Florida spent about $17 million transforming degraded farmland near Tampa Bay into Robinson Preserve, a 700-acre coastal refuge that now draws about 240,000 visitors annually
Robinson PreservePhoto credit: Lindsay Rosegger/NOAA Fisheries On the edge of Tampa Bay, where mangrove forests meet open water and birds call from the treetops, lies a place that was never meant to exist. Robinson Preserve, a 700-acre coastal refuge in Manatee County, Florida, was once degraded farmland slated for development. Today, it is a thriving…