15 acres of Bullfrog's former pastureland to a sump and wetland system that mimics nature. Designed to be inviting to marsh-loving wildlife and filter pollution before it enters the creek, the project is expected to fulfill roadway drainage requirements but also ease the consciences of environmental watchdogs who oversee the county's preservation sites.

A conservation easement will be placed on the site to prevent future development. The ELAPP program also is to receive full reimbursement for the converted acreage, with a price calculated as if the property could go on the market for development, said Kurt Gremley, who negotiates ELAPP purchases for Hillsborough's Real Estate Department.

Details are to be worked out this month. But at today's prices, the money could go a long way toward buying more land for preservation, officials said.

After an hour-long debate in September, the ELAPP general committee approved the deal, but not without worrying that it might set a precedent for future tradeoffs.

Even now, Ann Paul, an Audubon of Florida biologist who serves on the committee and recommended the compromise, isn't sure members did the right thing.

"It's easier for DOT to put these things on land owned by the county," she said. "It's easier than having to acquire land from another private landowner and maybe ending up with condemnation proceedings.

"In general, it's not good to put these projects on county-owned land, especially environmental lands of the county.

"In retrospect, if this sets a precedent, it was a bad decision," she said.

Paul and others said the decision stemmed from efforts to find alternative sites for the stormwater ponds. As a result, two of three ponds requested will go elsewhere, she said.

One site eyed near Bullfrog Creek was a junkyard, and there was concern that pollution could harm the creek if the land was dug up for a pond. Other options potentially involved condemnation of people's homes.

"We felt that was harsh, although I think in many cases that's going to be the better solution," Paul said.

She said the planned wetland should provide ideal conditions for threatened Florida sandhill cranes, which need marshy areas for nesting but uplands for forage. Other birds also are expected to flock to the site, but animals that thrive in dry fields and forest will find their territory cut short.

Fowler said some government officials look on land acquired through the taxpayer-funded ELAPP program as potentially cheap, convenient solutions to the squeezed budget for infrastructure improvements. He said ELAPP officials often set aside land along a new tract's perimeter for road right of way, anticipating that it will be requested in the future, but otherwise typically resist encroachment.

He and Forest Turbiville, who oversees the parks department's Conservation Services, said Bullfrog is hardly the first time development has tried to nibble at land bought for preservation. About four years ago, Turbiville said, ELAPP officials fended off a request to build a wetland on about 5 acres of the Triple Creek site in south Hillsborough to make up for marsh damage associated with bridge improvements elsewhere.

The ELAPP committee has agreed to a 30-acre wetland area to be created on its Little Manatee River tract and previously approved a similar 2-acre project at Balm Scrub. Those projects are considered mitigation for road work that altered wetlands, Turbiville said.

ELAPP sites also have been designated gopher tortoise mitigation areas, providing habitat for the threatened species when it is displaced from its native home.

Stormwater ponds are not considered mitigation, Fowler and Turbiville said, and trading uplands for wetlands isn't always in wildlife's best interest. The Bullfrog Creek pasture, though overgrown with nuisance plants, had been earmarked for some sort of upland restoration when funding became available.

It's up to the program's managers and the general ELAPP committee to determine what types of land uses are appropriate on preservation tracts, Turbiville said.

"There are always concerns about converting upland habitat to wetlands for things such as this," he said, referring to the stormwater pond request. "The general committee has to see it as a net environmental benefit."

Reporter Susan M. Green can be reached at (813) 865-1566 or sgreen@tampatrib.com.

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