Who:
Tom Larson
Chair, Northeast Florida Group, Sierra Club
Where:
Jacksonville Beach, FL
We're still trying, in close collaboration with the St. Johns Riverkeeper, to protect 167 acres of wetlands from dredge and fill for another development, in the middle of a 850-plus acres of mature woodland tract. Off and on through the morning, I talked with friends in public relations around town and fellow Sierrans, as we sought the best position for us in our efforts to stop this bad development in Jacksonville. We're writing a press release for Sunday or Monday release.
The Julington-Pottsburg Creeks headwaters forest wetlands should be preserved for their extraordinarily high ecological value, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agrees (a permit denied! but now under developer appeal) along with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and others, but Florida's St. Johns River Water Mgmt. District is preparing to approve its permit for more wetlands destruction. This permit approval would be damning evidence that the state wetlands laws are inadequate for the job -- the USACE needs to stay in the game, despite talk in Congress and the state house to streamline wetland permitting.
Last night we heard that the judge in our administrative-petition case recommended approval of the permit -- we were not surprised, but surely disgusted. Another bad decision -- untrammeled wetlands woods are "less ecologically valuable" than segmented mitigation sites - -in a pine plantation, surrounded by a housing development, one to be severed by a four-lane highway and what is now a table-top-flat potato farm. And this to be approved by "public servants" at the WMD -- maybe the acronym is for "Watershed Mass Destruction?"
Our next steps will be to lobby the SJRWMD Board, City Council, and state legislators to appreciate what truly is at risk. We may also join in defending the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit denial, in support of the Florida Wildlife Federation. See more at http://florida.sierraclub.org/Northeast/issues/index.html. Keep the faith.
