|
Outside of the Everglades and Ten Thousand
Islands, the Big Bend Coast from St. Marks to Yankeetown is
Florida’s last largely undeveloped coastline. It boasts perhaps
the longest continuous coastal wetlands remaining in the United
States and the most expansive and pristine seagrass beds,
providing a vast nursery for fish and marine life and sanctuary
for manatees and sea turtles. It’s no wonder that most of it,
excluding the mouth of the Fenholloway River, is encompassed by
the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve. This coast is also part
of the Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail, recently designated a
national recreation trail by the United States Department of
Interior. A recent proposal
threatens to bring South Florida style development to this remote
coast. The Magnolia Bay Marina and Resort in tiny Dekle Beach
south of Perry (not even marked on most road maps) calls for 624
condominium units, 874 motel rooms, 280,000 square feet of
commercial space, and a full-sized golf course. The anchor and
main draw for the development is a proposed 22-acre marina--to be
built by dredging and filling existing salt marsh. The marina
would include 374 boats slips, fuel and maintenance facilities,
and dry storage space for 499 boats. Here’s the kicker: the
marina basin will require a dredged channel through the Florida
Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve that is 100 feet wide, 7 feet
deep at mean tide elevation, and 2 miles long. The channel
would destroy 24 acres of sea grasses and would likely change the
hydrology of adjacent grass flats and coastal marsh. All this so
large luxury boats can now use the shallow Big Bend coastline.
This type of 1950s-style development has never been approved in
the Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve and shouldn’t start now.
Strong letters of objection from the public are needed now. Write
your letter to:
Jerry Scarborough
Executive Director
Suwannee River Water Management District
9225 CR 49
Live Oak, FL 32060
We’ll get back to you with what’s to be done next as soon as
possible.
Doug Alderson, Susan Cerulean and the Heart of the Earth Council |
