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Opponents group as Egmont Key bill stalls
By JON WILSON, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- After owning it for 180 years, the federal government might turn over Egmont Key to the state of Florida. It will take an act of Congress to make it happen. A House bill to authorize the transfer rests in the legislative pipeline. Introduced in July by U.S. Rep. Dan Miller, R-Bradenton, HR 5295 is lodged in a subcommittee, where no action is expected until after the November elections. Reasons cited for the proposal are management efficiency and budget considerations. The legislation sets forth several conditions. Among them: Egmont would be used as a state park, and the state would manage wildlife and habitat. A one-time $5-million grant would be given to the state to manage the key. It's not clear how -- or whether -- a change of ownership would affect the way the public relates to the island, situated at the mouth of Tampa Bay a bit southwest of Fort De Soto. It includes a wildlife sanctuary of about 350 acres. About 81,000 visitors come by boat each year to see birds and turtles, hike, take photographs and contemplate history. Camping is not allowed. But increased public use under state management is one of the concerns voiced by Audubon of Florida, which opposes the state taking over -- though, as Audubon official Rich Paul emphasizes, not in a strident way. "We do not take an alarmist position about what would happen if the site came to the state," Paul said. He is manager of the Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuaries. The Florida Park Service and the National Wildlife Refuge program, which comes under the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service umbrella, have shared Egmont management duties since the late 1980s. Paul said Audubon knows and likes both the managing agencies. The Florida Park Service "would do a good job of protecting wildlife even as they juggle the usual issues of accommodating humans at a site important to wildlife," Paul said. Nonetheless, Audubon thinks Egmont deserves a higher level of governmental protection. Mike Daulton, spokesman for Audubon's national office, put it this way: "We feel like the underlying issue is that the federal government needs to meet its obligations to the refuge system." Egmont, Passage Key and eight other islands in Tampa Bay are designated National Wildlife Refuges and are known as the Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge. They are considered significant resources. Egmont, for example, has the state's largest colonies of laughing gulls, royal terns and sandwich terns. The island also is a breeding ground for sea turtles, gopher tortoises and box turtles. Paul and Florida Audubon policy director Eric Draper said in a letter to Miller that they "are concerned about increasing public use and commercial development at state parks throughout Florida." The Egmont Key Alliance, a citizens' support group based in St. Petersburg, favors the proposed state ownership. Richard Johnson, president of the alliance, declined to comment, saying he had been asked to refer questions to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the state agency that oversees the park service. The DEP had not responded by late Friday. In a letter to Miller, Johnson said Egmont's needs would best be met by one managing entity "which has the resources immediately available to accomplish all the necessary tasks." That agency, the letter said, would be the park service.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
