Committing To Our Future

Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan

Together we can protect the region’s natural resources: CCMP Update

A draft of the updated Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan is now available for review. This version was conceptually approved by the CHNEP Management Conference in November 2007. You can access the PDF of the draft CCMP by:

Additional history on the development of the CCMP and update process:

A partnership of citizens, elected officials, resource managers and commercial and recreational resource users have been hard at work protecting the greater Charlotte Harbor estuarine system from Venice in Sarasota County to Bonita Springs in Lee County to Winter Haven in Polk County. The partners’ 20-year plan, known as the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP), includes diverse resource management concerns such as fish and wildlife habitat loss, water quality degradation and water flow. The State of Florida and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved the CCMP in 2001. That approval marked the beginning of action to protect and restore these estuaries and their watersheds.

The partnership, known as the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program, has been successfully addressing issues identified in the CCMP but it is now time to assess progress made and re-assess the problems, priorities and actions required to further protect the greater Charlotte Harbor estuarine system.

You can help protect the natural environment by improving this plan with your input. There have been at least three opportunities for you to provide your input.

(1) We asked website visitors to send recommendations to update and improve the CCMP by March 31, 2005. The partners who participate in the program Management Conference reviewed the recommendations received. The Management Conference is composed of four committees and the program office. Each committee serves a specialized role in supporting the CCMP.

(2) A survey of the recommendations received was developed to help determine the overall concern and priority of each suggestion by all of the program's partners -- citizens, elected officials, resource managers and commercial and recreational resource users. We asked that the survey be completed by September 16, 2005.

(3) Survey results were analyzed by the Management Conference. We held three public workshop in late 2005 to discuss the results. Objectives and actions were selected from be survey results. The process of updating the CCMP began in earnest at this time.

(4) We conducted more workshops to develop a good draft of our updated objectives, actions, and strategies. (The CAC alone held 10 extra meetings to develop the CCMP!) Workshop participants included citizens, scientists, resource manager, elected officials, and commercial and recreational resource users. Now is a good time to review the draft and make recommendations to us. Just follow this link.

CCMP objectives and actions draft update as of August 2006

Once the CCMP update is written and approved, a signing ceremony will be held or all to attend in order to celebrate the newly amended plan and to help establish the continuing consensus required to implement the plan. Partners who participate in the Management Conference will enter an agreement -- a Memorandum of Understanding -- that outlines general implementation commitments and funding goals.

Updates on this process will be included in future issues of the CHNEP newsletter and posted on this website.

We encourage you to learn more about this partnership's efforts to protect the estuaries and watersheds by exploring the wealth of information on this website. (We recommend that you review the 24-page CCMP Summary.) Click on "Resources" and you can read PDF files of the materials made available or you can request that copies be mailed to you. Many libraries also make these materials available to their patrons.

There are many other ways you can be involved in the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. Please take a few minutes to review the website and learn about the Management Conference, grants, events, informational videos and much more the program makes available.

If you have any questions, call 239/338-2556 or toll free 866/835-5785.

 

CCMP 2000: On February 11, 2000, the Charlotte Harbor Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) was approved by the program’s Management Conference. The development of the Management Plan began in 1995 when Charlotte Harbor was accepted into the National Estuary Program. On April 13, 2000, the program celebrated the adoption of the CCMP during a a signing ceremony. The ceremony celebrated the completion of the management plan and the beginning of its implementation to restore and protect the estuary and its watershed.

To view and print the two-volume CCMP, you need Adobe Acrobat. You can get Adobe Acrobat Reader free by clicking on the icon and following the instructions.

How To Use This Plan

This plan is published as a two-volume book. Volume 1 is the main part of the management plan. The management plan has goals, quantifiable objectives, and priority actions. These priority actions are the specific strategies for achieving the goals and quantifiable objectives for each of the three priority problems: hydrologic alterations, water quality degradation, and fish and wildlife habitat loss.

The Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program’s Management Conference first completed the quantifiable objectives with measurable targets and timelines. These measurable targets can now be tracked during implementation to measure our progress. Once the quantifiable objectives were approved, the committees developed a series of strategies called priority actions that are needed to achieve the quantifiable objectives.

Specific information on each priority action is provided including some background, the quantifiable objectives to which it relates (sometimes there are more than one), some strategies to implement the priority action, its expected benefits, and other information. Each priority action also includes a list of preliminary implementation projects that are underway or may be funded in the near future.

The preliminary implementation projects listed with the priority actions are described in detail in Volume 2 of this document. Volume 2 describes each preliminary implementation project, as provided by its sponsoring organization. The projects in Volume 2 are organized first by the basin where the project is located, and then by sponsoring organization. The basins include (1) Regionwide; (2) Caloosahatchee River and Watershed; (3) Lower Peace and Myakka Rivers; and (4) Upper Peace and Myakka Rivers. To assist the reader in finding the page number for a particular project, several indexes of the projects are provided in Volume 2. Also, an extensive list of acronyms is provided in both volumes of this document.

 

The projects in Volume 2 are an important start to implementation. They do not, however, completely accomplish all the priority actions in Volume 1. Many more implementation projects will be necessary to achieve the quantifiable objectives and goals of the management plan. The Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program stands ready to support the implementation of additional projects and funding to complete all the priority actions listed in this management plan.

Committing To Our Future was produced by the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program.