Lost River Preserve Money Found TAMPA (WUSF) - It's called the The Lost River Preserve - 43 acres along Little Cockroach Bay on the shores of Tampa Bay. The federal Commerce Department announced it will get $750,000 from the federal stimulus package.

The money will be used to restore exotic vegetation and provide spawning grounds for species such as snook, redfish and spotted sea trout. It was chosen over some 800 oher proposals that would have totalled more than $3 billion. Jane Lubchenco is administrator of NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"I don't think that anyone believes this is all that is needed," she says. "At the same time, I think on a local scale, this will make a significant difference."

Other Florida projects include restoring 1,000 acres of wetlands at the Kennedy Space Center; 24 acres of wetlands in the St. Lucie Estuary; and restoring a coral reef in the Florida Keys. © Copyright 2012, WUSF