Column

Groundswell needed to reclaim pristine land

By ANDREW SKERRITT
Published August 12, 2007

A pair of deer cautiously eye a group of passing government officials on the Pinellas-owned Crossbar Ranch in central Pasco County.
	[Stephen J. Coddington | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Stephen J. Coddington | Times] Pick Talley, director of utilities for Pinellas County, shows off a wetland which was created through the diversion of water pumped from the Crossbar Ranch wellfield in central Pasco county during a tour for state and local landuse officials.

Cross Bar Ranch is a 20-square-mile Pinellas County colony right in the heart of Pasco. It's like the British owning 12,500 acres of Paris.

Pinellas wants to sell; Pasco wants to buy and preserve it. But this could be tricky, even with the best of intentions.

After news broke that the land was for sale, it didn't take long for developers to start calling. Pick Talley, director of the Pinellas utilities department, said he has fielded several early inquiries.

Small wonder when you look around. In a two-hour bus tour Friday morning, Talley pointed out environmental highlights to land management folks from several county and state agencies. I tagged along and marveled at the wilderness. We passed Monkey Crossing and Ten Cent Road, grazing cattle, pine stands, deer, wild turkey, sandhill cranes and very social Florida scrub jay.

This is valuable land, no doubt. But it would be hard to find anybody on the bus who could put a price tag on it.

The state paid $8,000 an acre for a similarly sized tract not so long ago. At that price, Cross Bar would cost $100-million.

Pasco preservationists would love to tie up the land, but there are only so many dollars in the Penny for Pasco fund. It's going to take much deeper pockets. So the environmental land preservation staff will head for Tallahassee this week to make a pitch for state money.

They will note that the Southwest Florida Water Management District and the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have expressed interest in a deal.

"We need to find out who's interested and wants to be a player," said Rene Brown-Wiesner, head of the Pasco land acquisition program.

In 1976, Pinellas bought the first 8,000 acres of the property for a paltry $600 an acre. In 1989, Pinellas added 4,500 acres of mostly pasture land for $1,800 an acre. Pinellas utilities may be willing to cut Pasco a deal, but hardly at that bargain price. "We're willing to wait," said Talley, 66.

This property is intricately tied to his work in Pinellas. He was with the Pinellas utilities department when it bought the property north of State Road 52 to provide a source of fresh water. He said he would like to see it protected, even though he may not be around for the deal. He retires next year.

It hasn't been that long since a combination of drought and overpumping of the wells caused lakes to go dry. Cypress trees toppled as swamps disappeared. Regional water management created a more diversified system to deliver fresh water, and most of the dry land rebounded, Talley said.

He pointed from the bus to a pond he said was dry for eight years but is now teeming with fish. "After we added water, it blossomed overnight," Talley said.

Whether it could hold up to a developer's bulldozer is another question.

Completing a deal to buy and preserve Cross Bar will be tricky. But it's worth the effort.

Andrew Skerritt can be reached at 813 909-4602 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 4602. His e-mail address is askerritt@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 11, 2007, 20:46:19]