by TRC_Admin | Jan 25, 2022 | Environmental, Nature, Trees
Video: Fox 35 Orlando
“The Malabar Scrub Sanctuary is where the Florida scrub jay thrives. This sanctuary is specifically for protecting the beautiful blue and gray bird that exclusively calls Florida home.
The area has also become a popular place for bikers and hikers looking for shade-covered trails. Although, it’s those trees causing a problem for the scrub jay population.
‘It is the original Floridian,’ said the Executive Director of Audubon Florida, Julie Wraithmell.
‘You could lose scrub jays from that community altogether. That would just be tragic.’
Scrub jays live off of the scrub found on the ground; however, bird experts say the Malabar Sanctuary has too many trees that have led to overgrowth and have introduced more predators into the environment.
The Audubon Society says the restoration proposal for the land includes cutting down 10 to 20 trees as well as a controlled burn to restore the scrub jay habitat.
‘It sounds a little counterintuitive to cut down trees in order to save birds but scrub jays forge on the ground, and they are picked up by hawks perched in these high trees. They swoop down and eat the birds,’ said Brevard County District 3 Commissioner John Tobia.
The Malabar Town Manager tells FOX 35 News that some are concerned the county wants to cut down too many trees.
The Town of Malabar is concerned thousands of trees will be cut down especially near the trails. In plans shared with FOX 35 News, certain shaded areas of the sanctuary could be thinned down to just one or two trees per acre…
This week Brevard County voted unanimously to fence up the sanctuary if a deal isn’t struck by January 25th. They say they will charge Malabar roughly $6,000 to do so.
Malabar will hold another town council meeting before that date to discuss actions moving forward. ”
— Fox 35 Orlando
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by TRC_Admin | Jan 25, 2022 | Trees
Photo: Florida Senate
“Background
In 2019, the Florida Legislature passed a law that banned local governments from enforcing many of their tree ordinances. This left cities and counties powerless to protect healthy trees from people with less than good intentions. The law led to abuses, including the clear-cutting of land and the removal of healthy trees that presented little, if any, risk to people or buildings. This is a Home Rule issue affecting the environment, the aesthetics of our neighborhoods and our beautiful trees.
The Solution
FL Senate Bill CS/SB 518 puts tree removal and trimming back into the hands of local government; not distant Tallahassee lawmakers. See links to analysis below. Next, it must pass in the Senate Government Oversight & Accountability Committee. Lucky for us, a local legislator, Senator Jeff Brandes chairs this committee.
How You Can Help
Please call his local office at (727) 563-2100 and/or send a quick email to say: I want my city to be able to regulate tree removal. Please agenda the bill in Governmental Oversight & Accountability. Here’s his email address: brandes.jeff.web@flsenate.gov Thank you for your advocacy!
Analysis
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/518/Analyses/2022s00518.ca.PDF
Tracking
https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2022/518“
— Clearwater Neighborhoods Coalition
Visit Clearwater Neighborhoods Coalition
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.
Read entire article
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
Read entire article
by TRC_Admin | Dec 28, 2021 | Environmental, Nature, Trees
Video: 10 Tampa Bay
“The Stoneybrook Golf and Country Club in Sarasota will soon be home to a microforest in an effort to combat climate change.
Members of the Suncoast Urban Reforesters (SURF) were out on Wednesday prepping for their plans to plant more than 1,000 trees on the golf course. They say miniature forests are beneficial for the environment since they are fast-growing and capture carbon from the air.
The effort is part of a larger movement that’s swept the world over the past year. Micro forests have recently been springing up across Europe and here in the U.S. However, it has its roots in one Japanese botanist’s 50-year-old idea.
In the 1970s, botanist Akira Miyawaki planted thousands of these forests in Japan, Malaysia and other parts of the world. The idea being that planting the same species of trees that grow naturally in an area can create a diverse forest community.
Scientists have found that these small forests can not only grow faster but are more biodiverse compared to traditional planting methods. They also found the forests can store 40 times more carbon than any one species of plant, helping aid in the global effort to reduce carbon in the air…”
— 10 Tampa Bay
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by TRC_Admin | Jun 15, 2021 | Codes, Controversial, Environmental, Placemaking, Trees, Zoning
Photo: Gallery in Jacksonville Daily Record
“Jacksonville developer Steve Atkins says he wants to lead a nearly $1.1 billion redevelopment of mostly city-owned property, including the former Jacksonville Landing, on a stretch of the Downtown Northbank riverfront.
At an invitation-only event June 1 at the Florida Theatre, Atkins presented his ‘Riverfront Jacksonville’ redevelopment plan for about 25 acres along the St. Johns River.
Atkins, who is SouthEast Development Group LLC managing director, says he will try to persuade the city and Downtown Investment Authority to pay for $536 million in a public-private partnership to build 1.8 million square feet of space from the former Jacksonville Landing to the former Duval County Courthouse and old City Hall site, rebranded in 2020 by DIA as The Ford on Bay.
City buy-in
As of May 28, DIA staff and Mayor Lenny Curry’s administration have seen all of SouthEast’s master plan work, according to Atkins.
It is unclear if city officials are willing to accept Atkins’ request for about $500 million in tax money.
Atkins said Goldman Sachs and Piper Sandler together committed to financing the estimated $1.1 billion upfront if the city agrees to an incentives package to repay its share over time…
With all but 2.5 acres targeted as publicly owned, Atkins also would have to convince city officials to change or integrate taxpayer-backed development plans active on the riverfront…
The city also awarded nearly $375,000 in stipends to three national firms in March for a competition to design a 4.5-acre public park at the former Landing site with a selection expected in October.
The DIA and city have renamed the site Riverfront Plaza. DIA CEO Lori Boyer said a plan to put the remaining land on the market for private development after park construction is underway.
Atkins said SouthEast’s team recognizes the park competition but did not commit to keeping the design selected by the DIA should the city agree to work with him.
‘I’m hoping that some of the best (park) ideas are things that we might be able to collaborate with folks on in this plan,’ Atkins said…
Next steps
A spokesperson for Atkins said SouthEast said in a May 30 email the company plans to formally approach the DIA in July with a development proposal.”
— Mike Mendenhall, Jacksonville Daily Record
Read entire article
For a gallery of renderings of Riverfront Jacksonville, click here
