The Southwest Florida Water Management District is contributing $36,392 to continue to fund the Hillsborough River Watershed Alliance to help preserve and protect the Hillsborough River Watershed.
The alliance, formerly known as the Hillsborough River Greenways Task Force, is a collaborative public-private partnership whose mission is to preserve and protect the natural resources of the Hillsborough River watershed through coalition building, education, research, sustainability and advocacy. The District has provided financial support to the Alliance for more than 10 years.
Some of the projects sponsored and organized by the alliance include an annual river event at Hillsborough River State Park, the Frog Listening Network, hikes and plantings.
The annual “A River Runs Through It” community fair features watershed education workshops, watershed educational bingo, children’s activities and educational displays as well as canoeing, fishing and hiking.
The Frog Listening Network is a volunteer-based monitoring program in which the public is trained to collect data about frog and toad populations in west-central Florida. Volunteers learn how to identify amphibians both audibly and visually. Nearly 3,000 citizens have been trained since the inception of this program. The information collected is mapped and used for trend analysis as an environmental indicator of the health of the Hillsborough River watershed.
To learn more about the Hillsborough River Watershed Alliance, please visit its web site at www.hrwa-fl.org or call (813) 453-4750.