Magnolia Bay Marina and Resort

Email Ideas In Opposition to Permits

Please start thinking about why you love our last wilderness coast, and compose your words in opposition to this project.  Truly, if this development goes in, we've lost the ability to protect our Gulf coast.

Use any of the ideas below, but please change the words so that they are your own thoughts. Please don’t forget to send the responses in email by February 6, and postal mail has to be postmarked by February 6. Email to: Edward.P.Sarfert@saj02.usace.army.mil

1. Applicant has not covered potential impacts this project will pose to avian species.
2. What upland habitats and species will be impacted as a result of the dewatering of the spoil and spoil disposal?
3. Manatees (trichechnus manatus) utilize this area. One manatee has died from a watercraft related cause within a five mile radius of the project site.
4. The submittal suggests that this proposal would increase the recreational value of this area by providing additional access to natural resources; however, the proposed project will likely adversely affect recreation values, one of the public interest criteria.
5. The proposed navigational channel will bisect the Big Bend Saltwater Paddling Trail, which runs from the Aucilla River to the Suwannee River. It is a legislative designated trail, part of Florida’s Circumnavigation Trail, and the state’s Greenways and Trails System, as well as a National Recreational Trail, part of the Department of the Interior’s National Trails System. If the channel is lined with rock, paddlers will be forced to paddle over two miles out into the Gulf of Mexico to get around the channel.
6. The proposed project will adversely affect the conservation of wildlife and their habitats and the value of functions for wildlife.
7. Sea grass and coastal marsh systems provide essential habitat by creating a physically stable refuge and nursery ground for numerous commercially and recreationally viable fish and invertebrates.
8. Sediment stabilization is an important physical feature provided by sea grass beds and coastal marshes. They function as a wave attenuator. Sea grass also inhibits the resuspension of fine particles, traps those sediment particles already in the water column, and binds shallow underwater sediments with extensive root matrices. Thus turbidity, the main culprit of sea grasses is lowered.
9. Dredging in or near sea grass beds will have significant secondary negative effects by increasing the turbidity and suspended sediments in the water column.
10. Manatees will be adversely affected by introducing a substantial amount of boat traffic to the area.
11. The proposed project will adversely affect fishing and marine productivity. The sea grass and saltwater habitats off the Coast of Taylor County function as nursery and forage habitats for a multitude of economically important commercial fish species. Adversely impacting these habitats will disrupt the vitality of the local, regional and international commercial fisheries.
12. Gag grouper use these sea grass beds as a nursery during part of their life cycle. The spawning grounds for theses grouper just offshore of the Big Bend were closed to fishing (both recreational and commercial) to protect the Gulf wide population of these fish. If their nursery is destroyed then we won’t need the spawning grounds.
13. The impacts of the Magnolia Bay development on bay scallops (Argopecten irradians) populations in the Big Bend region, and throughout Florida, will be subtle, negative, and very serious. The Magnolia Bay development threatens scallop survival both directly by the destruction of the sea grass beds upon which the scallops depend, and indirectly by increased coastal eutrophication that alters water quality, clarity, phytoplankton abundance, phytoplankton species composition, and the structure and species composition of the sea grass beds.
14. The increased stress on the Big Bend scallop population due to environmental degradation would be increased by increased fishing pressure via the proposed boat ramp/parking lot complex that would considerably increase access to this population. Ironically, the very resource upon which the Magnolia Bay boat ramp is predicated (scalloping) could destroy this resource.
15. 258.36 It is the intent of the legislature that the state owned submerged lands in areas which have exceptional biological, aesthetic, and scientific value, as hereinafter described, be set aside forever as aquatic preserves or sanctuaries for the benefit of future generations.
16. Comments from DEP: Based on the applicants proposal to remove more than 105 acres coastal wetlands and nearly 36 acres of mature sea grass community, the aquatic preserve does not see this as being in accordance with the statues call for the benefit of future generations.
17. Restoration (mitigation) of sea grasses has not been proven to work with measurable success through any transplantation process previously attempted. The predominant sea grass within the proposed project area is turtle grass (Thalassia Testudinum) which does not transplant and in even minimally damaged areas can take from seven to more than ten years to recover.
18. All the wetlands identified in the application are either part of or immediately adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. These coastal wetlands are extremely effective at filtering nutrients and other pollutant loads from run-off before it reaches the Gulf. They further serve to mitigate the effects of storm serge and wave energy. For these reasons the functions of these wetlands cannot be mitigated for at another location.