"The Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape Partnership: Protecting Military Missions, Maintaining Working Lands and Conserving Species"

This event is sponsored by FAMU-FSU Engineering Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.

Abstract: The purpose of the NWFSL Partnership is to foster a regional approach to land stewardship and coastal and natural systems resilience that emphasizes collaborations to achieve partnership goals. Being designated as a Sentinel Landscape provides our partners with greater access to funding and assistance from federal, state and local government and private sector programs to better address the complex and often conflicting demands of population growth, economic development, rural vitality, military readiness, and natural resource protection in Northwest Florida. Please visit the Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape website for additional information. This presentation describes the Sentinel Landscapes program nationally and in Florida and highlights the successes of the Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape Partnership.

Kent Wimmer

Coordinator, Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape

Senior Northwest Florida Representative for Defenders of Wildlife

Speaker Bio: Kent Wimmer is the coordinator of the federally designated Northwest Florida Sentinel Landscape and is the Senior Northwest Florida Representative for Defenders of Wildlife. Through his work, Mr. Wimmer advocates for protecting landscapes and wildlife habitats in northwestern Florida. His work focuses on protecting habitat for species at—risk such as sea turtles, gopher tortoises, manatees, red—cockaded woodpeckers and looking toward the return of the Florida panther. In July 2020, he led a coalition which successfully advocated for passage of the Florida Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act.

Mr. Wimmer joined Defenders of Wildlife in 2014 and has been involved in planning, advocating, and protecting greenways and conservation lands in Florida for 40 years. Formerly, he was the Outreach Director for the Florida Water and Land Legacy Campaign and was the Florida Trail Association’s Interim Executive Director and Program and Policy Director of its Florida National Scenic Trail program. Mr. Wimmer has served as a greenways planner for the Florida Office of Greenways and Trails, 1000 Friends of Florida, National Park Service and USDA Forest Service. He also worked for the Ocala Recreation and Parks Department and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.