2005 Department of the Interior
Environmental Achievement Awards Recipients

Jupiter Work Group, BLM, Florida
Team, Environmental Stewardship

Since 1996, the Jupiter Inlet Working Group shows how Federal and local partnerships can conserve land for the community's recreation and education as well as improve critical habitat for wildlife. The Jupiter Inlet Natural Area is an 80-acre BLM tract which contains significant natural and cultural resources including eighteen special status species and two endangered plant species. The interagency working group has an assistance agreement the Jupiter High School Environmental Research and Field Studies Academy establishing the Jupiter Inlet Natural Area as an outdoor classroom. Students established long term monitoring plots in prescribed burn areas and new wetlands as well as use custom designed nets to sample fish species entering and leaving the new tidal wetlands. They assist BLM management in exotic plant removal, re-introduction of native plant species, and tortoise burrow monitoring. Other working group accomplishments include cooperative funding of an award-winning wetlands construction project on site.

Left to Right: Ed Shepard, Mike Nedd, Bruce Dawson, Lynn Scarlett

Left to Right: Gale Norton, Mike Nedd, Bruce Dawson, Lynn Scarlett

The Jupiter Inlet Working Group includes seven Federal and private organizations; the BLM, the Town of Jupiter, the Village of Tequesta, Palm Beach County, the U.S. Coast Guard, Jupiter High School, and the Loxahatchie River Historical Society.

Project Point of Contact
Shayne Banks
Bureau of Land Management, Jackson, Mississippi
Phone: 601-977-5400
Email: sbanks@es.blm.gov

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