Road Ecology Center

Sarasota County is a growing Florida gulf coast community with a strong environmental ethic. As a community, Sarasota has strived to balance growth with habitat protection through a variety of avenues including funding the acquisition of ecologically valuable lands, promoting regional mitigation projects, and encouraging the protection of habitat corridors. Roadways remain one of the greatest threats to the areas protected by these measures, and fragmentation of lands into isolated patches threatens the inherent biodiversity of the landscape. To assess the extent of the problem, Sarasota County Road Program funded several ecological evaluations along local highway corridors. The objective was to identify valuable ecological resources impacted by roadway corridors and develop an integrated approach to reduce the impacts caused by fragmentation. Although these evaluations have been largely observational, when supported by more empirical studies, they have helped provide a framework for developing an objective land acquisition and management process and for formulating local policy. Information obtained through these evaluations has improved project efficiency and in certain instances, allowed for a smoother permitting process. Another significant outcome of the ecological evaluations has been the establishment of a Regional Offsite Mitigation Area program (ROMA) to facilitate the acquisition and restoration of native habitats, many of which “bridge the gap” between established county conservation lands. These land acquisitions and ROMA’s, provide compensation for unavoidable environmental impacts associated with infrastructure projects, including wetland mitigation and restoration of Florida scrub-jay and gopher tortoise habitats. Four ROMA sites, ranging from estuarine to scrubby flatwoods restorations, now exist in varying stages of development. Establishment of the ROMA program has not been without permitting hurdles. Differences between state and federal policy, subjectivity in Florida’s Unified Mitigation Assessment Methodology (UMAM), and lack of incentives for preserving upland habitat and creating artificial wildlife passages, have been some of the challenges faced by the program.