 |
||||||||
 |
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
Big island attempts to preserve tiny island
By KATHY SAUNDERS TREASURE ISLAND -- As young boys with boats, Bob Dowling, Butch Ellsworth and Robert Lee explored the mangroves near their homes. One of their favorite spots was Elnor Island, two seagrass-covered plots about a half-mile east of the John's Pass Bridge. "That was one of the first islands we explored as little Tom Sawyers, if you will," said Dowling, 55, a former city commissioner who helps manage his family's beachfront hotel (the Sands of Treasure Island) and downtown real estate. Dowling remembers the first time the sixth-grade boys talked their fathers into allowing them to spend the night on Elnor. "It was a Friday night and we put up a little tent there and up came the worst storm you ever saw. We had water up to our knees and raccoons everywhere." On another adventure, the boys forgot to tie up their boat, which drifted to the Isle of Capri, where the island's first homes were under construction. Some workers came to their rescue. "Elnor is just very near and dear to us," said Dowling, who today is trying to give other youngsters the chance to explore the same territory. With the support of city commissioners, including his old buddy Ellsworth, Dowling is looking for money to preserve the island's mangroves, seagrasses and wildlife. Dowling's vision matches the comprehensive development plan for Elnor, and for that reason commissioners adopted a resolution last fall authorizing Dowling to seek grants in their name to benefit the island. The city owns the 10.5-acre patch, the result of a long-ago land swap by developers. Seabirds flock to Elnor today but few appear to nest there, said Dowling, who is working with birders to consider creating a sanctuary for injured seabirds at Elnor. "I'm just kind of holding hands with the city right now to get this thing going," he said, adding that injured birds would have to be fed and cared for at the island preserve. Elnor would be an ideal place for an educational program for students of marine science, Dowling said. "I'd love to see a small boardwalk over what we call the hurricane hole," he said, describing a hole in the island where pelicans gather. "It's the spot where we always said pirates used to hide their sunken chests and stuff." Dowling plans to submit a grant application to a Tampa estuary program that provides money to eradicate outlawed trees from the coastline. This weekend, he is hoping to raise some money on his own with a "Celebrity Dunk Tank" in the north parking lot of the downtown Treasure Island Plaza. The celebrities include business leaders and local politicians, including some of the 11 candidates seeking office in the upcoming city election. "It's time for all the different and diverse factions of all the different and diverse issues to come together as one town united and indivisible and have some fun," said Dowling, who pitched his island restoration idea last year in the midst of the city's fight over beachfront development. Elnor Island is probably the only noncontroversial development issue in Treasure Island. Focusing on Elnor "can help bring some humor, fun and laughter back into the politics of this volcanic island community," Dowling said.
 © 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111 
|
From the Times South Pinellas desks |
