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The Jacksonville Field Office (JFO) is part of the Ecological Services organization of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The office focuses primarily on protection and recovery of threatened and endangered species while it also actively supports conservation of migratory birds, anadromous fish, and wetlands.
The core work area covers 32 counties of central and north Florida including the metropolitan areas of Tampa and St. Petersburg, Orlando, and the developing coastal corridor from Cape Canaveral north through Daytona, St Augustine, and Jacksonville. In stark contrast, the area also includes much of Florida 's Big Bend, arguably the last vestige of “old” Florida. The work area is home to dozens of listed species and well as nearly half of Florida 's human residents and all or part of 13 Congressional districts.
The office, with its 29 dedicated employees, is heavily involved in high profile conservation issues and has Service lead for recovery of manatees , the controversial Florida scrub-jay , several species of sea turtles , two species of beach mice , the wood stork, and several other animal and plant species . Included in the office organization is a sub-office located in St Petersburg .
The annual office budget is typically about $3.5 million. Activities include listing, recovery, consultation, and candidate conservation under the Endangered Species Act , proactive habitat restoration through the Service's Partners for Fish and Wildlife and Coastal programs, wetlands conservation via the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act , and identification and resolution of environmental contaminants issues.
The Strategic Plan was developed utilizing the Florida Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy as a framework to identify priority habitats. The Service's Shaping Our Future report was used as a guide to identify priority approaches for allocating staff and budgetary resources.
Shaping Our Future recommends that we “begin with the end in mind”. In other words develop a strategic vision…in this case, for our field office. Our vision is expressed in this mission statement:
Secure a network of habitats of sufficient quality and extent to insure the viability of our native fish, wildlife, and plants for the use and enjoyment of future generations.
Realistic Planning, Working Smart, and Working Together
The reality of the near future is that JFO will not likely increase in size and in fact may face future reductions in discretionary spending. Reporting requirements from the Congress and the Administration are likely to continue to increase. Even if additional authorities are delegated to the field and administrative processes are streamlined, we will likely have a smaller fraction of our time available to devote to accomplishing our mission.
In our annual workforce planning we will need to allow for the time devoted to administrative tasks related to Activity Based Costing (ABC), Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), training, and performance reviews in addition to leave and holidays. We need to allocate 30% of our time for these activities.
In addition, we need to anticipate the unanticipated. That is, we know we are going to be asked to complete tasks generated outside of the office. These may be congressional inquiries, briefings for higher-ups, responses to the media, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, lawsuits, audits, or input on policies, etc. And there is the need for internal coordination and communication…staff meetings, team meetings, strategy discussions, etc.
Realistically, only about half of each biologist's time will actually be spent directly on resource conservation activities.
To accomplish our goals, we have no alternative other than to work smart. We have only a limited amount of time to spend and we must use that time wisely. We need to work on the items that provide the greatest return for the most important resources. To do that we need to have clear resource targets, whether it is a specific habitat type, or even habitat types in particular locations. Conversely, we need to minimize the time spent on activities with little resource payoff.
We also need to work together , as an office, as an agency, with our peers in state and local government, and with our stakeholders. No single entity has enough money, people, or authority to accomplish its mission. As the Director (USFWS) says, “We can't do all the things we've done in the past, because those demands exceed our resources and we have new demands that require our attention.” However, by working together, and only by working together, we can make a difference…we can accomplish our goals.
The Florida Strategy identifies 45 different habitat types. Descriptions of each habitat type, its extent, and a list of the species each supports is contained in the document and is available on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's website .
For our purposes, each habitat type was evaluated based on its degree of threat on a state-wide basis, extent of occurrence in the JFO work area, value to federal trust species, and program applicability. Three habitats do not occur in the work area. Classifications are as follows:
Coral Reef, Large Alluvial Stream, and Pine Rockland habitats do not occur in our work area.
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Last modified May 10, 2007
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