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County hires conservation pro

Jim King's job is to maintain property bought through the county's sensitive lands program.

By DAN DEWITT
Published February 11, 2007

RIDGE MANOR - The lantana bush had produced its first flower of the season, a cluster of tiny red, yellow and purple petals.

It would be welcome in a suburban yard, maybe, but not here in the Cypress Lakes Preserve, a 322-acre wedge of swamp and hammock southeast of the Croom Tract of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

"Let's get rid of that one right now," said Jim King, pausing on his walk through the preserve Thursday morning to pull the lantana up by its roots.

Eliminating exotic plants is one small part of King's new job as a conservation specialist responsible for maintaining property bought through the county's Environmentally Sensitive Lands program. He will pick up trash, mend fences and help coordinate controlled burns at Cypress Lakes and the 149-acre Fickett Hammock Preserve in central Hernando.

He will help create a park for hiking and other nonintrusive recreation around the newly acquired Peck Sink, just north of Wiscon Road.

As he eases into his new job over the next few months, he will spend more of his days outdoors and far fewer in the cubical he has occupied in the county Planning Department since 2001.

His $47,000-per-year job is a switch not just for him, but for the county, which has never before had an employee maintain its natural lands.

The county program to buy natural land began in 1988, when county voters approved a tax of one-tenth of a mill to pay for the acquisitions; that is equal to $10 in tax annually for a house assessed at $100,000.

For many years, the county's Environmentally Sensitive Lands Committee shied away from the idea of paying a worker to maintain these natural areas, hoping to save as much money as possible to buy new land. But with rising property values, the environmentally sensitive lands assessment now generates about $900,000 per year, and the fund available for purchases has climbed to $3.8-million, said Ron Pianta, the county's planning director.

Of course, the cost of land has also climbed. And at its meeting Feb. 22, the committee will discuss ways of raising more money for projects such as buying undeveloped land to bridge the Croom and Citrus tracts of the Withlacoochee State Forest, said Dawn Velsor, a county environmental planner.

Meanwhile, King will take care of the property the county has already bought and work on projects the land committee's funds are being used to improve, including Bayport Park.

The job is considered a lateral move, said Jackie Hartley, another environmental planner. King was chosen partly because he wanted to work outside and away from the "pressure cooker" of the land planning, he said.

King, 55, who worked for the county in the 1970s, has in recent years helped revise the county's comprehensive plan, a contentious process that lasted for more than three years. King has also reviewed proposed changes to the plan, including one that would allow the Hickory Hill subdivision in Spring Lake - a responsibility he will keep until the County Commission decides on the project in April.

The other reason the county chose King for the job, Hartley said, was his education; he has a bachelor's degree in forestry from the University of Florida.

"He's got the background, and we're happy to have him," she said.

King proved his expertise from the start of the walk on Thursday, as he, Hartley and a volunteer from the Florida Trail Association, Mitch Almon, entered the preserve through a gate on Ridge Manor Boulevard.

Almon kept his eyes forward. He was scouting out the best route for a trail through the preserve that would help link sections of the Florida Trail in the Croom and Richloam tracts of the state forest.

He wanted high ground so the trail would not be submerged after heavy storms. For that reason, a sunlit prairie of native grasses was out, he explained; periodic flooding is what keeps it clear of oaks and pines.

So the trail would wind around the edge of the clearing, maybe, and then find its way under the arching limbs of an old live oak, Almon said.

King, meanwhile, was taking an informal inventory of plant species, rattling off the scientific names for gallberry and varieties of lyonia.

He took note of two mimosa trees, an Asian species known for its bushy pink flowers - and for overrunning native species.

"I'll have to come back and grub those out," King said.

He also went to work on probably the least glamorous part of his job, picking up an ancient, mold-covered cooler and filling it with cans and pieces of broken glass.

"There's probably a week's worth of work in here just picking up trash," he said.

Dan DeWitt can be reached at 352 754-6116 or dewitt@sptimes.com.

[Last modified February 10, 2007, 23:37:05]