The Florida Natural Areas Inventory provides scientific support to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for Florida Forever, the nation's largest environmental land acquisition program. The Inventory contributes in two key ways: scientific review of newly proposed land acquisition projects, and comprehensive natural resource analysis and scoring of all Florida Forever projects using the Conservation Needs Assessment and F-TRAC.

Staff Scientist Reviews

For every six-month Florida Forever review cycle, FNAI scientists contribute to a multi-phase evaluation process. First, new applications are reviewed and the Inventory prepares a Preliminary Evaluation Report in advance of the first vote of the Acquisition and Restoration Council (ARC). Second, for those proposals voted upon for further evaluation, the Inventory prepares a Resource Planning Boundary, recommending modifications to help ensure protection of the resources associated with the proposed project. Third, staff scientists conduct field assessments for each proposal. Information from this assessment is incorporated into a multi-agency evaluation report compiled by DEP, Office of Environmental Services. FNAI's ecological information for the proposals is summarized in the Final Ecological Summary. DEP's evaluation report and the Final Ecological Summary are presented to the ARC prior to the final vote and project ranking for each cycle.

FNAI Proposal Evaluation Reports for Fall 2008 Cycle:
Preliminary Evaluation Report - July 2008 (8 MB)
Resource Planning Boundaries - September 2008 (3 MB)

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Conservation Needs Assessment and F-TRAC

FNAI has conducted a statewide analysis of natural resource conservation priorities for the Florida Forever program. The Inventory created or compiled GIS data layers for rare species habitat, natural communities, ecological greenways, large landscapes, significant surface waters, natural floodplain, functional wetlands, aquifer recharge, coastal resources, cultural resources, recreation, and sustainable forestry. This analysis resulted in a Conservation Needs Assessment, which established baseline protection status for each natural resource, and provides a tool for tracking progress in resource acquisition.

The Inventory has recently taken this analysis a step further in the form of F-TRAC, or Florida Forever Tool for Efficient Resource Acquisition and Conservation. F-TRAC provides a means for evaluating Florida Forever projects relative to a model portfolio that achieves efficient natural resource protection on the amount of land likely to be acquired during the ten year duration of the Florida Forever program. In advance of each ARC project ranking in June and December, the Inventory provides a comprehensive report that scores all Florida Forever projects on their values for individual resources as well as their contribution to the F-TRAC 2010 Portfolio.

Cautionary Note Regarding the Interpretation of F-TRAC Analysis Results
FNAI runs a new F-TRAC analysis for each 6-month project evaluation cycle. The F-TRAC results will change each cycle based on several possible occurrences. First, as portions of projects are acquired, the scores for resources occurring on the remaining portions of those projects may change. Second, as resources are acquired through land acquisition, the relative influence of each resource type on the analysis results may change. Third, as natural resource data layers are refined and updated, resource values for a given area may change. While the overall results of F-TRAC scenarios should be largely consistent over time, results for specific locations or Florida Forever projects may change from one evaluation cycle to the next.

FNAI Comprehensive Project Evaluation Reports for Fall 2008 Cycle:
Project Evaluation Summary Table - November 2008 (400 KB)
Natural Resource Acquisition Progress Report - November 2008 (300 KB)

Analysis and Data Documentation:
Data Layer Synopsis Page - Revised November 2008 (100 KB)
F-TRAC Model Documentation - Revised November 2008 (1 MB)
Single Resource Ranking Documentation - Revised November 2008 (100 KB)
Decision Support Data Documentation - Revised November 2008 (1 MB)
Conservation Needs Assessment Summary Report - December 2000 (5 MB)
Conservation Needs Assessment Technical Report, Version 3.0 - June 2008 (4 MB)

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