Coastal Program, Florida Gulf

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Coastal Program is to conserve healthy coastal ecosystems for the benefit of fish, wildlife and people. It accomplishes this through cooperative partnerships that identify, restore and protect habitat in priority coastal areas. The Florida Gulf Coastal Program is one of 15 Coastal Programs throughout the United States. This proactive program is federally funded; Congress appropriates money for the program annually.

The Panama City Field Office uses federal funds to restore terrestrial and aquatic habitats, to protect and improve existing resources, and to preserve land through conservation easements. A conservation easement [PDF] is land that has been donated or set aside by a landowner to remain undeveloped.

The Program covers all watersheds to the Northeast Gulf of Mexico, nine of which are coastal counties. The two main objectives are; to increase the amount of restored or protected coastal habitats in Northwest Florida each year and to maximize each dollar and hour spent by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service through matched contributions among diverse partners.

These objectives are accomplished mainly through grant agreement partnerships with federal, state and local governments, conservation organizations and private landowners. For every dollar the USFWS spends, it aims to leverage double the amount, either in money or in-kind donations, from its partners. The success of the Coastal Program is due largely to the amount of money and volunteer hours donated to program projects.

Coastal Barrier Resources Act

Congress passed the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) in 1982 to address problems caused by coastal barrier development. CBRA restricted Federal expenditures and financial assistance, including Federal flood insurance, in the Coastal Barrier Resource System, a defined list of undeveloped coastal barriers mapped along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts.

An additional responsibility addressed under the program involves making geographic determinations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program regarding whether coastal parcels of private property are within units of the National Coastal Barrier Resource System, as delineated on maps produced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

 • Florida Gulf Coastal Program agreements managed by the Panama City Field Office
 • Florida’s Gulf Coast
 • Coastal Barrier Resources Act Pilot Project
 • CBRA Digital Mapping Pilot Project Report