G.G. Fehér, D.E. Bracciano 1
The highly impacted ecosystem of a 370 acre former dairy site located adjacent to the Hillsborough River State Park, northeast of Tampa, Florida, was restored through the cooperation of the project sponsor-West Coast Regional Water Supply Authority (WCRWSA); the land purchaser - Hillsborough County; the land manager - Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Park Service) and several different permitting agencies. The Model Dairy site was chosen to provide 85 acres of wetland compensation for impacts associated with the construction of a regional, potable water, distribution system. Since the pipeline is a linear project, individual wetland impacts would have required multiple "postage stamp" size mitigation with minimal habitat value. As an alternative, the sponsor and regulatory agencies agreed on a single-site, large scale approach. The Model Dairy site provides the opportunity to enhance, restore and create wetlands on a site impacted by sixty years of logging, dairy operation, rim-ditching and draining of wetlands. Since the site is contiguous to the Hillsborough River State Park and within the greenway corridor for the Hillsborough River, the land was acquired by Hillsborough County through the Environmental Land Acquisition and Protection Program (ELAPP). The Florida Park Service intends to replant portions of the uplands to increase biodiversity consistent with its land management mandate. Following consensus on how to implement the mitigation a conceptual plan was approved by regulatory agencies and converted into final Construction Documents. Implementing the project included estimating historical wetland sizes and species composition, modeling of hydroperiods, ditch filling and planting floodplain and isolated wetland systems. By revitalizing the dairy property the long term beneficiaries of this project will include the flora and fauna using the restored wetlands and uplands, the ecosystem of the Hillsborough River, visitors using the Hillsborough River State Park and the people receiving their potable water from WCRWSA.
