The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is helping to support many Florida environmental jobs.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration received $167 million in federal economic stimulus money. The State of Florida will see a portion of that, which will be used for ecological projects, including 12,000 corals to be grown to expand reef populations in degraded areas. The projects, which will be overseen by the Nature Conservancy, will create 57 jobs.
Part of the funding will be used to help coral reefs along Florida’s southern coast and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Specifically, $3.3 million will help expand four existing nurseries of staghorn and elkhorn coral and establish two new coral nurseries, according to an article by the Miami Herald.