With the donation of a 10-acre parcel in south-central Florida, the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area was created on January 18, 2012. If fully realized, the refuge would protect 150,000 acres in the threatened grassland and long-leaf pine savanna landscapes north of Lake Okechobee, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. Of that proposed area, 100,000 acres would be protected through conservation easements on private lands allowing continued cattle and agricultural production while preventing future development.

The Kissimee River Valley is the starting point for much of the water that washes over the Everglades. Conserving and restoring the headwaters region will complement the efforts undertaken in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan by enhancing water quality and quantity throughout the Everglades and protecting the water supply for millions of people. In addition, the region provides important habitat for 88 federal and state listed threatened or endangered species as well as state Species of Greatest Conservation Need.

Everglades Headwaters will be the 556^th unit within the National Wildlife Refuge System and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) will manage the acreage proposed to be directly acquired for the Refuge. The FWS is working closely with ranchers and other private landowners, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other state agencies, conservation organizations like the Nature Conservancy and the National Wildlife Refuge Association, users' groups, Native American tribes, and federal agencies in the creation of the new refuge and conservation area.

"Working in close partnership with landowners, we are taking a major step to safeguard the long-term health of the Everglades in the Kissimmee Valley, while ensuring the area's ranching and farming heritage and economy remain strong," Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said in a statement.

The creation of the Everglades Headwaters NWR follows a Department of the Interior (DOI) approach to work collaboratively with private landowners to protect working landscapes that was outlined in the America's Great Outdoors initiative. Similar efforts in Kansas, with the Flint Hills Legacy Conservation Area, Montana, with the Crown of the Continent and Blackfoot Valley Conservation Area, and the northern prairies, with the Dakota Grasslands Conservation Area, are also beginning to take shape.

Salazar continued, "Just as we have done in Kansas, Montana and the Dakotas, our locally-driven, cooperative approach to conserving the Everglades Headwaters will help grow a robust outdoor recreation economy for central Florida, while preserving ranchers' rights to live off the land."

The proposed conservation easements, however, will depend on future funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other federal funding sources that have been in jeopardy in recent years in the congressional appropriations process. (jas)