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Cockroach Bay Preserve To Grow

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By SUSAN M. GREEN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 14, 2007

GULF CITY - Hillsborough County nature lovers' favorite bug is about to get bigger.

County commissioners last week approved spending $650,000 to buy a 30-acre patch of farmland and mangrove swamps that is surrounded by county-owned Cockroach Bay preservation land. They also authorized paying up to $4,000 in transaction fees through the taxpayer-funded Environmental Lands Acquisition and Protection Program.

The waterfront tract off Cockroach Bay Road stands out like a missing puzzle piece on maps of the preserve. County officials said they made unsuccessful attempts to buy the parcel in the 1990s.

"Now we own the entire peninsula of Cockroach Bay," said Forest Turbiville, who oversees conservation land for Hillsborough's Parks, Recreation and Conservation Department.

"It will prevent development of any homes in there," he added. "We get to protect and preserve the land."

The acquisition also will make it easier to manage the preserve with nuisance plant eradication and periodic prescribed burns, Turbiville said.

"We don't have to worry about smoking people out when we do prescribed burns," he said.

Information provided to county commissioners last week cited a planner's opinion that two homes could have been built on about 8.5 acres of upland area.

Turbiville said the site's owners, Patrick and Judy Milam of Gibsonton, made a good dent in the thick Brazilian pepper trees that had sprung up on the property. Now preserve caretakers can keep tabs on the site, he said.

"There are already some seedlings popping back up," Turbiville said.

The parcel will become part of 1,030 acres of county-owned preservation land on Cockroach Bay, including islands, Turbiville said.

About 500 acres of the preserve has been earmarked for coastal habitat restoration under the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Surface Water Improvement and Management program. Construction began in 1996, and only 75 acres of wetlands remain to be rehabilitated. The last phase of restoration is expected to start next year.

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

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