A drone’s eye view portrays Florida as a mosaic of lakes, rivers, wetlands, and coastlines; street level views offer a montage of houses, local roads, interstate highways, bridges, and fly-overs that support some 21-million residents plus 130-million visitors each year — all of whom depend on land and water resources.
A burgeoning population – new residents and the steady flow of tourists – increasingly pressure land and water resources. Counties and municipalities handle land use planning according to local government comprehensive plans crafted and updated since the 1980s. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the five water management districts, organized by basins, manage fresh water supplies and regulate human activities to protect and preserve wetlands and other natural areas. Federal, state, and/or local governments conserve and/or protect environmentally valuable tracts by outright purchase and/or less than fee simple conservation easement programs.
Lampl Herbert Consultants supports public and private sector clients in land buying programs including the early “Save Our Coast” and “Save Our Rivers,” contributing to protection of thousands of acres in Estero Bay (Lee County), Apalachee Bay (Wakulla County), and the St. Johns River multi-county area. We participated in management planning at the Big Cypress National Preserve, on behalf of private clients, and handled evaluation and monitoring for multiple municipal and/or county landfills in Florida and Alabama.
LHC projects include resource assessment over some 25,000 acres for a south Florida local government that wanted to protect and manage its publicly owned lands. We identified multiple opportunities for preservation, recreation, and financial benefits that included restoration of wetlands, creation of a mitigation bank, and development of an off-highway vehicle (OHV) park. Separately, we developed a wildlife management plan for a private client that considered state and federally listed wildlife, invasive species, and wildlife of specific importance over a 130,000-acre property in South Florida.
LHC routinely works with private clients to identify, support, and work through the regulatory processes associated with receipt of federal, state, and local governments permits to drill and operate industrial water wells, monitoring wells, and disposal wells.