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Saving the wildlife in city parks

A City Council member wants the creatures protected.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published January 28, 2007

Dan Hester was horrified when he heard the stories.

The City Council member was talking to residents at Blossom Lake Park when they told him that the "bass have disappeared."

Then, Hester said, "they shared an experience of two guys in a pickup truck who drove onto city property and parked and started taking the turtles and putting them into big plastic containers."

The turtles, the residents surmised, likely ended up as soup.

The residents were upset, and so was Hester. He became even more alarmed when dead fish and ducks were found recently in City Park.

Now he wants the Seminole City Council to pass an ordinance protecting wildlife in city parks.

Hester broached the topic at last Tuesday's council meeting, the first run live on television. His suggestion was greeted with some skepticism.

Mayor Jimmy Johnson said he believed the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission would be in charge of turtle protection. But despite the doubts, the council plans a workshop to discuss the possibility.

Hester envisions a rule that would protect turtles and other such animals from being injured or taken from the parks. People could still fish for recreation, but would have to practice catch and release. Walsingham Park has a similar program to protect the bass there.

"As long as it's catch and release, it's a beautiful thing," Hester said. "The environment is very, very important."

Cities and counties often pass rules more stringent than those of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said Gary Morse, the district spokesman for the agency. The trick is that the rules have to be "in aid of" the FWC.

What does that mean, exactly?

"Good question," Morse said. The term was coined by agency attorneys. He didn't have a definition handy.

Morse said he has contacted FWC employees in the Seminole area to contact Hester to learn more about the problem.

[Last modified January 27, 2007, 21:26:30]