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These sleek office buildings belong to the Tampa Bay Park, a restored wet- land in Tampa, FL, where offices and wiWffe peacefully coexist. The park is Part of a new trend to restore America's wetlands, yet still find ways in which we, as well as nature, can use them. ground with sleek office buildings. Its award-winning design has set a local standard for creating wetlands, and exhibits an astounding com- patibility between commercial de- velopment and the natural environ- ment. Here lush vegetation rings a placid lake, sustaining itself and cleansing the waters. The Tampa Bay Park develop- ment represents a new trend in design in America. A small but growing number of designers and builders nationwide have seen the need and reaped the benefits of building and restoring wetland areas. In January 1988, Newsweek magazine reported on the "restora- 50/MAY 1989/P&R tion ecology" movement, a move- ment involving prairies, rain forests, and salmon spawning grounds, as well as wetlands. The goal of the restorers is repairing that which has been asunder far too long, and the\, have succeeded in resetting na- ture's clock in hundreds of projects, literally infusing damaged areas with new life. However, park and recreation workers don't always realize the recreation potential of restored wetlands. This is unfortunate; the benefits include cleaner water, in- creased fish production, waterfowl protection, and opportunities for nature study. Trails and boardwalks are ideal for such an environment. The project becomes a study in suc- cessive plant communities as the new plants mature. The designer of the Tampa Bay Park project, Florida Land Design & Engineering Inc., has established an approach to wetlands establishment (or "mitigation" in the case of replacing wetlands in the way of de- velopment). The firm attacks such projects with a battery of different professionals: surveyors plot exist- ing wetlands that have been field - staked by biologists, engineers work out drainage and stormwater- retention systems, biologists de- termine the desired stratification and mix of vegetation, and land- scape architects apply the fun- damentals of landscape design. The results are at once picturesque, en- vironmentally sound, and practical. As a marketplace response, a fledgling industry is growing. In addition to designers, contractors are tackling wetland creation with enthusiasm and sophistication. Many new companies are now pro- viding and installing plants once dif- ficult to obtain. They grow the plants both in the field and in containers, using the expanding variety for greater design flexibility. In Florida, plants such as soft rush create soft pond edges. Pickerelweed and