All Projects
Statewide Seagrass Restoration Initiative
COST: $5,000,000
PARTNERS: AquaTech Eco Consultants and Aquaticus Plants, University of South Florida
United Nations Climate Change - Race to Resilience
Ecosphere is now an official partner to the UN’s Race to Resilience, the UN campaign to increase the resilience of 4 billion people by 2030. Ecosphere’s restoration and resilience projects, including living shorelines, living seawalls, seagrass plantings, and coastal, river, and springs restoration, contribute to the goals of the campaign. Partners set resilience goals, share restoration and resilience knowledge, and may collaborate on specific projects. We are excited to contribute to Race to Resilience goals and honored to be an official partner to the campaign.
Ecosphere’s Dr. Rene Brown is a Civil Society Observer to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and an appointed member of the UN Race to Resilience Expert Review Group.
TECO Newman Branch Canal Living Shoreline
COST: $366,000
PARTNERS: Tampa Bay Ecosystem Restoration Fund, TECO
Unique Partnership Helping to Feed Florida Manatees
Ecosphere Restoration Institute is spearheading an innovative partnership to harvest and deliver eelgrass to rehabilitation centers caring for famished manatees rescued from Florida waters where their natural food sources have disappeared.
Ecosphere was approached in late 2021 by Soldiers for Animals, a non-profit organization that engages military veterans in wildlife conservation programs worldwide. The group wanted to do something to help Florida’s starving manatees. They agreed to provide funding for 12 weeks to provide fresh eelgrass to the five manatee rehab centers throughout the state. Although the funding was finite, our contractor: AquaTech Eco Consultants continued to harvest and deliver eelgrass through 2023. In 2024, TECO now subsides this effort allowing AquaTech to continue to deliver eelgrass every two weeks!
From December 2021 through August 2024, the effort distributed 10 tons of eelgrass – a natural and preferred food for manatees – to the following facilities housing malnourished manatees: Zoo Tampa, the Jacksonville Zoo, Sea World, Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife Park, and the South Florida Museum’s Parker Manatee Aquarium.
Most of the rescued manatees came from the Indian River Lagoon, where free-falling seagrass losses continue to take a severe toll on Florida’s iconic marine mammal. A record 1,100 manatees died in 2022 in Florida, with 30% of those in the Indian River Lagoon. Another 800 manatees died statewide in 2023, according to state wildlife biologists.
“It’s really a win-win because the grasses we’re taking are clogging up canals, just floating on the surface. The homeowners who live on the canals are happy to get rid of the grass, and the rehab centers are happy to get a natural food that manatees prefer over lettuce,” said Tom Ries, Ecosphere’s President.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the lead agency overseeing manatee protection, approved the eelgrass delivery project.
Lowry Park Spring Enhancement
Lowry Park Spring was a concrete lined basin that was restored by the SWIM program 32 years ago when Thomas Ries worked for the SWFWMD. This site was not cared for all this time and although the native trees that were installed thrived, the site also had non-native tress such as Brazilian pepper making it difficult to access the spring. Ecosphere teamed up with Zoo Tampa to coordinate two volunteer events to physically remove these non-native trees and then Ecosphere installed native vegetation within the spring basin.
MacDill AFB Mangrove Restoration - Site 20A
COST: $275,000+
PARTNERS: MacDill AFB, Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County
Ecosphere secured a $37,000 grant from the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County, matched by $100,000 from MacDill AFB, to design the final phase of this overall restoration of the entire southern coastline of the base. These funds will be used to eliminate spoil mounds associated with 115 mosquito ditches, restoring natural sheet flow for an additional 37 acres of mangroves.
In late 2023 additional funds were secured from the TBEP’s Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund ($90K) and from the EPC Pollution Recovery Fund ($50K). Together, those funds will allow us to complete the final phase of the mangrove/saltern restoration efforts as part of MacDill’s Habitat Restoration Master Plan.
MacDill AFB Wildlife Study
COST: $130,000+
PARTNERS: MacDill AFB, US Fish and Wildlife Service, ARC
The US Fish and Wildlife Service has requested that Ecosphere repeat the 2019 wildlife study conducted for MacDill AFB. This work is ongoing and is scheduled to be completed by the Fall of 2024. Ecosphere partnered with Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy (ARC), another non-profit organization, that specializes on herbs and amphibians.
City of St. Petersburg Beach - Living Shoreline Demo Project
Ecosphere secured a TBEP Tampa Bay Ecosystem Restoration Fund grant in early 2024 to design and permit three seawall enhancement sites along South Maritana Drive. The engineering design that will result from this can be applied to at least 70 other adjacent waterfront properties. The approved designs will be made available to all residents with similar waterfront conditions for free, to encourage their use.
Ecosphere will be applying for a Tampa Bay Ecosystem Restoration Fund grant in 2023 to design and permit three seawall enhancement sites along South Maritana Drive. The engineering design that will result from this can be applied to at least 35 other adjacent waterfront properties. The approved designs will be made available to all residents with similar waterfront conditions for free, to encourage their use.
Thomas Tract
COST: $1,240,000
PARTNERS: Hillsborough County, Southwest Florida Water Management District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Black Rail Habitat Restoration Construction Project
COST: TBD
PARTNERS: TBD
Ecosphere will seek grant funding to implement this 5-acre marsh restoration project to provide habitat for the rare Black Rail, a small ground-dwelling bird found in high marsh habitats. This project will also restore 5 acres of coastal uplands adjacent to this newly created wetland area at MacDill AFB.
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Purity Spring Enhancement Project
Ecosphere assisted the City of Tampa in securing grant funding for the enhancement of Purity Springs along the upper portion of the Hillsborough River. Two grants were drafted for them: TBERF - $72,727 and a NEP Coastal Grant - $500,000. Plus, Ecosphere also secured a TBW grant for $7K to install the Living Shoreline plants. Currently the City is working on the designs so they can be permitted for construction.
Feeding Manatees
In 2022 Ecosphere obtained funding from Soldiers for Animals to help fund the collection of SAV for immediate feeding purposes of the 5 manatees at rehab centers in Florida. Their funds resulted in the delivery of ~200 lbs. per week of fresh eelgrass to the manatee rehab sites. Our corporate partner, TECO, recently agreed to cover this cost ($12,000) for 2024, so our contractor AquaTech can continue to collect/deliver SAV. SAV deliveries are ongoing.
Hillsborough River Living Shoreline (Residential Sites)
Ecosphere assisted three adjacent Hillsborough River waterfront landowners (N. Riverside Drive west of the North Blvd. bridge) to design and permit a living shoreline project along the river. This is the first private Living Shoreline project that Ecosphere has worked on to provide a demo site for the adjacent waterfront landowners. Once this is constructed it is hoped that other private waterfront landowners will consider a nature-based shoreline stabilization approach over a vertical wall (hard design).
MacDill AFB Mangrove/Saltern Restoration - Site 20
COST: $157,000
PARTNERS: MacDill AFB, Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County
Ecosphere is working under a cooperative agreement with MacDill AFB and the USFWS to continue to implement MacDill’s Ecosystem Master Plan. This plan includes the removal of hundreds of spoil mounds from within their 700-acre mangrove forest. For Site 20, Ecosphere hired a contractor to remove these former mosquito ditching spoil mounds via a novel method of high-pressure water to “hydro-blast” the spoil material from within the mangrove forest with none of the major impacts that an excavator would create. Approximately $323K was used to remove 120 spoil mounds, the remaining western spoil mounds were located within a restricted area, so will remain as is. This work was completed in early 2023. The remaining funds will be applied towards hydro-blasting efforts within Site 20a.
Estuarine Plant Propagation Pond
Ecosphere suggested that TECO provide a location for a plant propagation pond so habitat restoration projects could harvest native wetland vegetation for free. TECO provided a 1.8 area and Ecosphere designed a tidal pond adjacent to the Newman Branch Phase II Habitat Restoration site which was planted with four native marsh species (Spartina alterniflora, Spartina patens, Spartina bakeri, and Paspalum vaginatum). To date over 250,000 plants have been harvested from this site to implement 41 restoration projects.
FWC Youth Conservation Center Living Shoreline (2022)
COST: $110,000
PARTNERS: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, TECO, Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County
Haya Linear Park Phase 1 Living Shoreline
COST: $76,000
PARTNERS: Tampa Bay Estuary Program (Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund), City of Tampa, South Seminole Heights Civic Association, with in-kind services provided by the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County
Haya Linear Park Phase 2 Wetland Restoration
COST: $200,000
PARTNERS: City of Tampa, Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County, South Seminole Heights Civic Association
MacDill AFB Phases 1-4
COST: $849,425
PARTNERS: Department of Defense/U.S. Air Force, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Southwest Florida Water Management District
Ulele Spring
COST: $686,200
PARTNERS: Southwest Florida Water Management District City of Tampa, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Fisheries. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Tampa Bay Estuary Program, Tampa Electric, Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County
Palmetto Estuary Preserve
COST: $768,000
PARTNERS: City of Palmetto, Southwest Florida Water Management District, Riviera Dunes LLC, Scheda Ecological
Newman Branch Creek
COST: $837,650
PARTNERS: TECO, Tampa Bay Estuary Program (Tampa Bay Environmental Restoration Fund), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Southwest Florida Water Management District, Gulf of Mexico Foundation
Wolf Branch Creek Freshwater
COST: $50,000
PARTNERS: Pinellas County Environmental Fund, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Hillsborough County, Southwest Florida Water Management District
Hooker’s Point Stormwater
COST: $70,000
PARTNERS: Tampa Port Authority (TPA), Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
The first grant-funded stormwater retrofit project implemented at the Port of Tampa provided six acres of stormwater treatment for one of the most industrialized areas of Tampa Bay, on the Hooker’s Point peninsula north of Tampa’s Channelside District. Ecosphere facilitated this grant for the Tampa Port Authority and oversaw the implementation of this water quality improvement project. A drainage ditch was redesigned as a meandering creek with sloping banks planted with native wetland plants to help absorb nutrient from the stormwater runoff. A sediment sump also was installed to reduce sediment entering Tampa Bay.
Stewart Middle School Living Shoreline
COST: $180,000
PARTNERS: Pinellas County Environmental Fund, Southwest Florida Water Management District, Hillsborough County School
Lost River Preserve
COST: $950,000
PARTNERS: NOAA (America Reinvestment and Recovery Act), Southwest Florida Water Management District
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