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Hikers weigh ballfield effect Officials' goal is a tree preserve

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published February 10, 2007

EAST LAKE - That controversial stand of pine trees at the Brooker Creek Preserve - is it just a crop of timber that the county can harvest to make way for sports fields?

Or does it serve a larger purpose as a wildlife habitat?

In the debate over the future of the 38.5-acre area along Old Keystone Road, some county officials have described the plot as a tree farm, but this week various people with a stake in the debate hiked the land for a closer look.

The group included members of the county's advisory Environmental Science Forum, county staff and the East Lake Youth Sports Association, which is pressed for space.

The question: Does building ball fields there make good scientific sense?

A forum subcommittee led by retired assistant county administrator Jake Stowers is looking into the issue in depth and will report back to the full group on March 1.

On Thursday, about a half-dozen forum members hiked the woods to see what wildlife lives there and to consider such issues as how the ballfields would affect water levels in wetlands, nutrient runoff and watershed drainage.

Staff members from the county's Environmental Lands Division staff told the hikers that 42 species of birds, 41 species of butterflies and 69 species of vascular plants live in the pine plantation.

In the lifting fog, members could see about a dozen wild turkeys along the edge of the proposed ballfield expansion.

"It's Osceola, too," said Stowers.

"The Southern race of the wild turkey," said Ann Paul, regional coordinator of the Florida Coastal Island Sanctuaries for Audubon of Florida. "It's in the recovery phase, so it's very exciting to have them in Pinellas County anywhere."

The group saw two ospreys, at least one nesting atop a light on the existing playing fields, break branches from trees for their nests. And with sharp eyes and ears, they identified pileated, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, three types of warblers, a wren, a red-shouldered hawk, a barred owl and a wood stork.

They found animal tracks, a sapling with the bark rubbed off by a deer, a tree trunk with large claw marks and armadillo dens. One area had been used as a latrine by rabbits and either coyotes or bobcats or both though, presumably, not at the same time. They stooped to pick up a deer skull and a turtle shell, whitened by time and exposure.

The pines, not a high-quality pine plantation, had allowed more diversity of trees and vegetation to spring up, providing better habitat than the pines alone would have provided.

County information on road kill provided to the hikers showed that wildlife does cross Keystone Road and pass through the area.

Forum members gathered after the hike to discuss what they had seen.

"It does have the potential for biodiversity, because it's not that sterile," Stowers said. "You've got oak, red maple coming in, pines regenerating now, too."

He said the three wetlands were very functional for this time of year.

"The wetlands we saw were really pretty," Paul said.

But would the wetlands be adequately buffered, group members wondered. One proposed site plan had fields as close as 15 feet from wetlands.

The questions, as Stowers framed them, were:

- Scientifically, is this an absolutely essential piece of land for the preserve?

- If the project goes forward, how can we build it so it has the least adverse effect?

* * *

On the first question - is it essential? - some elected county officials have previously said yes.

On Oct. 29, 1997, Pinellas County Commissioner Robert B. Stewart wrote to two residents that the piney acres had become "an essential element in the overall environmental plan for the area."

"I want to offer my personal reassurance that I would not support any attempt to expand other uses into the pine reforest," he said, "nor would I vote to allow the use of our tree preserve land for anything other than the existing environmental buffer."

Then-Commissioner Barbara Sheen Todd likewise wrote on Nov. 13, 1997, that "neither I nor any of the County Commissioners have any intention of utilizing the Brooker Creek Preserve for sports complexes."

But in 2003, commissioners agreed to lease the 38.5 acres to the East Lake Youth Sports Association for 30 years at $1 a year for use as ballfields.

"The County Commission had a major change of direction and priorities in supporting youth activity," Stewart said Friday. "It's unfortunate that the area we're looking at for expansion competes with the issue of preserving environmentally sensitive land."

* * *

On the second question - how to minimize the project's impact? - the hikers had lots of ideas:

- Arrange parking better to minimize the number of spaces needed.

- Create some parking under rows of pine trees.

- Arrange lights to light just the fields.

- Ensure that runoff polluted with lawn chemicals is treated before flowing into the watershed.

- Ensure that wetland water levels and drainage patterns are not altered unacceptably.

Inevitably, talk of science gave way to a discussion of the policy implications of transforming a piece of land set aside for passive recreation into playing fields.

Paul said the preserve could be nibbled away for a thousand good reasons. If this goes through, what will we do to make sure it doesn't happen again? she asked.

"Don't be doing this kind of stuff," she said. "We don't want to hear about it - ever again."

Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or at (727) 445-4170.

If you go

What's next?

The Pinellas County Environmental Science Forum is scheduled to discuss the ballfields proposal during its meeting from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. March 1 at the Pinellas County Extension, 12520 Ulmerton Road, Largo.

[Last modified February 10, 2007, 01:11:22]