Birds that flock to Dot-Dash-Dit will now have a protected home

Manatee County will after all have its first critical wildlife area.

Snow-white egrets, pink roseate spoonbills, jet black anhingas and Tampa Bay’s only coastal colony of wood storks can continue to nest and seek refuge in the three mangrove islands called Dot, Dash and Dit.

During the FWC’s November meeting, commissioners unanimously approved to add 13 new critical wildlife area, or CWAs, and improve five others. CWAs are designated human-free zones for certain concentrations of wildlife.

“The conservation benefit is ‘yuge’!” Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission chairman Brian Yablonski said Wednesday before the vote in St. Petersburg, smiling at his reference to a phrase used by President-elect Donald Trump.

Across the state, about 200 acres of upland and less than 180 acres of water will be closed either year-round or seasonally in order to protect more than 25 species, including bats in Withlacoochee State Forest.

Having established its first CWAs in 1977, the FWC will now have 33 throughout the state. Port Orange Colony island in Volusia County was included in the original proposal in June, but it was removed from consideration at the landowner’s request.

The Dot-Dash-Dit Islands at the mouth of the Braden River can be seen while driving over the river on State Road 64.

Kipp Frohlich, the deputy director of habitat and species conservation for the FWC who came to Ellenton to collect public comment on the proposal, presented to the commission the final borders and signs for each CWA.

When it was first announced in June that Manatee County would get its first CWA, the proposition came with a 100-foot buffer around each island and year-round closure.

Then in August, the FWC came to Ellenton to listen to the public’s support and concern about the proposal. Birders, boaters and photographers verbally battled to express their interest in upping the buffer or cutting it out of the proposition altogether.

After public input was considered, the buffer was reduced to 25 feet on the navigation side of the channel, and there will be a seasonal closure from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31.

To Jim Stephenson, secretary of the Manatee County Audubon Society, more birds mean more birders, and more birders mean more tourism income for the county.

“Birders are the kind of tourists we want to attract,” he said.

Stephenson added he thinks bird-watchers tend to be more environmentally mind. For instance, he said, they pick up their own trash.

“I think this is a great victory, but not only for the birds but for those in the Bradenton area,” Stephenson said.

This story was originally published November 16, 2016 at 2:56 PM with the headline "Birds that flock to Dot-Dash-Dit will now have a protected home."