Scrub Jays and Other Species Worth Saving
I was pleased to see the Herald-Tribunes recent article on the endangered species, featuring a photo of a Florida scrub jay. It is time all residents of South Florida became aware of the plight of some of its most fragile ecosystems and the flora and fauna that live here.
These valuable natural resources have fallen victim to blind development for far too long. Despite the fact that these areas are irreplaceable, took millions of years to create, and are home to species found nowhere else in the world, we continue to rape them, leave behind sterile, cold environments suitable for only human habitation. The animals that live in the delicate areas are not capable of surviving in different habitats – that is why they are where they are.
We, on the other hand, have the ability to adapt and plan our housing and recreational activities so as to not destroy these very resources many of us came to this area for in the first place. I would like for my children to see the fascinating family habits of the Florida scrub jay in their natural state in Sarasota County.
Water from the Peace River, a critical regional water resource, is diverted during the rainy season and stored in a 500 million gallon lake and underground aquifers capable of storing an additional six billion gallons of water. Both of these reservoir systems were depleted this year, and the region found itself struggling to find emergency water sources to meet its demands. This struggle included relaxing permit conditions intended to protect the environment and pumping more water out of the storage aquifers than was pumped into them. It took four years to accumulate this stored capacity and only one drought to wipe it out. It’ll now take another three to five years to restore reserves to a “drought resistant” capacity.
Plans are underway to increase the storage capacity of the region’s water supply. A greatly expanded surface reservoir and additional aquifers will provide much needed relief. But we must learn from past mistakes and not allow the demands of growth to outstrip our ability to ensure an environmentally sustainable, drought-proof water supply for the future. A plan designed to meet the needs of a 1-in-10 year drought, may seem “normal”, but it has also been shown to be inadequate. We need to do better. We need a more realistic approach to drought-proofing our water supply system. And we need to recognize the limits of our natural environment’s ability to endure the pressures of growth and the demand for water that they create.