Conservation: Tampa, Vancouver USA

Port Tampa Bay Signs Long-Term Lease for Management of Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve

Port Tampa Bay President & CEO Paul Anderson signs long-term lease agreement today with Keith Laakkonen, director, Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, with Florida DEP.
Photo/Port Tampa Bay

Port Tampa Bay joined the State of Florida on June 21 in a new long-term lease that gives the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) renewed oversight of the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve in southern Hillsborough County.

The signing renews an agreement that was executed by the State of Florida and the port authority in July 1976 and expires at the end of this month. The new 40-year lease agreement continues the partnership with DEP in managing this environmental asset and carries with it a 40-year lease extension option.

Pursuant to its enabling act, the port authority owns the sovereign submerged lands in Hillsborough County, which includes the 4,800-acre Cockroach Bay area.

Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve provides critical habitat for fish, oysters and many endangered birds while offering numerous recreational opportunities such as paddling and fishing.

The port is also in environmental projects that improve water quality, protect seasonal nesting shore birds, and manage environmental lands within the port district.

"Port Tampa Bay, in its long-standing relationship with DEP, is excited to enter into this long-term agreement that essentially guarantees a high quality of ecological sustainability for one of the region’s most beautiful and unique preserves. We appreciate the opportunity to continue our partnership with the department and to engage in projects that will deliver positive generational environmental impacts to the region," said Port President Paul Anderson.

Purple Martins Get a New Habitat at the Port of Vancouver USA

The Port of Vancouver USA’s mitigation bank is home to a wide variety of bird species. Last winter, the port made plans to improve habitat for a special species – the purple martin. This spring, the port’s Environmental Services team completed its project, adding 24 purple-martin-specific gourds that will help the protected birds flourish in this Washington State port community.

The purple martin is the largest North American swallow. Wintering in South America, purple martins migrate to North America in spring to breed. The species suffered a severe population crash in the 20th century widely linked to the release and spread of European starlings in North America. Starlings and house sparrows compete with martins for nesting sites. Where purple martins once gathered by the thousands, by the 1980s they had all but disappeared.

Port Environmental Services team members Matt Harding and Matt Graves, in partnership with a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist and a volunteer bird expert with the Friends of Stiegerwald Wildlife Refuge, did extensive research on purple martin habitat. With this information, they then determined the best locations to ensure purple martins would be able to nest successfully in the area. Port staff installed these additional gourds earlier this spring.

The environmental team and its partners will monitor the newly installed habitat to ensure the gourds are actively used by purple martins.