center on Kings Bay (the principal warm-water refuge for area 

 manatees) as part of the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. 



In addition, the State of Florida has taken complementary 

 steps through its Conservation and Recreation Lands Program 

 administered by the State Land Acguisition Selection Committee. 

 Among other things, the State has: (a) purchased certain 

 undeveloped or lightly developed lands along the Crystal 

 River (an essential winter access corridor to the warm-water 

 refuge at the head of the river in Kings Bay) ; (b) taken 

 steps to identify and purchase additional undeveloped uplands 

 and wetlands along both sides of the Crystal River downstream 

 of Kings Bay; (c) pursued the purchase of lands along the 

 spring run at the head of the Homosassa River, which provides 

 a second important warm-water refuge for manatees in winter; 



(d) acguired several large tracts of land along the coast 

 between the Crystal and Homosassa Rivers that will help protect 

 manatees traveling and feeding between the two rivers; and 



(e) taken steps to acguire most of the remaining undeveloped 

 wetlands and uplands between the two rivers. 



During 1988, the Commission continued to follow with 

 great interest progress on efforts to implement these actions. 

 On 17 June 1988, the Commission wrote to the State Land 

 Acquisition Selection Committee, which was then in the process 

 of ranking land acquisition projects for the 1988 recommended 

 land acquisition priority list. In its letter, the Commission 

 noted the importance of three Crystal River area projects to 

 manatees. The three projects (the Crystal River, Homosassa 

 Springs, and St. Martins River Projects) had been listed on 

 the 1987 priority list but had not yet been acquired. The 

 Commission also noted that these projects, in combination 

 with other lands owned or being acquired by the Fish and 

 Wildlife Service, would provide an outstanding nucleus of 

 protected habitat to help meet the conservation needs of 

 regional manatee and other wildlife populations. 



The Commission expressed its hope that the Committee 

 would be able to continue to build on its past progress in 

 this area by retaining each of the three projects on the 1988 

 list and continuing to pursue their acquisition. Each of the 

 three projects was retained on the 1988 list and, as of the 

 end of 1988, the State had completed purchase of the Homosassa 

 Springs Project and program funds had been expended to acquire 

 part of the Crystal River Project. 



During the manatee program review at the Commission's 

 Annual Meeting in December 1987, the Commission reviewed 

 progress to follow up on recommendations in its 1984 Crystal 

 River Report and identified the need for undertaking a similar 

 study for the manatee population on the east coast of Florida 

 and Georgia. Shortly thereafter, the Commission undertook a 



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