- Download the updated Hillsborough Bay Boater's Guide in our Publications section. The guide features a large map showing boating speed zones, boat ramps, artificial reefs and fishing piers, as well as nature preserves, restoration areas and important bird nesting islands.
- Let your kids have some fun while learning how to protect our waters with our Be Floridian coloring book, featuring our flamingo mascot Felix.
- Mulling a smoked mullet dinner? Learn about this quarter's Featured Creature, those wacky jumping fish that are a staple of Cracker Cuisine.
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My Favorite Pollinator Photo Contest
Congratulations to Bruce Imler of Tampa, winner of our "My Favorite Pollinator" photo contest on the Be Floridian Facebook page. Bruce's photograph of a monarch butterfly on a bottlebrush tree earned the most fan votes in our recent contest.
In honor of National Pollinators Week in June, Be Floridian's Facebook fans were asked to post pictures they had taken of pollinators in their own yards.
Bruce's photo garnered the most "likes" in fan voting. He was awarded a vintage 1950s Don Featherstone plastic pink yard flamingo. The yard flamingo is the mascot of our Be Floridian fertilizer education campaign. Check out our website or follow the flamingo on Facebook!
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TBEP STAFF ON THE GO
Office Administrator Ron Hosler's wife gave him a daddy-daughter fishing trip for Fathers' Day with local charter Captain Chris Haught.
Ron and daughter Liz,a senior at the University of Florida, had a great morning's catch of trout, Spanish mackerel and bluefish. But Liz took home "big fish" bragging rights, landing this very impressive sea trout. Ron is a humbled, but proud papa!
TBEP Executive Director Holly Greening represented TBEP at the Gulf of Mexico Alliance "All Hands" meeting in June in Tampa, and gave a talk on the Gulf NEPs at the networking session. Also in June, Holly spoke to a joint meeting of the Tampa Bay Association of Environmental Professionals and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
She even managed to find time for some fun: A week of cycling around Cape Cod with her husband and friends.
Holly also witnessed some very unusual bird behavior in her backyard, when doves, finches, flycatchers and tufted titmice all plopped down together to sun themselves -- some laid flat out with wings outstretched!
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Also in June, Project Scientist Ed Sherwood gave a presentation to the Florida Water Resources Council on collaborative research and policy projects of the three SW Florida NEPs. Among these cooperative efforts are water quality monitoring, seagrass mapping, and RESTORE Act project review and ranking.
Public Outreach Coordinator Nanette O'Hara gave a workshop on using Social Media in Stormwater Education at the Florida Stormwater Association conference in Ft. Myers in June. Nanette also spent July 4 week doing what she loves best: Fly fishing for tarpon, snook and redfish in the Everglades with her husband.
Environmental Science and Policy Manager Lindsay Cross is our long-distance vacation champion this summer, traveling to Barcelona and Majorca in Spain, and driving in an RV through the south of France, where she saw the cyclists in the Tour De France pass by -- very quickly!
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Tampa Bay: Mangrove Nursery
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Photo by Nanette O'Hara
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A common sight in Tampa Bay during the summer are these red mangrove "propagules," hanging from the parent trees. The cigar-shaped "props" will eventually fall and drift around the bay. If the prop is lucky enough to become stranded in a calm, shallow area, it will root, and a new mangrove tree will grow.
Mangroves are extremely beneficial residents of our estuary. They help to stabilize sediment and prevent erosion, serve as a natural shoreline armor against storms, and provide critical habitat for a variety of wildlife, from crabs that scurry along their limbs, to herons and egrets that nest in their canopy, to feisty snook that lurk among their tangled underwater roots, waiting to nab unwary baitfish swimming by.
Three types of mangroves are found in Tampa Bay: Red, Black and White. All produce propagules that must fall and remain in the water for a time in order for seed development to occur. The black mangrove's propagules resemble lima beans, while the white mangrove's props are pea-shaped.
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Revenues from the Tampa Bay Estuary plate, also known as the "Tarpon Tag," support TBEP grants to community organizations for projects that directly benefit Tampa Bay. Support the only specialty tag whose revenues stay solely within our community and our bay!
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Bringing Down The Barriers:
Channel 5 Project to Restore Tidal Connection, Benefit Fish
An innovative project to completely or partially remove a concrete weir on a channelized bay tributary in Pinellas County is nearing reality.
The project on Channel 5, just east of the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Airport, is expected to improve water quality and habitat for fish, especially juvenile snook. TBEP research has shown that young snook are highly dependent on low-salinity tidal creeks. These areas also provide critical foraging areas for wading birds.
Restoring the historic water flow patterns in Channel 5 was among the highest-ranked projects in an inventory of "salinity barriers" completed for TBEP by the consulting firm of GPI. These barriers, which may be weirs, culverts, roadbeds, bridges or railroad crossings, inhibit the flow of water between Tampa Bay and the many tributaries that provide the bay with life-sustaining freshwater. Channel 5 connects to what was originally a natural tidal creek, but was ditched in the 1950s to drain the surrounding wetlands for development and agricultural uses. It is now primarily a freshwater system separated from the full tidal reach of the bay by the concrete weir. Reuniting Channel 5 and other severed streams with the bay proper will improve water quality and provide fisheries habitat throughout the entire bay system, said TBEP Senior Scientist Ed Sherwood. "Restoring the natural flow and function of these tidal tributaries, many of which have been heavily altered by manmade activities, is an important part of our watershed management approach," Sherwood said.
The project will be one of the first salinity barrier removals on a wetland in Florida, he added, and perhaps the entire Southeast.
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Scientist walking along Channel 5 Wier
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A public meeting on the project will be held Wednesday, July 17 from 3-5 p.m. at the Pinellas Association of Realtors office on Ulmerton Road.
Baseline and post-project monitoring will assess the effects of removing the weir on water quality and fish utilization. The steep banks of the adjacent shoreline also are being graded and sloped, and marsh plants like needlerush installed. The more natural vegetated shoreline should attract small baitfish, crabs and other marine creatures that serve as food for larger fish like snook as well as wading birds.
The $200,000 project is being funded by multiple organizations, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. When complete, more than 76 acres of low-salinity habitat will be created.
Learn More:
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King Tide Photo Exhibit
Raises Awareness Of Rising Sea Levels
The Tampa and Sarasota Bay Estuary Programs have partnered to present "Chasing the Waves: King Tide." The free traveling photo exhibit launched June 6 at the Federal Building in downtown Sarasota. The photos will be on display at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota through July before traveling to other venues in Sarasota, Manatee, Hillsborough, and Pinellas counties.
The goal of the exhibit is to raise awareness about the effects of sea level rise on our shorelines, structures and communities. Images will include winning submissions to the King Tide Photo Contest held last year by both estuary programs. The exhibit will also include photos from the U.S., Australia, and small Pacific Island nations, showing the global impact of rising seas.
King Tides occur at certain times throughout the year when the moon is closest to the earth, causing extremely high tides. A new King Tides web site has recently been launched at http://kingtides.net This site offers participants and organizers of King Tide events around the world an opportunity to share photos and scientific data.
Chasing the Waves Tour Dates
Mote Marine Laboratory (Sarasota): July-August
South Florida Museum (Bradenton): September - October
Sarasota Bay Water Festival (Sarasota): November 2
Weedon Island Preserve (St. Pete): November 4 - 30
Robinson Preserve (Bradenton): January - February 2014
Oldsmar Public Library (Oldsmar): April 2014
St. Petersburg Main Library (St. Pete): May 2014
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Feather Sound Volunteer Planting
Nearly 40 volunteers dodged a thunderstorm and toughed out a steamy summer morning in June to plant marsh grasses and other native plants as part of our ongoing habitat restoration in the Feather Sound area of Pinellas.
 This is the second community planting workday at the site. Both have been jointly sponsored by TBEP and Tampa Bay Watch. When all phases of the work are complete, about 30 acres of tidal wetlands will be created, including nine acres of rare salt barrens - extremely high salt marshes that are important feeding areas for waterbirds. The site was criss-crossed with mosquito control ditches and overrun with invasive Brazilian pepper trees before contractors blitzed the pepper and blocked the ditches to create the salt barrens. An old borrow pit also is being restored to provide  high marsh habitat. At the June workday, volunteers of all ages installed 500 sand corgdrass and 2,500 seashore paspalum plants at two locations at the site. The plants will help to filter pollutants in runoff flowing to the area and create habitat for crabs, burrowing animals and other wildlife. Thanks to all the volunteers for their dedication and enthusiasm, and to our project partners with Tampa Bay Watch, Pinellas County, the Southwest Florida Water Management District , U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for their outstanding support!
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RESTORE Act Update
TBEP continues to work with its sister NEPs in Sarasota Bay and Charlotte Harbor to encourage allocation of funds from the federal RESTORE Act for restoration, research and education projects in West Central and Southwest Florida.
Earlier this year, the three NEPs worked with the Southwest Florida  Water Management District and local communities from Levy down to Collier County to collect, review and rank priority projects eligible for RESTORE Act funds. A final inventory of 100 projects, compiled as the Southwest Florida Regional Ecosystem Restoration Plan, were submitted to the Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council in March.
The effort was given a lift when the Council accepted the Plan and incorporated it on their list of "federally authorized" projects.
The RESTORE Act directs 80% of Clean Water Act fines associated with the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to economic and ecosystem restoration in the five Gulf states. The Gulf Council will receive 30% of these funds, to be used solely for environmental purposes.
How the funds will be allocated is far from being determined at this point, but TBEP Executive Director Holly Greening said the positive response to the regional restoration plan submitted by the three SW Florida NEPs is a hopeful sign.
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Community Advisory Committee Spotlight: Bill Bilodeau
St. Petersburg resident Bill Bilodeau has been a member of our Community Advisory Committee since 2012. Bill is a longtime professional gardener with a focus on native plant landscape design and maintenance. He is a past president of the Pinellas Chapter of the Florida Native Plant Society and coordinator of the local Gaia's Guardians, an Urban Permaculture Collective. He is also a member of St. Petersburg's Sustainable Urban Agriculture Coalition (SUAC), a city-wide group created to advance local urban agriculture.
 Earlier this year, Bill had the good fortune to spend 10 days in Cuba studying urban agriculture as part of a delegation of horticulturists and food producers from the U.S. and Mexico. He also took time to photograph life in historic Havana. He will be giving a presentation on his trip to the entire CAC at an upcoming meeting.
TBEP's Community Advisory Committee members represent a diverse cross-section of interests and organizations, but share a common concern for the health of Tampa Bay. The CAC meets about four times a year and supports TBEP by providing input on programs and policies, assisting with community events and volunteer workdays and selecting our Bay Mini-Grant recipients each year.
If you are interested in joining our dedicated group of "citizen-ambassadors," contact colleen@tbep.org.
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About the Tampa Bay Estuary Program
The Tampa Bay Estuary Program is an intergovernmental partnership dedicated to restoring and protecting Tampa Bay, Florida's largest open-water estuary. TBEP is one of 28 "Estuaries of National Significance" designated by Congress.
Our Policy Board is comprised of representatives from Hillsborough, Manatee and Pinellas counties; the cities of Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater; the Southwest Florida Water Management District; the Florida Department of Environmental Protection; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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