Mosaic's Florida Scrub-Jay Mitigation Program began more than 25 years ago as a collaborative effort led by The Mosaic Company and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conserve one of Florida's most unique and imperiled species. The program was developed to reduce extinction risk for the west-central Florida population of Florida Scrub-Jays known as Genetic Unit F, which had experienced significant declines due to habitat fragmentation, habitat conversion, and long-term fire suppression.

In 1999, multiple population models were evaluated to identify the mitigation strategy with the greatest conservation benefit. The selected approach involved translocating birds from the fragmented population to a continuous parcel of scrub habitat owned and managed by Mosaic. This science-based approach, combined with expanded regional habitat management by neighboring lands, including Manatee County, SWFWMD, FWC, and FDEP, led to a significant reduction in extinction risk by as much as 70% between 1999 and 2012. 

Verdantas provides ecological consulting, scientific research, population monitoring, habitat management recommendations, and data analysis for the ongoing program. Services include project management, long-term monitoring, field surveys, banding activities, population trend analysis, and research recommendations that help guide adaptive management decisions. 

As the population recovered, research identified genetic diversity loss as an emerging challenge. Working with project partners and academic researchers, the team evaluated genetic conditions within the population and determined that additional genetic diversity would be necessary to support long-term resilience. These findings contributed to published scientific research and informed the development of a new genetic rescue initiative. 

Building on this work, project partners launched a first-of-its-kind Florida Scrub-Jay translocation designed to increase genetic diversity while advancing understanding of population recovery dynamics. Verdantas collaborated with Mosaic on the design and implementation of the translocation and continues to collaborate with partners to evaluate its outcomes. 

The current phase of the program represents a major collaborative effort among a diverse partnership of conservation organizations, government agencies, researchers, land managers, and industry partners. By combining conservation management with applied scientific research, the program is generating new insights into population recovery, genetic admixture, pair formation, and translocation success that can inform future conservation programs. 

Verdantas continues to monitor the core and translocated populations in collaboration with conservation organizations, research institutions, and project partners. Through applied science, long-term monitoring, and collaborative planning, the program is advancing the recovery of the Florida Scrub-Jay while generating valuable insights that can inform species conservation efforts across the region. 

Partners at the University of Central Florida lead the scientific research investigating three key components of the translocation: overcoming despotic behavior to increase initial population density, understanding pair formation and mate choice among birds from different source populations, and evaluating the success of genetic mixture among the three donor populations. Archbold Biological Station supports monitoring efforts at the recipient site and is helping to evaluate post-release tracking methods. Verdantas monitors the core population and provides support for monitoring jays at the recipient site. Together, project partners are generating valuable insights that will help inform future conservation and translocation programs.