Grant provides $750,000 for restoration of Cockroach Bay

RUSKIN — Years ago, a 43-acre piece of Cockroach Bay's shoreline was home to wetlands that filled at high tide. Now, it's overrun with invasive species and murky pits, dug decades ago for a tropical fish farm that closed in the '70s.

But thanks to a $750,000 grant announced last week, a local nonprofit can restore the land and provide a new habitat for local wildlife.

Tampa's Ecosphere Restoration Institute beat out more than 800 applicants to win one of 50 grants funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. The money is part of the national stimulus package.

Only four groups in Florida won.

"This is just huge for us," said company president Thomas Ries of Lutz.

Now, shallow, mosquito-infested ponds from the former fish business and invasive plants such as the stubborn Brazilian pepper dot the land.

The institute plans to hire contractors to remove the non-native species, transplant sabal palms in an upland hammock and recontour the land to create wetlands.

The new design will provide a protective habitat for fish and frogs, which Ries hopes will draw birds. He plans to hire contractors who plan to transform the stagnant ponds into vibrant wetlands that respond to the tides.

The county received the land several years ago through a donation to its Environmental Lands Acquisition Program. But the county and water district did not have the money to restore it because of tight budgets, Ries said.

"It was either: I find the money, or it would stay like that," he said. So Ries started talking to county officials in late 2007.

He got about $250,000 from the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the county and the Gulf of Mexico Foundation. The additional $750,000 brings the total to the $1 million Ries estimates the project will require.

The land is next to hundreds of acres of Cockroach Bay that the water district has been restoring since the '90s. The two projects will work well together, Ries said, because after workers remove the invasive species, their seeds will no longer travel down the road and set back the other project.

Ries is also the vice president of Scheda Ecological Associates, an environmental consulting firm. He started the nonprofit in 2003 so he could apply for grants to aid in a Palmetto restoration project.

He has five projects on his plate now, which he works on in his spare time.

Because the grants are part of the stimulus package, applicants had to prove that their plans would provide jobs. Ries says this restoration work will create 13 full-time jobs for a year.

Marti McGuire, a marine habitat specialist with NOAA, said one reason the organization selected Ries' project was because it could start immediately. With surveying complete, Ries plans to apply for permits this month.

He expects to start construction in the fall.

Jessica Vander Velde can be reached at jvandervelde@sptimes.com or (813) 661-2443.