The Our Florida Reefs Community Planning Process Florida Department of Environmental Protection Florida Coastal Office Southeast Region Coral Reef Conservation Program SEFCRI LAS FDOU Project 26B The Our Florida Reefs Community Planning Process Final Report Prepared By: Florida Department of Environmental Protection Florida Coastal Office Southeast Region Coral Reef Conservation Program With Contributions From: Daron Willison, Meghan Balling, Lauren Waters, Joanna Walczak, Francisco Pagan, Jamie Monty, Ana Zangroniz, Dana Wusinich-Mendez, Kevin Claridge Reviewed By: Jane Fawcett, Andrea Graves, Alex Sommers, Angela Smith, April Price, Baret Barry, Brian Walker, Butch Olsen, Caroline McLaughlin, Dan Clark, Drew Bartlett, James Byrne, Jenny Baez, Jenny Peterson, Jim Mathie, Jim Moir, Kathy Fitzpatrick, Kurtis Gregg, Mike Dixon, Nick Morrell, Sara Thanner, Scott Sheckman May 2018 Completed in Fulfillment of NOAA Awards NA11NOS4820003, NA13NOS4820015, NA13NOS4190140, and NA15NOS4820036 for Florida Department of Environmental Protection Coral Reef Conservation Program 1277 N.E. 79th Street Causeway Miami, FL 33138 This report should be cited as follows: Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Our Florida Reefs Community Planning Process. Miami, FL: 2018. X and 333 pages. The views, statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the Our Florida Reefs Joint Community Working Group and do not necessarily reflect the views of the State of Florida, FDEP, FWC, NOAA, or any of their sub agencies. Executive Summary The coral reefs in southeast Florida are an incredibly unique and important resource. They provide many indispensable benefits to residents and visitors alike. As the only barrier reef system in the continental United States, southeast Florida’s coral reefs are unique, precious, and bear an enormous cultural and historical importance to the region. Coral reefs play a vital role in the marine ecosystem by providing habitat for fish and other marine life as well as protection for coastlines. Their beauty draws residents and tourists to enjoy recreational fishing, diving, boating, and other on-water activities. Their bounty provides commercial fishing, diving, and other maritime industry opportunities. Although inconspicuous, the coral reefs fuel an economic engine in southeast Florida. Despite the incredible importance of southeast Florida’s coral reefs, decades of science show that this ecosystem is highly threatened and chronically stressed. Many different global and local threats can limit coral growth or even kill them. For example, increased ocean temperatures have led to stress and coral bleaching. Also, as oceans become more acidic they affect the corals’ ability to produce their limestone skeleton. Locally, a number of factors also threaten coral reef health. Increases in human population in southeast Florida, particularly along the coast, have led to increased pollutants that enter the ocean through land-based sources, such as storm-water runoff, partially treated wastewater outfalls, and inlets, degrading the quality of water in the marine environment. Other factors, such as invasive species, incompatible fisheries pressure, and damage to coral habitats from anchors and coastal development, are also impacting the coral reefs’ ability to survive. Although the coral reefs of Florida are one connected system, starting offshore of the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County and stretching over 350 miles down through the Florida Keys to the Dry Tortugas in Monroe County, they have not historically been managed that way. Currently, there is no comprehensive management plan for the northern one-third of the Florida Reef Tract that extends 105 miles from the northern border of Biscayne National Park in Miami-Dade County to the St. Lucie Inlet in Martin County. Socioeconomic surveys show that a majority of residents in those four counties agree that if management of these resources does not change, conditions will continue to worsen. The process that created Our Florida Reefs began in 1998, when former President Bill Clinton signed an Executive Order establishing the United States Coral Reef Task Force (USCRTF) to lead U.S. government efforts to preserve and protect coral reefs. The State of Florida recognized the importance of the Executive Order and the need to protect and preserve the biodiversity, health, heritage, and socio-economic values of coral reefs and the marine environment. With guidance from the USCRTF, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission formed the Southeast Florida Coral Reef Initiative (SEFCRI): a group of marine resource professionals, scientists, and stakeholders from government agencies and other organizations. The SEFCRI Team first gathered in May of 2003 to develop local action strategies needed to protect the coral reef resources extending from Miami-Dade County through Martin County. One of the local action strategies developed by the SEFCRI Team was the creation of the Our Florida Reefs community planning process (OFR). As designed by SEFCRI, the OFR process would bring together the community of representatives from fishing, diving, waters sports, research, academia, local, state, and federal government, environmental non-government organizations, private business and local Fishing, Diving, I Project 26B and Other Uses May 2018 citizens at large stakeholder groups (reef user groups), as well as the broader public to discuss and develop management strategies for the southeast Florida coral reef ecosystem. The goal was to provide recommendations which would lead to a comprehensive management plan reflecting the diverse interests of all communities and ocean users in the region, while ensuring healthy coral reefs into the future. The mission of the Our Florida Reefs Joint Community Working Group is to collaboratively develop a prioritized list of recommended management actions to preserve and protect southeast Florida's coral reefs and associated reef resources and to reduce continuing trends toward declining coral reef health, emphasizing balance between resource use and protection, and to provide information needed to implement priority management actions. Members of the SEFCRI Team designed the OFR process to be bottom up, transparent, and inclusive. They drew lessons-learned from other stakeholder engagement processes around the world to design the most effective process. OFR launched a communications effort and held community meetings to build interest in the process and solicit applications to become a part of it. With the enthusiasm gained, OFR was able to build two stakeholder Community Working Groups (CWGs), to participate in the process. The CWGs met for the first time in January 2014 to begin what would be an intensive two-year collaboration. The CWGs used professional facilitators to allow for balanced and productive collaboration. Together the group developed guiding principles like a mission statement, group ‘norms’, decision rules, a charter, and a work plan to help organize and focus the efforts of the CWGs. Next, the CWGs spent six months sharing information with one another. This educational period was intended to give CWG members access to available information on all relevant topics: ecosystems, corals, water, fish, habitat, people, and management. Much of this information came from the SEFCRI Team and Technical Advisory Committee (TAC, the technical advisory body affiliated with SEFCRI). During this time, OFR members also shared their stakeholder perspectives and local knowledge with one another, building a holistic and communal understanding of the natural resources and the people that depend on them. After the educational period, the CWG dedicated one year to developing Recommended Management Actions (RMAs) within six focus areas: Education and Outreach; Fishing, Diving, and Other Uses; Land- Based Sources of Pollution; Law Enforcement; Maritime Industry and Coastal Construction Impacts; and Place-Based Management. The CWGs had access to several tools to aid them in the development of their RMAs. Professional facilitators developed processes to increase effectiveness, and staff worked during and between meetings to provide support wherever necessary. Digital tools available to the CWGs included an extensive bibliography where they could compile relevant literature, and a website where they could access all necessary resources. The CWGs also had access to a Marine Planner which was built to address information gaps in southeast Florida and fulfill the needs of the OFR process. The Marine Planner contained decision support tools which allowed the CWGs to query a comprehensive set of all known spatial data to better understand the marine resources in the region. As the RMAs developed, they were put through rigorous review periods from the advisory bodies to the OFR process, the SEFCRI Team and TAC. During these review periods, each RMA was scrutinized for its ability to accomplish stated goals, as well as its scientific accuracy, and feasibility. Through this review and revision period, the RMAs were refined as they were sent back and forth between the CWG and the Fishing, Diving, II Project 26B and Other Uses May 2018 advisory bodies and revised to integrate public comment as it was received. Finally, when the draft RMAs had reached a relatively developed stage, they were rolled out to the public in a series of 12 community meetings throughout the four counties. At these