January meeting set to discuss habitat conservation plan

A stakeholders meeting is scheduled for Jan. 13 at the Sebring Civic Center to discuss plans to preserve Highlands County's scrub habitat.

The purpose of the habitat conservation plan (HCP), a multi-species initiative covering both state and federal endangered species, is to focus on the long-term management of scrub and scrub habitat while also ensuring that all future developers meet all federal requirements under the Threatened and Endangered Species Act, according to Russ Danser, grant coordinator.

"What you're trying to do is you're trying to create a program that's basically a balancing act between development and long-term preservation," he said.

Danser said HCPs have been established in communities all across the country. Charlotte County is currently involved, while Polk County has applied for a grant.

The benefit of an HCP, in relation to developers who, for example, might want to build a small shopping center, is to streamline permitting, according to Danser.

"To do that, you'll require a series of permits," he said. "You'll also have to comply with the Threatened and Endangered Species Act. To do that, this HCP will outline exactly what you need to do, how you need to do it and where it's possible to do the mitigation associated with your development and scrub."

Earlier this year, the Highlands County commissioners hired Quest Ecology Inc. of Wiumama to develop a plan to preserve the biologically best remaining scrub lands while making it easier and less expensive for developers to meet state and federal laws protecting endangered wildlife, according to an April 25 Highlands Today report.

The county will pay $10,000 for developing the HCP, with most of the cost covered by a $277,247 grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, passed along to the county by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Highlands County originally had about 46,000 acres of scrub, but that number has been reduced by development to about 7,000 acres, according to the report.

Most of the species, including the scrub jay and sand skink, live nowhere else but in the vanishing Florida scrub lands.

"Scrub habitat is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, diminishing habitats in Florida," Danser said. "It has been wiped out in the past at a tremendous rate."

January's meeting is a chance to get all the stakeholders together in one room and lay it all on the table so everyone understands what the program is all about.

"The end result would be long-term management, proper management and care of scrub habitat in Highlands County in an amount that will support the species that are on the federal endangered list without diminishing the opportunities for development and expansion of infrastructure ... within the county," Danser said.

The stakeholders' meeting to discuss the HCP will be Wednesday, Jan. 13 from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Sebring Civic Center.