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Saving Special Places >
Keys Environmental Restoration Fund
Dedicated to the Restoration, Enhancement, and Management of Florida Keys Natural Areas
11399 Overseas Highway, Suite 4E
Marathon, FL 33050-3600
305-289-9988
305-289-0073 FAX
Jeanette Hobbs, Manager
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Florida Tree Snail on north Key Largo
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The unique geography of the Florida Keys has resulted in plant and animal communities more similar to Caribbean islands than to the rest of the United States, and some plants and animals are found nowhere else in the world. This unique geography also makes the Keys a highly desirable place to live and work, and development pressures in the Keys continue to increase. The serious concerns of near-shore water quality, along with fish and wildlife habitat degradation, coupled with the designation of the Keys as an Area of Critical State Concern, warrant the greatest possible efforts toward restoration, rehabilitation and preservation.
The Keys Environmental Restoration Fund is devoted exclusively to the restoration, enhancement and management of Florida Keys natural areas. All funds are devoted exclusively to on-the-ground projects that support or benefit the natural resources of the Keys. Priority for expenditure of funds is given to the most cost-effective methods of restoration and enhancement of disturbed natural communities including sea grasses, freshwater and marine wetlands, and upland hammocks and pinelands. These goals are accomplished through scrape-down of filled wetlands, filling of artificial canals and channels, removal and management of invasive non-native vegetation, filling and planting of scars in sea grass areas, and purchase of fee title or easements where significant restoration is possible. Funding for projects is obtained through grant sources; state and federal permit mitigation fees, fines and penalties levied for un-permitted development, and private donations.
To date, the Fund has completed 34 restoration projects, with another 15 active projects in various stages of planning and phased restoration. For wetland restoration alone, the Fund has removed fill from 35 acres and has removed 4 miles of abandoned roadbed, but the restored water flows have resulted in enhancement to approximately 1000 acres of wetland or near shore waters.
The majority of restoration projects occur on publicly owned lands, and those partners include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge, Great White Heron National Wildlife Refuge), the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Key Largo Islands GeoPark, John Pennekamp State Park, Lignumvitae Key State Botanical Site), Florida Department of Transportation, Monroe County, and the City of Key West.
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