Loxahatchee
Wildlife Refuge under fire
April 30, 2000
Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge dodged a bullet last week when
two bill amendments that would have returned control of the
147,000-acre area to the state were withdrawn.
Whether the gun is still loaded, as
refuge deputy manager David Viker put it, remains to be seen. Even
though they were in place for only a day, the amendments might have
achieved their goals.
On Wednesday, the amendments were
attached to bills headed to the House floor. The amendments could
have allowed the Legislature to kick the federal government off the
property, which runs from Boca Raton to Wellington in western Palm
Beach County. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service leases the refuge
from the South Florida Water Management District. The 50-year lease
expires in January.
On Thursday, the amendments were
removed after Gov. Jeb Bush intervened and agreed to have Florida's
Department of Environmental Protection involved in the negotiations
for a new lease.
The amendments were tacked on by Rep.
Joe Eggelletion (D-Lauderdale Lakes) and Rep. J.D. Alexander
(R-Winter Haven). Like many local anglers and hunters, Eggelletion,
an avid outdoorsman, was frustrated by the sorry state of the
facilities at Loxahatchee, which has good fishing and fair duck
hunting. The boat ramps at the Hillsboro Recreation Area at the
south end of the refuge at Lox Road have been in disrepair for a
decade, underwater obstructions that can destroy an outboard motor
are unmarked and the canals are often choked with weeds.
Complaints about the refuge were
ignored by Burkett Neely, whose apparent goal during the 17 years he
was in charge was to keep people out by making things as uninviting
as possible. Thankfully, he retired two years ago. But it has taken
manager Mark Musaus a while to sort out the mess Neely left.
Musaus has encouraged the public to
come to the refuge by hosting special activities, opening a bike
trail and allowing bass clubs to hold tournaments. His efforts were
recently recognized when he was named Refuge Manager of the Year for
1999, an impressive honor considering there are 530 national
wildlife refuges. But Musaus has had a hard time getting the
bureaucrats at the Fish and Wildlife regional office in Atlanta to
do anything for Loxahatchee.
Musaus told me in November that he
hoped to have boat ramps built at the Lox Road entrance by spring.
The money had been appropr-iated in 1998, but the Atlanta office
never got around to designing the ramps. On Friday, Viker said the
ramp construction project will go out for bids in two weeks. If all
goes smoothly, he said the ramps will be ready by July or August.
With the refuge's lease coming up for
renewal, Eggelletion's amendment was a way to light a fire under the
bureaucrats, so those long-awaited boat ramps might be ready by late
summer. And Musaus and Viker might see some of their other proposals
realized, such as building an entrance at the refuge's north end,
expanding hiking and canoeing opportunities and allowing alligator
hunting.
Funny thing is, had the amendments not
been withdrawn, I would not have been able to support them. That's
because sugar cane lobbyists helped write the amendments.
The lobbyists claimed they just wanted
to ensure that the public had a say in the lease negotiations, but
you can't help suspecting Big Sugar of having an ulterior motive. My
guess is that by having the agriculture-friendly South Florida Water
Management District take over the refuge, the sugar industry figured
it could use Loxahatchee as a reservoir. Especially since Lake
Okeechobee's water level is now being lowered to 13 feet, which will
force the farmers to pump water into their fields.
Bills sponsored by Sen. Skip Campbell
(D-Tamarac) and Rep. Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland) also need to be
pulled or rejected. The bills - HB 1807 and SB 1824 - would
essentially give private landowners ownership of most of the public
land adjacent to navigable lakes and rivers.
Like the Loxahatchee amendments, the
legislation has some dubious supporters, such as cattle ranchers and
timber companies. If passed, up to one-half million acres of river
bottoms and marsh used for camping, fishing, hunting and hiking
could be off-limits to the public.
Steve Waters can be reached at swaters@sun-sentinel.com
or at 954-356-4648
reprinted
with permission of Steve Waters
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