Fiscal Year 2009-2010 License Tag Grant Awards

Conserve Wildlife Tag Grants

Grant #: CWT 0910-01
Project Title: The Cooperative Conservation Blueprint for Florida
Agency: FWC, Div. of Habitat & Species Conservation
Grant: $59,000

Summary: This project proposes to capitalize on past successes and complete development of the Conservation Blueprint by 2010. The goal of the blueprint is to preserve Florida's "green infrastructure"; the natural resources (land, water, and wildlife) and working landscapes (cattle, forestry, agriculture) that support our economy, and quality of life.

The Blueprint process aims to use incentives to encourage private landowners to voluntarily implement conservation activities on their lands while working with state agencies and conservation organizations to utilize science based products for planning and management.


Grant #: CWT 0910-02
Project Title: Regional Species Conservation in Florida
Agency: FWC, Div. of Habitat & Species Conservation
Grant: $200,000
Summary: This grant will fund up to two staff positions for the FWC's regional operations. The FWC will be able to maintain critical species conservation functions as a result of this grant.

The goal of this project is to continue regional operations species conservation efforts. FWC regional operations staff manages nongame species with an emphasis on imperiled species management, and conducts regional species conservation projects. Staff will provide the following services:

• technical assistance statewide with wildlife issues

• conduct species conservation and monitoring projects

• develop and implement species conservation plans such as those underway for freshwater turtles and peregrine falcons.

Grant #: CWT 0910-03
Project Title: Partnering with private landowners to recover Florida's red-cockaded woodpeckers through FWC's Safe Harbor
Agency: FWC, Div. of Habitat & Species Conservation
Grant: $50,000

Summary: This grant will fund the program coordinator position for the FWC's Red Cockaded Woodpecker (RCW) Safe Harbor project.

The RCW Safe Harbor program works with private landowners to restore and maintain RCW habitat. The program provides assurances to landowners that their responsibilities will not increase if their management has the effect of increasing the RCW population. The program coordinator conducts active outreach to private landowners through presentations and workshops and by individually targeting private landowners in areas where RCWs are known to occur.


Grant #: CWT 0910-04
Project Title: Accessing the wealth of data buried in the FWRI's biological specimen collection
Agency: FWC, Fish & Wildlife Research Institute
Grant: $15,000

Summary:An accessible, user-friendly database is necessary to carry out the work of the FWRI Specimen Information Services (SIS). The immediate goal is to provide access to baseline/historical data stored in the collections in order to guide restoration efforts and management decisions of the Florida Wildlife Legacy Initiative (FWLI). With database support, FWRI will be able to provide information necessary for the proper management of Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) and to identify new SGCN.


Grant #: CWT 0910-05
Project Title: Determining the Social Environment regarding conservation of the Florida Black Bear in the Big Bend region
Agency: FWC, Bear Management Program
Grant: $23,000

Summary: This grant will fund a survey of the general public in the Big Bend region of Florida. The purpose is to assess public attitudes toward bears and bear management. This will form one part of a larger strategy to manage black bears in the region.


Grant #: CWT 0910-06
Project Title: Digital conversion of image library
Agency: FWC, Community Relations Office
Grant: $3,000 (Plus a generous donation of $5,000 from the William Howard Flowers, Jr. Foundation, Inc.)

Summary: This grant will enable the Media Services Section within the FWC's Community Relations Office to create a digital archive of FWC audio, image and video footage files. The FWC has thousands of files that need to be captured. Converting these files into a library will enable an editor to search a database for media (using keywords and other criteria). The resulting query would call up the media making it available for immediate use. This is an especially important feature to have when producing Web based and news-style video.


Discover Florida's Oceans Tag Grants

Grant #: DFO 0910-01
Project Title: Shorebird Recovery
Agency: FWC, Div. of Habitat & Species Conservation
Grant: $8,000

Summary: This grant will fund informational signs that will be posted near areas frequented by nesting shorebirds such as snowy plovers, least terns, black skimmers, roseate terns, and American oystercatchers. The purpose is to prevent unintended harm to the shorebirds and their nests from human activities and beach modification projects.


Grant #: DFO 0910-02
Project Title: FWC law enforcement field guide to marine life
Agency: FWC, Div. of Marine Fisheries Management and Division of Law Enforcement
Grant: $20,000

Summary: This grant will create a field guide to help FWC Law Enforcement officers with the enforcement of complex regulations governing more than 600 species of saltwater fish, invertebrates and plants, used primarily in the aquarium trade.

The education of law enforcement officers that are entrusted with helping to protect Florida's natural resources is a major concern. Many regulated marine life species closely resemble other non-regulated species. This project will result in a waterproof guide that will assist FWC officers with the enforcement of the complex marine life rules. This guide goes above and beyond current field guides that are on the market because it will show commonly confused species side-by-side, list the FWC regulations for the various species (including size and bag limits, individual and vessel limits, commercial licensing requirements, etc.) and be waterproof.


Grant #: DFO 0910-03
Project Title: "Boating and Angling Guide to the Treasure Coast - South"
Agency: FWC, Fish & Wildlife Research Institute
Grant: $5,000

Summary: Since 1991, the FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute has produced a very popular series of Boating and Angling Guides. Almost 2.5 million are currently in print. These attractive, map-based color guides are dedicated to not only providing useful information to boaters such as the locations of public ramps, marinas and attendant amenities, and waterway markers, but also information about the importance of conserving local habitats and species, ethical angling, and boating safety.

This project will produce a Boating and Angling Guide to Treasure Coast - south. Produced on waterproof paper, the guide will be durable when carried on a watercraft. The guide will include a large map and numerous graphics and narrative describing the local area environment, fishing practices, boating safety, etc. The Guide would also have a directory listing local telephone numbers and radio channels for numerous agencies and organizations such as FWC law enforcement, US Coast Guard, Weather Service, Sheriff's Offices, local parks and preserves, and even marine towing services.


Grant #: DFO 0910-04
Project Title: Common Snook (centropomus undecimalis) movements across the boundary of the Kennedy Space Center Estuarine Reserve
Agency: FWC, Fish and Wildlife Research Institute
Grant: $10,000

Summary: This grant will fund a study of the movement of common snook both in to and out of the Kennedy Space Center Estuarine Reserve. The goal of the study is to determine whether more of these prized sport fish are moving into the protected area than are moving out. The main benefit is to gather evidence to determine if establishing long-term reserves such as the KSC Estuarine Reserve leads to an increase the population of snook in the fishable waters outside the boundary of these reserves.