Purpose and History
Purpose:
The purpose
of the Florida Ecological Restoration Inventory (FERI) is to
provide access to this inventory of ecological restoration
projects via the internet. FERI on-line is an interactive
query, mapping, and analysis tool that allows a user to locate
planned, needed, or completed ecological restoration projects
within an area of interest in Florida. This information will
further the practice and science of restoration and assist
agencies and practitioners during restoration planning and
implementation. Industry, consultants, and agencies will be
greatly served by a publicly accessible database containing
profiles of specific restoration projects. This database will
minimize overlapping research and maximize data availability
and greatly assist State and Federal agency personnel in their
rule-making and enforcement activities. As more database
information becomes available, reliance on restoration
technologies will continue to grow in Florida, and associated
private industries are anticipated to grow correspondingly and
benefit from this inventory as well. This project is intended
to result in improved access to data that will aid regulators
in minimizing costs while maximizing ecosystem function on
disturbed lands.
History:
A project
inventorying restoration needs on state lands was completed by
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of
Ecosystem Management in 1998. The Restoration Inventory of
State Lands approached land managers of the Florida Department
of Environmental Protection Office of Aquatic and Managed
Areas and Division of Recreation and Parks, Florida Department
of Agricultural and Consumer Services Division of Forestry,
and Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission Division of
Wildlife to identify restoration needs on conservation lands.
A spatial
database of restoration sites was created using GPS data
collection and GIS mapping layers. Attribution for each
proposed restoration site included designating a project
number, a project name, a description of the scope of the
project, the existing habitat coverage and the restoration
target habitat coverage, and, where applicable, acreage. The
wetland restoration of traditional mitigation was included in
the inventory, as well as upland natural community
restoration, exotic species removal, and ecological protection
projects that are representative of the greater challenge of
ecosystem management.
The
GeoIndex Program, a MapObjects GIS application, was developed
to allow easy and informative querying of this inventory. This
application and supporting data was distributed to permitters
and planners in state agencies to serve as a tool in the
identification and designation of mitigation projects and was
distributed to state agencies. The Restoration Inventory of
State Lands was originally funded by an ISTEA grant from the
Florida Department of Transportation.
In 2000,
the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of
Sumberged Lands and Environmental Resources obtained a grant
to update the database, expand the inventory to other agencies
(hence the name change to Florida Ecological Restoration
Inventory), and make the database searchable over the
internet. These pages of the Florida Ecological Restoration
Inventory are a component of Intergrating
Florida Wetlands into A Statewide Ecological Restoration Program providing a compilation of the
locations of current and proposed restoration activities
within Florida.
2012 State of Florida