Cape Coral City Council will vote on a memorandum of agreement with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida Inc. for burrowing owl habitat protection, a $900,000 grant, during its Wednesday meeting.

According to the city’s background information, the grant funding will be limited to property acquisition costs, “including but not limited to, appraisals, surveys, title costs, and initial maintenance costs.” The city, FWC and Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife will coordinate the maintenance, monitoring and reporting of each purchased site.

“This is the first time that FWC is giving out this grant for burrowing owl habitat. It all came about when Carl Veaux, former president of CCFW and current board member of CCWT, began advocating FWC to use mitigation funds to purchase owl habitat. Carl and other CCFW volunteers have worked with the city of Cape Coral and FWC to iron out the details and make this happen,” Cape Coral Friends of Wildlife Publicist Janet Windisch said.

She said one of the major priorities of CCFW is to acquire land in Cape Coral to preserve as habitat for precious wildlife, including burrowing owls.

“Wildlife habitat is being depleted at an alarming rate due to development and if we don’t preserve habitat quickly, much of our wildlife in Cape Coral will disappear,” Windisch said. “We know that over 200 incidental permits were issued in 2023 for removal of burrowing owl nests which equals at least 400 owls displaced. And that is surely a low estimate of the number of burrows lost each year. So, this acquisition of property is one way to support the burrowing owl population.”

She said the funds for the grant derive from mitigation fees already paid for incidental burrowing owl take permits.

“In other words, the funding is based on the many burrowing owl nests that have already been destroyed due to development. So, it is very fitting that the money go back into the community where the owls have already been displaced,” Windisch said.

She said 71 lots in Cape Coral have already been acquired as wildlife habitat by the Cape Coral Wildlife Trust, sister organization to CCFW, via donations from the community and from fundraisers, such as the Burrowing Owl Festival.

“It is very exciting to have those conservation efforts bolstered by this grant from FWC. We are also very appreciative that the city of Cape Coral values the wildlife and has worked very hard to obtain this grant and is willing to invest in the effort to acquire and maintain the properties,” Windisch said.

The Wednesday, May 1, meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. in Council Chambers, 1015 Cultural Park Blvd. The meeting is open to the public.