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Crystal River group aims to save area's wetlands

Residents hope to persuade the Citrus County Commission to acquire and preserve wetlands, and protect them from developers.

By BARBARA BEHRENDT
Published July 21, 2006

CRYSTAL RIVER - For the past several years, Crystal River resident Renee McPheeters has watched as one developer after another has sought to build on coastal wetlands.

Now McPheeters and others interested in protecting the vital wetlands are forming a new group to try to place such sensitive properties into a perpetual conservation.

The Committee for the Protection of Nature Coast Wetlands is slated to appear before the County Commission Tuesday to seek support for its cause.

McPheeters and her husband, Rodger, fought Crystal River's ultimately unsuccessful annexation of the RealtiCorp property just south of the Crystal River Airport. They were the only residents in the commercial stretch of properties connecting the city to the RealtiCorp site, since they live in a strip shopping center on U.S. 19.

That proposal included destroying wetlands and mitigating the destruction through a purchase of other property which was to be protected. The County Commission declined to enter a proposed development agreement, and no new plan has yet been submitted.

But McPheeters said she does not want to see Citrus County crossing what she called "the environmental point of no return."

Although the exact mechanism is not yet determined, McPheeters and others in her group are hoping to find a way for local government to acquire and preserve wetlands.

"We intend on being a creative public force for attracting funding for governmental acquisition of these lands to preserve wetlands which have waters flowing into Kings Bay and St. Martins Preserve, to lessen flooding from storm surges, (and to) preserve endangered and threatened wildlife species including manatees by lessening pollution and providing habitat," according to a news release from the organization.

McPheeters has also enlisted the aid of other environmentalists and environmental groups, including Helen Spivey and the Homosassa River Alliance.

Spivey, co-chairwoman of the Save the Manatee Club and longtime environmental advocate, said that she supports McPheeters' idea and noted that other communities have found funding mechanisms for such conservation projects.

"She's got the right idea," Spivey said, noting that Citrus County would be smart to secure lands for conservation even outside its borders to protect water resources.

"They are all convinced that by saving wetlands they will clean up the Crystal River and that ain't going to happen at this point," she said. "But we may save some other rivers."

That is why McPheeters also has the support of the Homosassa River Alliance.

The alliance is opposed to mitigation as an answer for destroying wetlands and favors protection up front.

"The River Alliance, of course, has a very concrete interest in all of the wetlands on the west side of the county. They are all part of the same river system," said Priscilla Watkins, alliance president.

[Last modified July 20, 2006, 19:38:15]