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Florida Ecological Greenways Network
The Florida Ecological Greenways Network model was created to delineate the ecological component of a Statewide Greenways System plan developed by the DEP Office of Greenways and Trails, under guidance from the Florida Greenways Coordinating Council and the Florida Greenways and Trails Council. The model started with an aggregation of a variety of existing habitat models including FWC Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas, FWC Biodiversity Hotspots, FWC Priority Wetlands for Listed Species, FNAI Potential Natural Areas, FNAI Areas of Conservation Interest, existing and proposed conservation lands, and vegetation from FWC satellite imagery landcover. These data were used to identify a series of hubs, or core areas, of large, landscape-scale ecological significance, and a network of corridors connecting the hubs into a statewide ecological greenways system. The entire model was updated in 2004 to include newly identified areas of ecological significance (including the FNAI Rare Species Habitat Conservation Priorities and High Quality Watersheds models) and to remove recently developed areas.
More Information
Relevance to LandScope:
The Ecological Greenways model guides Office of Greenways and Trails land acquisition and conservation efforts and promotes public awareness of the need for, and benefits of, a statewide greenways network. The model is also used as the primary data layer to inform the Florida Forever conservation land acquisition program regarding the locations of the most important conservation corridors and of the larger, intact natural landscapes within the state.
The presence of this data layer indicates the location lies within a central hub of landscape-scale, ecological significance, or within a landscape corridor connecting two or more hubs. The higher the priority, the more significant the hub or corridor is to the overall statewide ecological greenways network.
How to get more information:
A description of the Ecological Greenways is available at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Office of Greenways & Trails web page.
How to get the data layer:
To download this data, visit the Florida Geographic Data Library website.
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