Native Habitat Inventory Final Report 2004 - St. Lucie County

Site Data Summaries
Overview
This county-wide native habitat inventory will be used to assist the County’s Land
Acquisition Selection Committee in selecting the highest priority sites for preservation
via the Environmentally Sensitive Lands (ESL) Program. This series of tasks consisted
of collecting and reviewing existing data sources, identifying potential sites, requesting
access permission, developing field data, conducting the field inventory, and data
management and analysis.
Collect Existing Inventories
GIS and non-GIS ecological resource information for St. Lucie County and the Treasure
Coast region was identified and collected. The information sources were accessed in
several ways including:
• Review of County’s files including GIS data and reports
• Review of SFWMD, FWC and FNAI data and files
• Discussions with the Steering Committee
• Review of the gray and peer-reviewed literature
The purpose of identifying and reviewing existing data sources was to create an
understanding of the existing natural resources previously identified within St. Lucie
County. The Bibliography provides a list of sources and databases used in this study.
Identify Potential Sites for Surveying and Recommendations for Site Selection
The quantitative assessment of the acres of natural area lost and conserved indicated there
were 93,385 acres of potential natural area within the county. From this all existing
public lands were excluded. Then an initial subset was selected, it included all areas
designated as Areas of Conservation Interest or Potential Natural Areas by FNAI (51
sites and 44,031 acres) Figure 6. The list of potential sites was further reduced to 35 sites
with the assistance of the Steering Committee and their knowledge of areas that had been
developed since the 2000 aerial photography, were in the process of being developed, or
likely to be developed in the near future.
Requesting Landowner Permission
Based on parcel data, the owners of the 35 sites were identified. A letter describing the
purpose of the study and requesting site access to conduct the survey was sent to all 2,830
landowners within these 35 sites (Appendix H). Property owners were asked to respond
if site access was not granted. Responses from the landowners were recorded. Those
parcels on which landowner permission was denied were identified as such in the GIS
shapefiles that were used for the ground inventories. This prevented accidental trespass
by the field team. On some sites no ground access was permitted. On others there was a
41