Governor Jeb Bush
The Capitol
400 South Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399

Re: OOPS, - some people will not even let the Ospreys nest on billboard-- forget the trees!

Dear Gov. Bush:

You probably did not understand the long-term consequences to your approving the Mayfield/Haridopolos bill, HB 273. Indian River County has one of the toughest tree protection ordinances in the State, but today the state can tell the county to whack down trees on its property and have to pay a fine if they do not.

Please see attached photos: The caption for the left column of photos taken on May 10, 2006 was: "Where Have All the Trees Gone?” Perhaps Stan Mayfield and Mike Haridopolos would have said "You can't see the Billboards for the Trees!" Translation: Osprey must now use billboards for nesting sites as billboards are replacing our trees.

The caption for the right column of photos (below) taken on June 21, 2006 was ”OOPS, - some people will not even let the Ospreys nest on billboard-- forget the trees!” The nest was removed sometime between May 10th and June 21, 2006, and if you look carefully, the solar panel was repositioned, most likely by the billboard company.

We are aware of the Osprey Nest Removal Policies of the FL Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. It’s guidelines state an artificial platform be erected ".... as close as possible to the original nest site (no further than 300 feet, and preferably less than 150 feet.)." None appeared anywhere around this billboard.

If as the attached photos suggest that the Cape Canaveral billboard nest was taken down without a permit, then the billboard company should also be fined and required to erect another platform! The loss of the billboard nest has been reported to the FWC, and we hope they take notice, but they have not asked for the photos.

A trip to Georgia immediately demonstrated to us that Florida is doing a reasonable job in comparison about not having rows and rows of billboards going into our cities. Lets keep Florida Beautiful.

Sincerely,

Richard H. Baker, President
Bob Montanaro, OspreyWatch

Copies to:
Rep. Stan Mayfield
Sen. Mike Haridopolos