by TRC_Admin | Dec 29, 2021 | Environmental, Greenways, Nature, Trees, Wildflowers
Photo: Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel
“The expanse of wild lands between Central and South Florida was given a second chance for conservation when, in the heart of it, the Destiny development was reincarnated as DeLuca Preserve. This landscape picture here is from the neighboring of Three Lake Wildlife Management Area.
Anthony Pugliese III closed in 2005 on a $137 million purchase of 27,000 acres he called Destiny.
The property at Yeehaw Junction in south Osceola County is surrounded by large preserves and ranches. Destiny would be the first invasion of houses and businesses amid a landscape that connects the best environments of South and Central Florida.
‘It was going to be like a can opener, prying its way for more development into one of the wildest frontiers left in the state of Florida,’ said Carlton Ward Jr., a conservation photographer.
Like many Florida dreams, Destiny collapsed into a heap of recriminations and legal troubles. But its failure opened the door to transformation of the 27,000 acres into DeLuca Preserve.
Pugliese was then a veteran South Florida developer from Delray Beach. His partner was Fred DeLuca, co-founder of Subway restaurants, who was cited by Forbes magazine then as being worth $1.5 billion and the world’s 512th-richest person…
The tract they acquired had been a quarter of the 100,000-acre ranch assembled in the 1930s by Latimer ‘Latt’ Maxcy, who died in the 1970s as a titan among Florida ranchers.
Latt Maxcy Corp. believed the 27,000-acre sale was the region’s largest land deal since Walt Disney bought his kingdom. ‘At this time,’ the corporation said when the deal closed, no details had been ‘released as to the buyer’s plans for the property.’
That would come a year later when Pugliese and DeLuca unveiled their ambitions, including features to attract a quarter-million residents.
Huge risks
They designed the community for canals, waterborne taxis powered by electricity, health clinics for the boomer generation, organic restaurants, a biomedical research center and a biomass energy plant.
Pugliese said the location, the Yeehaw Junction of three major highways, was an ‘aligning of the stars…’
But the proposed development was viewed as an abomination by the Florida Department of Community Affairs. DCA was the state’s vaunted watchdog for growth and development regulations.
There was a reason the per-acre price of the would-be city was relatively cheap at less than $5,000. The land had no development permissions and was far from government services.
DCA sparred with Destiny at every juncture. Then came more resistance to the project.
The housing bubble burst and the Great Recession began in 2007. Proposed developments across Florida bled out…
Destiny’s visionary, Pugliese, was sentenced in 2015 to six months in jail for defrauding DeLuca, who had died of cancer a few months earlier and whose estate took ownership of the land.
‘Yeehaw Junction is rural, almost wilderness and no place for urban development,’ said Thomas Pelham, DCA secretary and vocal foe of Destiny when it was in play.
A University of Florida sign for DeLuca Preserve stands near Yeehaw Junction in south Osceola County and 70 miles south of Orlando…
Hibernating giant
At the least, many environmentalists figured, Destiny’s death bought time to keep one of Florida’s last frontiers alive.
Photo: Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda, Orlando Sentinel
‘I don’t know if I was ecstatic as much as ‘thank God,’’ said Julie Morris [Florida program manager for the National Wildlife Refuge Association and director of the Florida Conservation Group], who grew up on ranch and natural spaces and has worked for government and nonprofit conservation groups.
‘I drive by it all the time and all I could think about for years was, if this goes for development, I think I used the phrase that we might as well pack up and go home,’ Morris said.”
— Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel via WUSF 89.7 Public Media
Read more details on new Conservation Science, view maps and understand the people behind the ranch lands and wildlife corridor movements who helped protect and preserve Florida’s scenic beauty.
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by TRC_Admin | Dec 29, 2021 | Historic, Nature
Photo: Selby Gardens via Patch.com
“The Marie Selby Botanical Gardens soon will offer visitors a brand-new, ‘Old Florida’ way to experience both of its bayfront campuses, according to a news release.
Starting in January, Selby Gardens will launch Selby Gardens by Boat, a boat tour that includes a narrated, round-trip cruise between its Downtown Sarasota campus and its Historic Spanish Point campus, access to both sites for self-guided touring, and lunch at the Historic Spanish Point campus…
‘Selby Gardens’ two sanctuaries are so significant and beloved in large part thanks to their bayfront locations,’ Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, said. ‘The water is central to the history and appeal of our two campuses, so it only makes sense to connect them by boat. This tour is going to offer an immersion into native nature, our regional history and the ecology of the area…’
Highlighting the full-day experience is roughly three hours of leisurely cruising with educational narration from Sarasota Bay to Little Sarasota Bay and back.
‘It’s 10 miles of beauty — a kind of aquatic garden, if you will,’ said John McCarthy, Selby Gardens’ vice president for the Historic Spanish Point campus. ‘Then you’ll arrive at our Historic Spanish Point campus the way people did 100 years ago — by boat’…”
— Tiffany Razzano, Patch.com
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by TRC_Admin | Dec 29, 2021 | Kiosk, Technology, Vending
Photo: PizzaForno via Thrillist
“For years there’s been buzz about a robot revolution, and it looks like it’s here. PizzaForno Partners Les Tomlin and Will Moyer are leaning into the future and appeasing both the robot overlords and people who like good pizza fast by rolling out fully automated pizza kiosks across North America.
QSR Magazine reported that the pair plans to place 20,000 fully automated PizzaForno kiosks across the country by 2026. That number includes 1,000 kiosks in the United States by the end of 2022, with locations between Southern California, Louisiana, and Florida first.
‘I think North America has been very late to the game on robotic food,’ Tomlin told the outlet. ‘I mean, look at PizzaForna—the technology has been around France for the better part of 10 years. COVID, the labor shortage, people don’t want to spend 10 minutes waiting for anything. All those things add up to super fast, super convenient, super quick serve. That’s where I think everybody’s got to go.’
Customers who step up to a PizzaForno kiosk will be met with a 32-inch touch screen on which they can choose their pizza and how they plan to pay. The machine builds each pizza, and then a robotic arm removes it from the cold section, opens the lid, and puts it into a proprietary convection oven where it bakes. That takes between 90 and 120 seconds. The pizza is then dropped into a slot where customers can reach it. The entire process takes about three minutes. Customers can also take their pizza home cold and cook it themselves…”
— Caitlyn Hitt, Thrillist
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by TRC_Admin | Dec 28, 2021 | Lighting, Nature, Placemaking
Photo: Corey Perrine, Florida Times-Union
“Thousands of lights across a 3/4-mile walk are on display to draw young and old alike to celebrate the holiday season. Live entertainment, a 65-foot tunnel and a forest of fog and light are a few key attractions. The display runs through Jan. 9, 2022.”
— Corey Perrine, Florida Times-Union
Read entire article about event
Read entire article about award and the Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens
by TRC_Admin | Dec 28, 2021 | Nature, Trees
Video: Watch here Local10.com WPLG
“For over 100 years as South Florida’s coastline was developed, acres upon acres of mangroves were destroyed in the process.
In recent years we’ve begun to understand just how vital mangroves are to protecting our shores and cleaning up our waterways.
Two Palm Beach County brothers recognized that and launched a company with the goal of restoring the world’s lost mangroves.
They’re doing it by selling hats and shirts, changing the world by planting one mangrove at a time.
On the day Local 10 News met up with the brothers, as the sun rose over the historic lighthouse on the Jupiter Inlet, a team of dedicated volunteers began to plant the first of 1,000 baby mangroves on an eroding shore where these ancient trees once dominated the coastline.
‘We are putting back what was once here and we are using natural elements to stabilize eroding shorelines,’ said Peter Dewitt, program manager for the Bureau of Land Management of the Jupiter Inlet outstanding natural area…
‘These mangroves are our future. They’re the future stability of our economy. They’re protecting our ecosystems, protecting our shorelines and protecting our community for the future,’ said Mang co-founder Keith Rossin.
That’s why 30-year-old twin brothers Keith and Kyle Rossin are on an urgent mission to plant as many mangroves as they can.
So together they created ‘Mang,’ a high performance outdoor apparel brand with a commitment to plant one mangrove for every product they sell.
‘Buy one, plant one,’ Kyle Rossin said. ‘It all started with our passion to protect the environment.’
The seed was planted six years ago inside their mother’s garage that today is still an overflow space for inventory…
Meanwhile in mom’s backyard, a mangrove nursery began to flourish.
Kyle Rossin said they have roughly 20,000 mangroves.
‘The nursery cycles through about 10,000 a year, so each year we run an annual propagule collection campaign,’ he explained.
This past weekend, the Mang brothers planted 2,200 red mangroves in Grand Bahama.
In December, they’ll be planting mangroves in Costa Rica just as they have here in Florida, Madagascar, Mozambique, the Philippines and Honduras.”
— Louis Aguirre, Local10.com WPLG
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