2018 Heartland to Headwaters

The Last Green Thread

2018 Heartland to Headwaters Expedition: Corridor at a Crossroads

Protection for Connection

With 1,000 new residents moving to Florida every day, development and transportation infrastructure are consuming natural and agricultural lands at a rate of 20 acres per hour. Roads like Interstate 4, while vital to the movement of people, create hard barriers to the movement of wildlife and water.

The remaining wild areas between Tampa and Orlando are quickly becoming isolated. Only three potential natural connection points remain linking the Everglades Headwaters south of I-4 to the Green Swamp north of I-4. As the two most extensive wetlands in the state, they provide freshwater flow to nearly 15 million Floridians.

The mission of the 2018 Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition was to navigate and document one chokepoint of the Corridor that can possibly still be saved. By exploring this narrow, but critical, connection we issue a call to action for additional conservation to protect and restore this remaining wild thread within a growing urban interface.

When:

April 15th – 22th 2018

Location:

Central Florida Headwaters/ Greater Orlando/ I-4 Corridor

Start/End:

Everglades Headwaters to the Green Swamp

Why The Expedition?

A CHECK-UP ON THE HEART OF THE CORRIDOR

This central Florida region may be the greatest risk to survival of the Corridor, a crossroads in the center of the peninsula with an already weak connection. Re-visiting this nexus was a strategic check-up on the health of the ecological “heart” to ensure the flow of wildlife and water to all parts of the Corridor.

A CRITICAL FRESHWATER RESOURCE

As the headwaters for the five central Florida rivers, this area supplies flow to residents in all directions throughout the state, connecting to Tampa Bay, the Nature Coast, Jacksonville and Miami. The Greater Green Swamp provides the headwaters four major rivers – the Hillsborough, Withlacoochee, Peace and Ocklawaha, crucial to 3 million residents in the greater Tampa Bay area and a million more in greater Ft. Myers and Charlotte Harbor. The Ocklawaha feeds the St Johns River and populations in central and eastern Florida, from Ocala to Jacksonville. Via the Everglades Headwaters at the edge of Orlando, the Greater Green Swamp also connects to the Greater Everglades – the largest watershed in Florida that serves as a freshwater source for more than 8 million residents.

LEVERAGING CITIZEN SCIENCE FOR ACTION

The Expedition informed ways to enhance or restore connectivity for wildlife and water supply. Using data from daily ecological wildlife and water surveys, the team strove to identify local biological hotspots and suggest ways that others can help monitor the health of the Corridor in years to come.