Editorial: State allowing loss of wetlands
Press Journal
March 21, 2007
Excerpt from preface to Bill Belleville's book (240 pages, $24.95,
University Press of Florida)
"The bulldozers have been scraping the epidermal layer off the
earth not far way, preparing for a brand new mall, a shoppers' paradise
that will bring jobs and money and people and their cars. The road my
dirt lane connects to is being paved and widened to accommodate all
this busy commerce.
"You can hear the high-pitched buzzers go off and on all day as
the heavy machinery moves forward and then back into reverse. Up from
the ground go the palmettos, the sabal palms, the southern red cedar
and the sweet bay, shredded and piled and burned like rubbish. The few
gopher tortoises that weren't buried alive made a run for it, lighting
out across the new highway for safe ground, trying not to become road
kill."
Pick a reason wetlands are important to the Treasure Coast:
• They filter sediments and other pollutants from upland runoff.
• They store water and help minimize flood damage.
• They are home to rare plant and animal species.
• They replenish the Florida underground water supply.
• They protect shorelines from erosion.
• They reduce the impact of hurricanes.
• They provide breeding ground for fish, birds and other wildlife.
There are numerous reasons to protect wetlands, but they are being
lost at an alarming rate, despite decades-old state promises that there
should be no net reduction.
In his book, "Losing It All to Sprawl," nature writer Bill
Belleville, said, "We assume wetlands are protected because we
are told they are. But the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers regional office
in Jacksonville issues an average of 2,000 permits a year to dredge
or fill tracts of wetlands three acres or smaller in Florida. Because
the work is presumed to have little impact on the aquatic environment,
the work receives scant monitoring from other agencies."
In 1984, the Florida Legislature passed the Warren S. Henderson Wetland
Protection Act. The act, however, contained a huge loophole that has
made it much easier for developers to destroy swamps and marshes by
building on them and for the state itself to eliminate wetlands for
road construction.
Developers are allowed to fill and build over wetlands if they "mitigate"
the damage by restoring a previously lost wetland or building a manmade
wetland to mimic nature. WCI Communities, for example, built a wetland
in southern Martin County as mitigation for wetlands destroyed in construction
of the Old Palm Golf Club in Palm Beach Gardens.
According to a recent study conducted by the St. Petersburg Times,
mitigation has been a massive failure, resulting in the net loss of
about 84,000 acres of wetlands in the past 15 years, largely due to
rules favoring developers and lax oversight.
The use of mitigation led to creation of mitigation "banks"
in which the "bankers" would restore wetlands and then receive
credits which they could sell to developers. But, the Times reported,
the rules for such banks so loose that bankers can get credits even
for dry land. And many bankers are years behind in restoring wetlands
even though they continue to sell credits.
The blame doesn't rest with developers. There's plenty of money to
be made from building on former wetlands, and developers are looking
out for themselves. The blame rests with lawmakers who have given developers
free rein and with state agencies that look the other way and fail to
enforce mitigation agreements.
Until the public protests the destruction of the state's natural environment
and the damage being caused to breeding habitats, flood control, wildlife
homes, water supplies and hurricane protection, the state will continue
to give in to developers who would be happy as clams to see the state
paved over with asphalt and concrete.
Demand that legislators tighten the rules for preserving wetlands and
make agencies accountable for serving the needs of the environment and
residents rather than the desires of developers.
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