Featured Project
Ulele Spring Restoration Project
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
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The restoration of Ulele Springs has revitalized both Tampa’s signature waterway and a once-neglected industrial area now brimming with possibility.
The spring, severed from the Hillsborough River and forgotten for decades, was little more than a concrete pipe when the Ecosphere team first reimagined its future. A grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service jump-started a unique rehabilitation that re-connected the spring to the river via a small stream, and created a Living Shoreline of native plants and rocks to stabilize the river bank and provide fisheries habitat.
Now, freshwater flows at 672,000 gallons per day from the spring to the Hillsborough River, creating prime habitat for fish and wildlife, including imperiled Florida manatees. As of 2018, 35 manatees have been observed in the spring, many of them repeat visitors. Some 18 fish species have been documented. This successful partnership between Ecosphere, the City of Tampa and the Southwest Florida Water Management District is the picturesque anchor for a redevelopment renaissance that is drawing visitors and new residents alike to Tampa’s flourishing and lively Water Works District. Ecosphere still schedules quarterly volunteer site cleanups and oversees monthly site cleanups of the upper spring basin, which is paid for by the City and the Columbia Restaurant Group.
Each year since 2014, Ecosphere has overseen the monthly maintenance at this site. In addition, Ecosphere hosts 2-4 shoreline cleanups and planting efforts via our volunteer network to bolster the site conditions.
Read an article that chronicles the restoration of Ulele Spring and the thriving waterfront redevelopment surrounding it.
