Gulf Coast Grant Helps Nurture Support for Venice Urban Forest

Gulf Coast Community Foundation recently awarded a $100,000 matching grant to Venice Area Beautification, Inc. (VABI) to support the creation of an Urban Forest along the Intracoastal Waterway in Venice.

The nearly two-mile forested greenway will provide habitat in which birds, butterflies, and wildlife will thrive and for residents and visitors to enjoy. Gulf Coast’s support raises the visibility of this transformative community conservation project. All gifts will be matched dollar for dollar up to $100,000, helping VABI to complete the first phase of the dynamic initiative.

“This grant is a catalyst,” said Greg Vine, a longtime VABI volunteer and the Urban Forest project chair. “We have an ambitious vision relying on fundraising, in-kind gifts, and sweat equity. With broad community support, we will create the Urban Forest, tree by tree.” Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast has partnered with VABI to build resources and public awareness for the project. (To learn more and donate, go here.)

The Urban Forest began several years ago as a grassroots-led vision to reforest the former CSX railway corridor through the heart of Venice. So far, more than 600 trees of 32 species and understory plants have been planted as part of Phase One. Two more phases are envisioned after the current one is finished later this year.

When the project is completed, the 33-acre Venice Urban Forest will stretch from the historic Venice Train Depot to Center Road and provide a beautiful woodland trail for pedestrians parallel to the Venetian Waterway Park. All native trees and shrubs are being planted, so that the forest provides habitat specifically for migratory songbirds and native wildlife. The forest also will enhance stormwater treatment and provide an environmental buffer between the Intracoastal Waterway and the adjacent industrial area.

Enhancing Our Unique Places

The Urban Forest project is the latest of several investments that Gulf Coast Community Foundation has made in enhancing natural assets that also provide competitive advantages for our region.

Gulf Coast’s last regional scan report—a document the foundation uses to articulate and share regional opportunities and needs that will guide the foundation’s work and funding decisions—identified “enhancing our unique places” as one of five strategic priorities for our region. “We must preserve and improve the greatest competitive strengths of our region—our unique communities, natural assets, amenities, and lifestyles,” the report stated.

To that end, Gulf Coast has played a critical leadership and funding role in The Bay, the master-planning effort to sustainably redevelop 53 acres of publicly owned land on Sarasota's Bayfront. Through quiet, behind-the-scenes leadership and outreach to funders in the community, Gulf Coast has helped to drive The Bay's current success and position this regionally transformative project for future realization. The all-volunteer board of the Sarasota Bayfront Planning Organization—now The Bay Park Conservancy—was able to achieve its goal of developing a financially feasible, operationally viable, and environmentally sustainable master plan for this precious piece of waterfront property thanks to the generosity of many Gulf Coast donors and community supporters.

Another project that will bring environmental, recreational, economic, and health benefits to the region—and which Gulf Coast has supported from early on—is the extension of the Legacy Trail. Since hosting the community-wide crowdfunding effort that helped pay for the idea's original feasibility study, Gulf Coast has continued to provide grant funding, technical expertise, and leadership to the project. The foundation has worked closely with the Trust for Public Land to complete the due-diligence work needed so the Legacy Trail extension could be put forward to Sarasota County voters. Gulf Coast also supported the Friends of the Legacy Trail in its public outreach to raise awareness of the the trail's benefits for residents and the natural environment and to share the opportunity to connect the northern and southern parts of the county by extending it.