Mangroves on the Tampa Coastline

Red, black and white mangroves are the three species common in Tampa Bay, with red mangroves growing closest to the water, followed by black and then white mangroves (Tampa Bay Estuary Program, About the Bay).

Red mangroves are the ones with tangled reddish roots arching over the water, and oysters often build mounds at their base. Black mangroves ring their trunks with finger-like projections called pneumatophores and carry leaves that are dark green above and silver-green below. White mangroves also have pneumatophores, but their leaves are yellow-green (TBEP). Because both have pneumatophores, leaf color is the difference the estuary program gives between black and white mangroves in Tampa Bay.

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program calls mangroves the dominant wetland vegetation type in the Tampa Bay watershed. Its fact page credits mangrove forests with trapping and cycling pollutants, sheltering young fish, crustaceans and shellfish, and protecting uplands from storms, waves and floods (TBEP, About the Bay). Snook, snapper, tarpon, jack, sheepshead, red drum, oysters, crabs and shrimp are among the Tampa Bay species it ties to the mangrove food chain.

Florida law treats all three the same way. Under the 1996 Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act, any specimen of white, red or black mangrove counts as a mangrove, and the state Department of Environmental Protection notes that the act makes no distinction between living and dead trees (Florida DEP, Mangroves), so a dead mangrove on a Tampa lot is still regulated.

Nearly half of the mangrove swamps that once ringed Tampa Bay have been replaced by development and seawalls, according to the Tampa Bay Estuary Program, which links that loss to a decline in bay fisheries (TBEP, Explore the Bay).

The program dates the damage: since the 1950s almost half of Tampa Bay's original marshes and mangroves have been lost, and half of its natural shoreline has been altered by roads, causeways, subdivisions and other building (TBEP, About the Bay).

The trend has turned in recent years. The estuary program says mangrove coverage in Tampa Bay has increased because of both habitat restoration and climate change, and that mangroves have overtaken salt marshes in different areas around the bay. Researchers have documented mangrove encroachment into salt marshes over the past century (TBEP).

The gain is not purely good news for every habitat. Salt marsh, made of salt-tolerant rushes, sedges and grasses, has its own target in the Tampa Bay plans, so a mangrove spreading into a Hillsborough County marsh counts toward one goal while eating into another. The estuary program pages cited here give the direction of the change but no current baywide mangrove acreage, which is why the target in the next section is the most concrete number available.

The Tampa Bay Estuary Program Habitat Master Plan update sets a goal of 15,300 acres of mangrove forests in the Tampa Bay watershed by no later than 2050, alongside goals for marsh, tidal flats and living shorelines (TBEP, Habitat Master Plan).

The Tampa Bay plan sets 10-year targets for 2030 and 30-year goals for 2050, and it says it focuses on what is possible today rather than recreating past conditions, with sea level rise, climate change and development built into the targets (TBEP Habitat Master Plan).

Mangrove work in the plan centers on a coastal stratum that runs from the mean low water line up to about the 5-foot contour, a band the estuary program expects to feel sea level rise directly by 2050. The plan map breaks out restoration potential by boundary, including the City of Tampa (TBEP).

Under section 403.9326, Florida Statutes, a person who owns or controls a riparian mangrove fringe in Tampa may trim mangroves no taller than 10 feet without a permit, but not below 6 feet, if no herbicide or other chemical is used (section 403.9326).

A professional mangrove trimmer may work on Tampa mangroves up to 24 feet tall. A professional trimmer trimming red mangroves for the first time under the professional exemption, and anyone doing so under the previous configuration exemption, must notify the state or the delegated local government in writing at least 10 days before starting, and work on mangroves taller than 10 feet under the configuration exemption must be done by a professional mangrove trimmer (section 403.9326).

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says its district offices and delegated local governments process applications to trim or alter mangroves (Florida DEP). Trimming that no exemption in the section covers needs a permit, and in Hillsborough County new trimming permits are applied for through the county agency described below.

The Wetlands Division of the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County handles mangrove trimming permits and exemption checks for Tampa shorelines, from its office at 3629 Queen Palm Dr. in Tampa, phone 813-627-2600 (EPC Wetlands Division).

The EPC Wetlands Division asks property owners proposing new mangrove trimming to file an Application for Mangrove Trimming Permit. Maintenance mangrove trimming goes on a separate form, the Noticed Exemption Activities in Wetlands, and professional trimmers who work in Hillsborough County register or renew through the commission (EPC permits and exemptions).

The commission also publishes a list of registered professional mangrove trimmers in Hillsborough County (EPC Wetlands Division). The list matters in Tampa because the professional exemption in state law covers mangroves up to 24 feet, against 10 feet for the owner exemption (section 403.9326).

Last verified: October 18, 2026, on the Environmental Protection Commission of Hillsborough County website, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection mangrove page and section 403.9326 of the Florida Statutes.

Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park, a 596-acre Hillsborough County peninsular park at 8001 Double Branch Rd. in Tampa, protects mangrove forests along with salt marsh, coastal hammock and pine flatwoods (Hillsborough County, Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park).

Hillsborough County founded Upper Tampa Bay Conservation Park in 1982. It is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., entry is $2 per vehicle for up to eight people, and canoe and kayak rentals cost $25 for up to four hours plus $10 for each extra hour, with rentals stopped when small craft advisories or tides make paddling hazardous (Hillsborough County). The county page lists two office numbers, (813) 855-1765 at the top and (813) 844-1765 in the paddling notes, so a caller may need to try both.

Inside the city, Picnic Island Park at 7409 Picnic Island Blvd. in South Tampa has parking right across the street from the mangrove tunnel canoe and kayak launch. The park is open sunrise to sunset and its boat ramp is open 24 hours (City of Tampa, Picnic Island Park).

Two more Tampa Bay mangrove shorelines have their own guides: the McKay Bay guide covers the 38-acre nature park the estuary program calls a refuge in the heart of urban Tampa, and the Cockroach Bay Aquatic Preserve guide covers the preserve of mangrove islands at the mouth of the Little Manatee River (TBEP, Explore the Bay).