The Florida Ecological Greenways Network model was created to delineate the ecological component of a Statewide Greenways System plan developed by the DEP Office of Greenways and Trails, under guidance from the Florida Greenways Coordinating Council and the Florida Greenways and Trails Council. This plan guides OGT land acquisition and conservation efforts, and promotes public awareness of the need for and benefits of a statewide greenways network. It is also used as the primary data layer to inform the Florida Forever conservation land acquisition program regarding the location of the most important conservation corridors and large, intact landscapes in the state.
This data layer is intended to represent a statewide network of ecological hubs and linkages designed to maintain large landscape-scale ecological functions throughout the state (Fig. 5). The model started with an aggregation of a variety of existing habitat models including FWC SHCAs, FWC Biodiversity Hotspots, FWC Priority Wetlands for Listed Species, FNAI Potential Natural Areas, FNAI Areas of Conservation Interest, existing and proposed conservation lands, and vegetation from FWC satellite imagery landcover. These data were used to identify a series of hubs, or core areas, of large, landscape-scale ecological significance, and a network of corridors connecting the hubs into a statewide ecological greenways system. The entire model was updated in 2004 to include newly identified areas of ecological significance (including the FNAI Rare Species Habitat Conservation Priorities and High Quality Watersheds models) and to remove recently developed areas.
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1) These data were created using input data consistent with 24,000 to 1:100,000 map scale resolution. Such data are of sufficient resolution for state and regional scale conservation planning. They are not appropriate for use in high accuracy mapping applications such as property parcel boundaries, local government comprehensive plans, zoning, DRI, site plans, environmental resource or otheragency permitting, wetland delineations, or other uses requiring more specific and ground survey quality data. 2) The analysis, maps and data on this website were developed for state and regional conservation planning purposes and are not intended, nor sufficient, to be the basis for local government comprehensive plans, environmental resource or agency permitting decisions. 3) These data are likely to be regularly updated and it is the responsibility of the user to obtain the most recent available version of the database. 4) Data should not be transferred to a third party, in data or map form, without noting these disclaimers.
Florida Ecological Greenways Network Source was created by the University of Florida GeoPlan Center and Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP), Office of Greenways & Trails
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Critical Parcels 1= Parcels within Critical Linkages (Priority 1 below) that are critical for completing a corridor connection.Critical Linkages are defined as areas with very high or high ecological significance while also having areas threatened by development. Critical Parcels 2 = Parcels within Priority 2 ( below) that are critical for completing a corridor connection. Critical parcels 1 and 2 together would complete a statewide reserve network. Priority 1 (Critical Linkages) = Remaining areas of Critical Linkages not covered by Critical Parcels 1. Critical Linkages are defined as areas with very high or high ecological significance while also having critical areas threatened by development. Priority 2 = Remaining areas of Priority 2 greenways not covered by Critical Parcels 2. Priority 3 = Priority 3 ecological greenway corridors. Priority 4 = Priority 4 ecological greenway corridors. Priority 5 = Priority 5 ecological greenway corridors. Priority 6 = Priority 6 ecological greenway corridors. Priority 6 includes existing conservation lands. For Priorities 2-6, the ecological greenways corridors are priotized based on: 1) potential importance for maintaining or restoring populations of wide-ranging species (e.g. Florida black bear and Florida panther); 2) importance for maintaining statewide, connected reserve network from south Florida through the panhandle; 3) other important landscape linkages that provide additional opportunities to maintain statewide connectivity especially in support of higher priority linkages; 4) provide important riparian corridors within Florida and to other states and 5) other regionally significant opportunities to protect large intact landscapes.