The Tampa Bay Habitat Protection and Restoration Masterplan project has analyzed trends in emergent marine and estuarine wetland loss and determined that there has been greater loss, on a percentage basis, of the shallow, lower salinity tidal marshes predominantly found in tidal streams, than of the higher salinity coastal mangrove and cordgrass marshes. The basis premise of the proposed protection and restoration plan is that a combination of habitat is essential to the continued ecological viability of Tampa Bay, and that these habitats must be protected and restored with regard to historic proportions.