Wildlife Crossings Project

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The Conservation and Environmental Lands Management Department has just launched a Wildlife Crossings project in conjunction with research associate Dr. Daniel Smith of the University of Central Florida’s Biology department.

Dr. Dan Smith and Conservation Parks Coordinator Jan Kirwan

Dr. Dan Smith's interests include studying the movement patterns and habitat use of land animals and integrating conservation, transportation, and land-use planning. He has written and conducted several studies on these projects.


Dr. Smith’s lab will be evaluating the importance of habitat connections between existing conservation lands, road conflicts, and wildlife-crossing measures needed. They will identify key locations for wildlife crossings and provide structure and site design recommendations.


Wildlife crossings are especially important in Hillsborough County as our ELAPP lands are currently a patchwork throughout the county connecting environmentally sensitive habitats. Evaluating these lands and lack of connections is necessary to maintain and restore successful landscape connectivity for wildlife like Florida black bears, white-tailed deer, river otters, amphibians, and reptiles in Hillsborough County. The project started this March and is set to complete in the Spring of 2024.


We hope to keep our county residents alerted on the progress of this project in the upcoming weeks through the Trailblazer!


Stay tuned for more on connectivity.

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