It is informed that the area of Cockroach Bay was home to wetlands that filled at high tide. Now, it’s overrun with invasive species and murky pits, dug decades ago for a tropical fish farm that closed in the ’70s. Now it is believe that the approval of grant of $750,000 announced last week, a local nonprofit can restore the land and provide a new habitat for local wildlife.
Tampa’s Ecosphere Restoration Institute beat out more than 800 applicants to win one of 50 grants funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. It is said that the money is part of the national stimulus package. Company president Thomas Ries of Lutz said that the grant is huge for them. He added that now, shallow, mosquito-infested ponds from the former fish business and invasive plants such as the stubborn Brazilian pepper dot the land.
It is informed that the institute plans to hire contractors to remove the non-native species, transplant sabal palms in an upland hammock and recontour the land to create wetlands. The county received the land several years ago through a donation to its Environmental Lands Acquisition Program. But the county and water district did not have the money to restore it because of tight budgets.
