Where: Florida, United States

What's at stake: Largest remaining stretch of unspoiled beaches and wetlands in Florida; habitat for sea turtles and other imperiled wildlife

Threatened by: Large-scale commercial and residential development

Animals include: Sea turtle, Gulf sturgeon, red-cockaded woodpecker, bald eagle, Florida black bear

	Spanning Florida's northwestern shore, the Emerald Coast encompasses over 9.5 million acres of pristine beaches, longleaf pine forests, rare coastal dune lakes and sandhill upland lakes.
	The Emerald Coast's vast network of wetlands and forests provides a natural buffer against Gulf Coast hurricanes. These wildlands also help regulate river flows, lake levels, and groundwater tables, and clean groundwater of sediments and other pollutants.
	Extremely shy creatures, Florida black bears depend on the Emerald Coast's vast unspoiled stretches of forested wetlands for denning and resting. Only about 1,000 to 1,500 of these bears, Florida's largest land mammal, survive today.
	Protected from glacial freezes, wildlife and plants have thrived on the Emerald Coast since the Cretaceous period. As a result, this region is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the United States.
	The Emerald Coast's Gulf sturgeon is part of an ancient group of fish dating back about 200 million years to the age of dinosaurs. This threatened cousin of the Atlantic sturgeon can grow to be more than 8 feet long, and its body is covered with razor sharp plates.
	The vast seagrass beds of St. Andrew Bay, covering some 10,000 acres along the Emerald Coast, provide spawning and feeding grounds for marine life including hundreds of species of fish and shellfish.
	Polluted stormwater runoff from new construction sites alongside the Emerald Coast's sensitive bays poses a serious risk for the region's threatened and endangered wildlife.

Photo credits: Forest pond near the Wakulla River, USGS Southeast Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative. Loggerhead turtle, © Norbert Wu.