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Letter to the editor

One person's idea can make a difference

Brazilian peppers frame a stream running through a hammock in the Ozona Preserve. Pinellas is now sharing manpower among departments to fight these invasives.
	[Jim Damaske | Times]

Pinellas County's environmental lands have been suffering under a triple whammy. - Some people regarded these precious natural areas as their own personal dumping grounds for trash. Invasive plant species such as air potato and Brazilian pepper were overrunning and choking out the native plants in the preserves. And the county's environmental lands maintenance staff simply wasn't large enough to keep ahead of it all.

Thanks to one caring individual with a creative idea, and refreshing collaboration among county departments, a method may have been found to stave off disaster in the county's preserves and management areas.

Reggie Hall, 56, lives beside the county's smallest nature preserve, the 8.3-acre Ozona Preserve in North Pinellas. In fact, it was Hall who nearly 20 years ago persuaded county officials to start buying the land that now makes up that preserve.

Like many native Floridians, Hall feels a deep connection to the natural environment, and he was fiercely protective of the acres of trees and marshes behind his home. Nearly every day, and often alone, he could be found in the preserve doing the hot, dirty work of hacking down Brazilian peppers, pruning undergrowth and maintaining trails.

It was a discouraging task, not only because Hall alone couldn't pick up all the trash and conquer all the invasives attacking the land, but also because he knew that conditions were just as bad in the county's bigger preserves, such as Brooker Creek Preserve and Weedon Island. He feared the day when they would become so overrun with trash and nonnative plants that they lost their environmental value and the passionate protection of the public.

So Hall hatched a plan. While the environmental lands division's maintenance staff was small, the maintenance staff for the county park system was big. With local governments cutting their budgets and instituting hiring freezes, Hall knew it was unlikely the environmental lands staff would be enlarged. So he set to work persuading county officials to allow the parks maintenance staff to be shared with the environmental lands division. That way more people would be available to clean up and maintain the county's thousands of acres of preserves and land management areas.

Last week, Hall watched the first of the parks crews troop into the Ozona Preserve, armed with tools, machinery and know-how to beat back the nonnative plants and maintain the tree canopy.

County officials had seen the wisdom of sharing resources between the two departments. In exchange for the parks' contribution of more brawn, the environmental lands division will help with management plans and controlled burns in the parks.

One person can make a difference, as Hall has demonstrated. And every time county parks crews are assigned to help out in the preserves, the county will be demonstrating the positive impact of outside-the-box thinking and sharing people and resources.

Pinellas County's environmental lands are treasures that must be preserved for future generations living in ever-more-crowded conditions. Those public lands will not survive, much less thrive, without attention and hard work by both volunteers and government.

[Last modified January 26, 2008, 21:34:48]