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Exhibit "D" activities and other appropriate land uses is established. CONSERVATION AREA OVERVIEW Regional Significance The Indian River Lagoon adjacent to the ORCA property is part of the Vero Beach to Fort Pierce State Aquatic Preserve (No. A-9), and has also been deemed an Estuary of National Significance by the federal government. The Indian River Lagoon is also a Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) priority waterbody designated by the State of Florida. The ORCA project is one of a number of conservation areas established by Indian River County in partnership with the District and with the Florida Communities Trust to protect parcels of developable land along the Indian River Lagoon from future residential or commercial development. County staff with the Environmental Planning Section, the Parks and Recreation Division and the Indian River Mosquito Control District have implemented management programs on each of these conservation areas to eradicate or control invasive exotic plant species, enhance the treatment and control of stormwater runoff entering the lagoon, and to enhance the Rotational Impoundment Method (RIM) management programs of mosquito impoundments at several locations. These conservation areas and management programs are important elements of the collaborative effort by federal, state, local government agencies and local volunteer groups to protect, enhance and restore the important ecological attributes of the Indian River Lagoon. In 2007, a local citizens group and the Indian River Land Trust, which owns approximately 66 acres of land between the original ORCA property and the Flinn Tract, established the idea for an Indian River Lagoon Greenway between the South Relief Canal and the 17th Street Bridge. Working with the citizens group (now the Lagoon Greenway Advisory Committee) together with staff from the Mosquito Control District, the Florida Inland Navigation District, and the Indian River County Environmental Lands Program, the Indian River Land Trust has developed a plan for the Indian River Lagoon Greenway, which is included in the Appendix of this plan. 3