Guest opinion: Mangrove protection laws under attack
Both the Scott Administration and Lee County developers seem to think the time is right for them to get rid of mangrove and other wetland protection laws.
Gov. Scott’s programs have been held close to chest, but they’ve been leaking out bit by bit. There was the recent proposal to build 36-hole golf courses in state parks, but that died when they realized golf courses are failing all over the state (and thus not a good investment). Then, the St Petersburg Times published editorial reports saying the DEP had a program to turn portions of state parks over to private corporations to build camping and RV sites. One of them, they said, was an environmentally sensitive area of Honeymoon Island State Park now used for nature-watching and picnicking. More than 400 people attended a rally last week to protect Honeymoon Island and, on July 9, Gov. Scott announced that in view of fierce public opposition “this is not the right time” to privatize Honeymoon Park. He left it clear that only the timing was being changed-the program would continue.
I’ve been suspicious ever since DEP renamed “Charlotte Harbor State Aquatic Buffer Preserves” (our local state-owned mangroves) to “Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park,” so I of course wondered if 4,806-acre Little Pine Island in particular could be slated to become a privately-developed golf course, campground, or such. Earlier today, I got my answer when I found a June 28 article by Virginia Chamlee in the Florida Independent. She revealed a DEP list entitled “State Parks with Potential for Providing New Family Camping Areas” and No. 10 on the list is the renamed “Charlotte Harbor Preserve State Park.” The designation includes all state-owned mangroves and other coastal wetlands in Lee and Charlotte County — some 70 miles of shoreline and 45,000 acres. It includes all of Little Pine Island, most of the mangrove fringe around Pine Island, and most mangroves along Lemon Bay, Cape Haze, Matlacha Pass, and Estero Bay.
It also includes the 9,185- acre Cape Coral mangrove fringe, which has long been sought after by the Cape Coral government for beaches and other development.
All of our local state-owned mangroves are in serious danger of development, but Little Pine Island probably heads the list because of its size and because it was recently cleared of exotics by the Little Pine Island Mitigation Bank. It’s supposedly protected in perpetuity, but that’s supposedly also true of all of the former “buffer preserves,” so why are they all on the list?
The danger to privately-owned mangroves is even worse, and about one-third of the Pine Island mangrove fringe is in private ownership (mainly local land speculators). The Pine Island Land Plan prohibits construction within 50 feet of wetlands adjoining the aquatic preserves (nearly all Pine Island privately owned mangroves swamps and other wetlands adjoin aquatic preserves). A developer seeking to build yet another shopping center on Pine Island wants to destroy wetlands adjoining Matlacha Pass so he can make his project larger. His lawyer has submitted a Land Plan change essentially doing away with the Pine Island provision (the developer-proposed change would make the Pine Island provision inapplicable if a state agency says it’s OK to destroy the mangroves, which they routinely do upon request by any developer). Other developer groups are jumping on the bandwagon. The proposed change would take Lee County out of the business of protecting mangroves on Pine Island-deferring all such decisions to state agencies (that are not inclined to do so).
The developer-proposed repeal of mangrove protection on Pine Island was presented to the Lee County commissioners in June. The developer’s representative erroneously told commissioners that developers would not remove exotics from wetlands if they were not allowed to build upon them-that’s not true and as the county staff correctly noted, developers are required to remove exotics from a property (uplands and wetlands alike) as a standard condition of development orders (They build upon the uplands and usually use the cleared wetlands portion to satisfy green space requirements). However, all five commissioners, based on that erroneous testimony, approved letting the proposal go to a final hearing this fall (September or October). Commissioner Judah has since said he will vote against the proposal when it comes up for final review, but the other four commissioners have not responded to inquiries on the matter.
Florida environmental organizations, and especially Pine Islanders, need to be prepared to defend our mangroves. That means keeping a close eye on events in Tallahassee and when these or similar proposals arise again, letting the elected officials know that we will not stand for plots and schemes to turn our mangroves and other environmental resources over to developers. Gov. Scott has made it clear to state employees that if they enforce environmental laws, they will not be long employed by the Florida Government, so don’t waste time trying to talk to them — state your concerns directly to the elected officials.
It also means that come September/ October, we are going to have to write letters and emails and attend hearings in Fort Myers letting our county commissioners know that we expect and demand that they continue to do their part in protecting our mangroves and wetlands. It’s beginning to appear that, in Florida, local government protection is all our environment has left.
— Phil Buchanan is an environmentalist.