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Letter to the editor

Public has its say on new preserve rules

The plan, if approved Oct. 2, would ban pets and alcohol.

By NICK JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer
Published September 12, 2007

Boaters and environmental groups had one last chance to state their opinions on the new Shell Key Preserve Management Plan on Tuesday.

The County Commission held a public workshop to hear from the department of environmental management about the drafted 2007 plan, which includes more regulation of camping and bans on pets and alcohol.

The workshop was the final public meeting before Oct. 2, when the commissioners are scheduled to approve the new plan.

The county put the current management plan into place after leasing the preserve, which includes Shell Key, several smaller mangrove islands and the surrounding waters, from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Dr. Bruce Rinker, director of the environmental lands division, said the initial plan was a compromise between the county's intended preservation of nesting shorebird habitat there and the wishes of recreational boaters who had been visiting the island for decades.

Rinker said the compromise had been a mixed success but that stricter regulations on pets, alcohol and camping were needed to protect the nesting birds.

"What we do here for the Shell Key Preserve can tip the scales in favor, or out of favor, of these species of special concern," he said.

Sgt. Glen Wilson, of the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office Environmental Lands Unit, which oversees the preserve, told commissioners that an increase in boaters at the island had made the current regulations, which ban alcohol on the island but not in the surrounding waters, hard to enforce.

"A typical summer weekend draws crowds comparable to holiday weekends in years past," Wilson said.

Comments from the public followed and fell mostly into two categories: environmentalists and volunteers who support the proposed plan, and boaters who say the current rules would be good enough if they were enforced.

Dave Kandz of the St. Petersburg Audubon Society conservation committee said he and other volunteers were tired of picking up trash and beer bottles left on the island by boaters and campers.

"We're looking for some hope for the future that things are going to get better, and we think this plan is going to make things better," he said.

There were just as many comments about banning dogs from the preserve, whereas previously alcohol had been the most highly contested topic.

Jack Coletti of St. Petersburg is listed on the Shell Key Advisory Board as a recreational boater. He asked commissioners to reconsider banning pets and brought along a wooden sign for effect.

Coletti said that clear signs and a ban on pets during the six-month nesting season would keep owners from allowing their dogs to disturb the birds.

"If we look at the critical issues and we break them down, and everybody is reasonable about them, we find compromise and we find solutions," Coletti said.

If the new rules are adopted on Oct. 2, county and sheriff's officials said they would phase them in over the next year by using educational materials and warning offenders.

Nick Johnson can be reached at nickjohnson@sptimes.com or 893-8361.

[Last modified September 11, 2007, 22:45:26]