Florida Wildlife Corridor – Aerial View of Florida Everglades at Sunset Hour – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by ocudrone
One of its largest financial gifts was disclosed by the Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation.
“It’s significant because it is helping us to be able to accelerate the pace of conservation and continue to advocate for the protection of the Florida Wildlife Corridor,” the foundation’s CEO Mallory Dimmitt said.
The $2.5 million bequest was provided by Clearwater residents and environmental benefactors Stu and Rebecca Sjouwerman. “Stu and I recognize that certain Corridor lands are in urgent need of protection lest they be lost to development forever,” Rebecca Sjouwerman said in a statement.
“Florida continues to grow rapidly, and so we want to keep pace on the conservation side with the growth that is happening,” Dimmitt said.
According to the foundation’s calculations, the Florida Wildlife Corridor, a statewide network of over 18 million acres of connected lands and waters extending from the keys to the panhandle, will lose almost 500,000 acres of land by 2030.
“They want to motivate others to also contribute to helping to protect the Wildlife Corridor: Other animal lovers out there, people who just love nature and conservation,” Dimmitt said of the Sjouwermans. “They’re hoping that their gift will bring others to contribute to the protection of the corridor.”
So what is the purpose of the $2.5 million?
“It’s going to be used for some of the critical linkages in the corridor. These are places that are really narrow where the geography of conservation lands is being squeezed by development on all sides. Some of these places are critical that we protect within this decade, and so their gift is really meant to help us focus on a couple of those bottlenecks, relatively close to the Tampa Bay area so that we can move them into conservation status, and then we won’t risk the sort of break in the larger wildlife corridor,” Dimmitt said.
Hernando County, in the Brooksville region, is one of these constrained tunnels. According to Dimmitt, connecting this territory will enable animals to continue traveling along their regular migratory routes.
A measure extending the Sun Trail Network was signed by the governor earlier this month, allowing visitors to use the trails to access the Corridor.
When the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act of 2021 was approved by the legislature and signed by the governor two years ago, it received a significant boost. It made it possible to spend $400 million on buying environmentally sensitive land.
“It’s fantastic to have the momentum from this gift, the momentum from our state legislature, and the funding that’s been available since the passage of the Act,” Dimmitt said.
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Chris began his writing as a hobby while attending Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida. Today he and his wife live in the Orlando area with their three children and dog.
