Audubon Society expands role in conservation

Economic development and conservation are working side by side in Port Everglades.

Ownership of 60 acres of the port’s wetland habitat recently transferred to the state of Florida for its protection as a conservation area. Formerly held by Broward County, the parcel includes a 16.5-acre Wetland Enhancement Project.

Officials are drafting a memorandum of understanding with the South Florida Audubon Society to give the Fort Lauderdalebased nonprofit a role in its management.

The Audubon Society will monitor the urban conservation project area, said Doug Young, its chief operating officer.

“We’ll just make sure the integrity of the area is maintained,” Young said. “We respect the security of the port, but from a monitoring point of view we’ll check to make sure it’s stable. Things are looking really good now.”

While in the planning stages, the port worked closely with port users and the environmental community, said Port Everglades Chief Executive and Director Steven Cernak.

An existing 8.7 acres of mangroves were removed to make way for the Southport Turning Notch Expansion project, which

adds five new cargo ship berths. In place of the original mangrove area, 16.5 acres were restored to create a habitat twice its size on land that was once a parking lot and dry-stack marina.

About 70,000 nursery grown mangroves and other native plants fill the restored habitat.

The Wetland Enhancement Project boosts the port’s existing conservation area to provide additional sustainable habitat for a diverse number of aquatic species as well as nesting habitat for birds.

Additionally, the Wetland Enhancement Project won IHS Maritime and Trade magazine’s 2016 Dredging and Port Construction Innovation Award in the Working-Engineering-Building with Nature Award category.

“This project is proof that Port Everglades can develop and expand its maritime facilities

to meet current and future market demands while enhancing and protecting the critical environmental habitat within the port,” Cernak said.

“We are very pleased with the results to date and look forward to educating the public about this very sensitive environmental area,” Young said.

Young credits the Audubon Society’s success to its role as an advocacy group that works to find accord which will further conservation efforts. Other key programs include coastal dune restoration, burrowing owls and eagle watch.

“Our advocacy work led to the 16.5-acre Wetland Enhancement Project and the mitigation which was double the actual area that was affected,” he said.

“This project is proof that Port Everglades can develop and expand its maritime facilities to meet current and future market demands while enhancing and protecting the critical environmental habitat within the port.” — Steven Cernak, Port Everglades chief executive and director