Engineered Habitats that serve to attract and benefit specific species of plant and animal life have been around for a long time. There is no habitat store where you can go buy these, however there are some groups that do specialize in habitat design and building.

One of the not-for-profit groups, the Ocean Restoration Initiative (ORI), is lead by Mike Calinski with 30 years of field experience in habitat design. The habitats FKEC.org is basing its pilot initiative on comes from this experience. Mike is also a proud FKCC alumni, so this is truly a “Home Grown” solution that is adaptable to other coastal and estuary based water quality needs in Florida and beyond.

It is the goal of the project to manufacture the habitats in Monroe County, with the help of Students, Interns and some like-minded carpentry and contraction companies throughout the Keys. We are actively seeking groups who could help with this manufacturing and assembly. Our pilot project will build about 250 to 275 units to support the project and advance testing throughout Monroe County.