Category: Editorials

A Lesson Learned – The Hard Way

This April marks the first anniversary of the prescribed Carlton Reserve fire that resulted in some very non-prescribed events. As with any infamous event, there are lessons to be learned that should safeguard against a reoccurrence. And there are lessons that could advance beyond safeguards and be a long-term benefit to the community.

The most obvious lesson derived from the Carlton fire is that human habitats and wildland fires are inherently incompatible. Several suggestions have been offered to resolve this human/fire incompatibility, including: don’t build houses near wildlands, destroy the wildlands, or ensure that the wildlands and houses are protected from one another. In the aftermath of a destructive wildfire, you

may hear an additional suggestion, and that is, don’t burn the wildlands. Let me explain why this latter option is unrealistic. Stopping fires from burning homes within the pinelands of south Florida is not unlike stopping earthquakes from destroying homes straddling the San Andreas Fault. It is not a question of if they will burn, rather when they will.

The pine forest habitats in Sarasota have burned every two to five years for thousands of years. The plants and animals that thrive in these environs are not only adapted to fires, they are dependent upon them. In fact, they are so dependent, that they cannot survive long term without fire. The pines trees themselves ensure that frequent fires occur by attracting lighting strikes that start the fire. The trees then carry the fire throughout the landscape with their highly flammable needles. Imagine gasoline soaked straw and you have a fairly accurate description of pine needles.

Historic records from early pioneers describe the frequent wildfires of Sarasota as low burning and of medium to low intensity. For the most part these historic fires burned low-growing palmetto and grasses and were relatively cool. An old cracker story suggested the way to escape a pine-prairie fire is to first step over it with one leg, then the other. However, under the misguided impression that we were saving the forest by extinguishing these naturally occurring fires, the plants that fuel the fires accumulated and the fires became hotter, more intense, and flames grew to heights previously unheard of. As we have seen throughout the U.S., such as in Yellowstone, California and now Florida, controlling these unnatural and catastrophic fires is extraordinarily difficult, expensive and very dangerous. Sooner or later these volatile unburned pinelands will catch fire and burn, either by lightning, an errant cigarette, or a kid playing with matches.

On 1-75 between exits 34 and 33 (mile markers 187 and 189) in North Port, you can see the positive results of the Carlton fire where it did burn, in stark contrast to the areas that did not burn. The burned area is now characterized with low growing palmettos, numerous grass and widely scattered pines. These open vistas and herbaceous ground cover created by fire are the real Florida. This is the landscape that attracted early Europeans and sustained aboriginal Floridians. Should this area burn again soon, as it should, the fire will burn low, be more easily controlled and will benefit the indigenous plants and animals that rely upon these naturally occurring, low-intensity fires. On the contrary, the unburned area, with its 20-foot high shrubs, will burn intensely hot, kill many trees and animals and be very difficult to control.

Since the Carlton fire of 1991, Sarasota County has created a firewise coalition comprised of state forestry officials, fire department representatives and personnel from both county and city governments. Both, the negative impacts of the Carlton fire from the human perspective and the beneficial results from the natural perspectives will be used to formulate policies and procedures that will benefit future land management decisions. These decisions will preserve the environmental integrity of the unique natural landscape of Sarasota while not compromising the safety of its citizens.

An Alternative Approach to the Phosphate Mining Agreement

A recent attempt to settle pending litigation between local governments and Mosaic, the world’s largest phosphate mining company, stalled when Sarasota County failed to ratify a proposed settlement agreement compact. The compact essentially prohibited local governments from opposing phosphate mining, in return for enhanced environmental protection. While some felt the compact was balanced and equitable, others, including myself, did not.

I propose an alternative settlement agreement designed to reconcile the disagreements that have been the subject of litigation rather than eliminating the right to litigate. But first, it is important to understand the details of the compact that failed to reach consensus.

The Mosaic company is offering environmental standards that are stricter than those presently required by law. These new standards require that future mining activity will avoid dewatering impacts to preserved wetlands, maintain downstream water quality, and mitigate adverse impacts to the quantity and timing of surface water flows into the Peace and Myakka River basins.

The compact also prohibits Mosaic from mining or constructing slime ponds (clay settling areas) within some, but not all, 100-year floodplains. It also requires slime pond construction standards that can withstand a hurricane. Mosaic further agrees to provide insurance coverage to pay for cleanup and restoration costs from slime pond failures and to enhance the flows of the Peace River for local governments’ future water supplies.

In return, local governments agree to dismiss all pending permit challenges and can not initiate any new permit challenges or make any comments opposing Mosaic’s mining activities to any permitting agency for 15 to 30 years.

Local governments would also be prohibited from Mosaic appears to be giving up more than local governments. But closer scrutiny of historical evidence and a standard known as “do the right thing,” reveals a bias that strongly favors Mosaic’s interests.

First let’s consider the concessions expected from local governments. Local governments are being asked to give up all rights to go to court to protect their community’s welfare, and would also agree to what amounts to a “hush order,” which would prohibit them from participating in the permitting process. These two provisions are critical and fundamental rights that have been the most effective tools in holding the phosphate industry accountable for unnecessary environmental destruction in the past. While local government concessions are few in number, they are significant in terms of effectiveness, as evidenced by Mosaic’s eagerness to eliminate them.

One of two scenarios must be true about Mosaic’s proposed concessions. The first scenario assumes that current environmental standards allow for adverse impacts to preserved wetlands, the degradation of downstream water quality, the construction of slime ponds in floodplains that are vulnerable to failure from hurricanes, inadequate insurance coverage and impacts to future water supplies. The second scenario assumes that Mosaic is offering us something that we already have. Either way, we are being offered a minimum standard that any effective environmental protection agency should already be using. This outlandish exchange also requires citizens to surrender one of their most coveted rights — the right to protect their interests in a court of law and the right to voice their opposition in a legal review process that affects their health and welfare.

It is inconceivable, but now demonstrably true, that Florida’s environmental regulations governing phosphate mining are pathetically inadequate, to the point where they are now being used as leverage against local governments’ ability to protect their communities. It is shameful that existing environmental regulations do not already preserve preserved wetlands, protect water quality and floodplains.

This is not a balanced settlement and I will continue to oppose it.

As an alternative settlement agreement, I suggest that local governments agree to hold pending litigation in abeyance in return for an agreement by Mosaic to partner with local governments to support changes to state environmental protection rules that will codify the enhanced standards offered by Mosaic in the pending settlement agreement.

Since the lack of these environmental standards led to virtually all recent litigation, adopting the standards into law will minimize, if not entirely eliminate the need for local governments to resort to litigation to protect their community’s interests in the future.

Mosaic suggests it is a “community partner” and willing to “do the right thing.” Well, this is the right thing to do. Expecting present and all future local governments to surrender their legal rights for up to 30 years in return for Mosaic’s willingness to protect the environment is unreasonable. It’s obviously financially viable for the industry to continue to mine phosphate with the heightened environmental standards — otherwise they would have never been offered. If they are feasible, viable and the right thing to do today, they should be the legal standard for the future.

Caspersen Beach; The Secret’s Out

My first memories of Caspersen Beach are from the early 1960s. I recall one summer afternoon in particular when my mother took my younger sister and me to explore a remote area that was, at the time, virtually unknown to all but the locals. I was about five. The car we were driving got stuck in the sandy road that led to the southern end of the beach. Fortunately two young men came to our rescue and freed the car from its sandy trap, and we were on our way. It was midsummer, hot, and our car had no A/C. Unlike the bleached white sand from the Sarasota beaches, the dark sands of Caspersen burned my feet and forever etched in my mind a different kind of Sarasota beach.

Throughout my junior high and high school years in Venice, Caspersen Beach was quite the hangout. It was a great place for bonfires and teenage mischief, isolated just enough to create a false sense of security. Fishing off the beach for snook and the occasional tarpon was a favorite activity for us as teens. My uncles suggested, with remarkable accuracy, that the snook surf fishing began with the blooming of the Royal Poinciana trees.

Much of Caspersen and all of the Venice Beaches to the north are unique to the Southwest coast of Florida in that they are not on barrier islands. Rather, they are the mainland gulf shore. Actually, Venice is not a natural island at all. It only became an island in 1967 when the last section of a canal (we called it “The Ditch”) was dug east of town connecting Roberts and Lemon Bays.

Some of the earliest documentation of Caspersen Beach comes from a British surveyor, Bernard Romans, who mapped the region in 1771. Under British control, Venice was know as “Horse and Chaise Point” and Caspersen as “Haulover” possibly referring to a place where longboats could be careened to remove barnacles.

An 1880’s reference to Caspersen billed it as a great place to harvest Loggerhead sea turtles. So bountiful were the turtles that a Key West fishery made an annual trip to Caspersen just to slaughter the numerous slow moving nesting females.

Sarasota County first leased Caspersen Beach from the Caspersen family in the late 1960’s. However, recognizing the rapidly increasing price for gulf-front real estate, the County purchased the property in two phases. In 1973 the 113 acres gulf side was purchased for $3.5 million dollars. The 146-acre mainland parcel (including Shamrock Park) was purchased in 1985 for $8 million. The money for both acquisitions came from voter-approved referendums. I was a member of Venice High School’s Ecology Club during the 1973 referendum and I can remember critics complaining about this waste of taxpayer money. Both parcels are now worth many times their initial capital cost, and will forever be priceless in terms of economic and social investments.

The blistering hot “black” sand of Caspersen Beach that I abhorred as a child is actually one of its most attractive features. The dark grains of sand are small fragments of fossilized prehistoric plants and animals. Not all are fragmented; many of the fossils remain intact and have become the treasures of fossil hunters from all over the world. Dr. Sonny Cockerel, well known for his archeological finds in Warm Mineral Springs, has inspired many a Venetian youth to dive for fossils just off the shores of Caspersen Beach.

Belinda Perry, at the time a County employee, professionalized the turtle monitoring methodologies that are now considered the research standard, at Caspersen Beach. Deurita Wozniak, a volunteer who worked with Belinda in the mid 1980’s, is the longest term volunteer at Caspersen and is still at it today. More sea turtles now nest at Caspersen Beach than anywhere else on the West coast of Florida. The warmer dark sand incubates the buried turtle eggs faster so the hatchlings are away before the typical Labor Day storms batter the beaches.

I have always been attracted to this beach, and my awe and appreciation for its grandeur has grown increasingly with my age. It should come as no surprise that Caspersen Beach has again received international attention. The July/August 2002 issue of National Geographic’s TRAVELER magazine has listed Caspersen Beach as one of America’s 40 beaches. The article cites Caspersens’s “abundances of serrated choppers” (sharks teeth) and its natural shoreline featuring “some 200 species of birds and other wildlife (including dolphins and manatees)”. What a great back yard we’ve got folks!

We Can Preserve Neighborhoods While Planning Roads

One of the sayings around the County Commission office is a variation of a popular football movie title. We call it “On Any Given Tuesday” to fit our day of scrimmage. Just like the movie, it refers to the sometimes unpredictable nature of a team effort. On a recent Tuesday, the County Commission made a fundamental change in the way we plan our roadway network.

Typical road “planning” goes something like this. Build a two lane road. When it gets congested, build a four-lane road. When that gets crowded, build a six-lane road. Keep building until the cost to buy more land for more lanes becomes prohibitive, and still the road becomes congested. With a growing population, all but local roads will inevitably become congested, regardless of how many lanes you build.

Some Florida communities have taken this road-planning model to bizarre extremes, creating 20 lanes of grid-locked traffic. While most of Sarasota County’s roads may never be subjected to this extreme, we are considering a 10- to 12-lane Interstate 75 through Sarasota County, so we aren’t exactly immune from this madness.

While widening roads to cure traffic congestion may bring short-term relief, it rarely if ever offers anything other than a temporary fix. Trying to cure traffic congestion by widening roads is like trying to cure obesity by loosening your belt. Eventually you run out of belt holes, but the problem persists. Only now, it’s more dangerous and difficult to fix.

Honore Avenue is a critical north-south component of Sarasota County’s roadway network. It provides travel options that disperse traffic over a grid rather than on one or two streets. For decades, Commissioners have seen the missing Honore link between Bee Ridge Road and Fruitville Road stalled as they struggled with budget constraints and neighborhood opposition. But without this link, there’s no connectivity or grid. The decision facing the County Commission was to consider the pro and cons of building either a two-lane or a four-lane road.

A primary consideration for evaluating road construction projects is how much additional capacity the new or expanded roadway will provide. Some of the Honore Avenue intersections in this area are constrained in size, and can only move a limited number of cars through them. As a result, a two-lane Honore Avenue will move just about as many cars as a four-lane version.

Expanding the intersections to accommodate a new four-lane road would create 16-lane intersections that would be extremely dangerous for pedestrians. It would also add millions of dollars to the cost of the road, since businesses at these intersections would have to be purchased to get the additional real estate needed to enlarge the intersection.

Even without the expanded intersections, a four-lane Honore would still be much more expensive to build and would require numerous inverse condemnation law suits to acquire land necessary for two additional lanes. But there is more to building a functioning transportation network than just moving cars.

When completed, a four-lane Honore Ave. would be canyon-like, with an asphalt runway flanked by concrete walls. In contrast, a two-lane Honore will not only preserve many of the existing trees but will also provide space to plant many more street trees. Two lanes will produce less stormwater runoff and will offer bike lanes, sidewalks and decorative street lighting. In some places the sidewalks will meander in and out of trees away from the cars. Because the two-lane option will cost significantly less, construction can start sooner and this much needed roadway link will serve the community sooner.

If four lanes are needed in the future, today’s two-lane option won’t prevent the construction of a four-lane roadway later.

While two-lane roads are more aesthetically appealing, they may not work in every situation. The specific condition surrounding this Honore Ave. decision may or may not be present elsewhere. But we at least have an alternative to consider that preserves the unique character of Sarasota’s neighborhoods and its natural environment.

Success in Protecting our Wild Places

When an Urban Land Institute team visited Sarasota County a few years ago, they were most impressed with the large blob of green they saw from aerial views of the county. That “blob of green” is one of the county’s most vital assets. It did not occur by chance. Sarasota County’s Environmental Lands Acquisition program began with a small group of citizens concerned about the rapid loss of natural landscapes to sprawling residential and commercial development. The group formed a political action committee, raised campaign funds and persuaded the Sarasota County commissioners to place a referendum on the ballot to dedicate 0.25 mills of the county’s ad valorem taxes to purchase environmentally sensitive lands. In March 2000, the referendum passed by a 2-1 ratio.

To date, the program has protected more than 15,000 acres of environmentally sensitive lands in Sarasota County. This acreage, combined with environmental land acquisitions of the past, places approximately 100,000 acres – about one-third of the county’s total land area under perpetual conservation.

The county made specific commitments to taxpayers and property owners about the program’s operation. Only parcels with willing sellers would be considered for purchase. The county would not use eminent domain or other forms of government taking. Once in the program, there would be no additional regulatory burdens and the landowner could withdraw at any time.

Criteria were developed to ensure that only parcels with certain outstanding environmental features were considered. The Sarasota County Commission appointed an oversight committee with a broad range of citizen representation to evaluate the properties according to the criteria. The Nature Conservancy was hired to negotiate purchase contracts on the county’s behalf.

Acquisition efforts have been spread throughout the county and include urban green space, waterfront and rural lands. Ten percent of the millage is set aside to fund the management and maintenance of the land. Each parcel has a plan prepared – with input from neighboring residents – to ensure that public access is available but does not degrade the site’s natural resources.

This program has demonstrated the value of partnerships and bottom-up management – a citizen’s initiative, administered by government through a private not-for profit organization with continuous citizen/government interaction, funded by local, state and regional monies. The county’s Environmental Land Acquisition program has maintained all promises made to the voters and property owners, and now enjoys one of the highest satisfaction ratings of any program the county administers.