Florida Scrub-jays in Palm Bay to Get New Lease on Life
The public is invited to an informative meeting in Palm Bay on Friday evening, Dec. 14, to learn about a conservation project that may give some threatened Florida scrub-jays a new lease on life.
The meeting is 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, at Palm Bay Regional Park, 1951 Malabar Road NW, Palm Bay and will be presented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the Brevard Zoo. Comments and questions from the public are also encouraged.
The project involves catching and moving a few scrub-jay families that use property slated for future development in Palm Bay neighborhoods. Right now, these birds’ habitat is in poor condition and will eventually be destroyed. However, moving, or translocating, them in family groups will give them a better chance to thrive, reproduce and contribute to the future scrub-jay population in Florida.
Biologists hope to capture the imperiled birds and move them, as family groups, to protected and properly managed scrub-jay habitat in the Buck Lake Conservation Area in Brevard County.
Biologists from Brevard Zoo, USFWS and FWC will give short presentations about an upcoming Florida scrub-jay conservation project in Palm Bay. After the presentations, the presenters want to hear people’s thoughts about it and answer their questions.
For more information, contact the FWC’s Northeast Regional Office at 352-732-1225.
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission came into existence on July 1, 1999 - the result of a constitutional amendment approved in the 1998 General Election as part of the package proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission.
In the implementation of the Constitutional Amendment, the Florida Legislature combined all of the staff and Commissioners of the former Marine Fisheries Commission, elements of the Divisions of Marine Resources and Law Enforcement of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and all of the employees and Commissioners of the former Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission.
Five years later, after consulting stakeholders, employees and other interested parties, the FWC adopted a new internal structure to address complex conservation issues of the new century. The new structure focuses on programs, such as habitat management, that affect numerous species. It will focus on moving the decision-making process closer to the public and did not require any additional funding or additional positions.
