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The 265-acre Ahhochee Hill Sanctuary is the last environmental gift Lisa von Borowsky left Florida.
By DAN DeWITT
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 22, 2001
BROOKSVILLE -- With Lisa von Borowsky's death, her property north of Brooksville will officially become what it has really always been: a haven for wildlife.
Signs that Ms. von Borowsky cared for plants and animals, and that they thrived because of it, are everywhere on the 265 acres where she had lived since the 1950s.
Behind her house, Ms. von Borowsky erected a small city of bird feeders and birdhouses, which on Thursday morning were populated by a group of noisy cardinals.
Sleeping deer had flattened patches of the meadow in front of her home. One of the wild turkeys, a large flock of which regularly visits the hill to eat the corn she spread on the field, had left a long feather in the grass. Tall pines and oaks have grown up in the woods on all sides of the property.
"There's a lot that could interest you if you're a plant lover, if you're a bird lover, if you are an insect lover, or if you are a lover of natural life of any kind," said Steve Fickett, who founded the Hernando Audubon Society with von Borowsky about 40 years ago and remained a close friend until she died on Oct. 15 at the age of 97.
Ms. von Borowsky left the land to the Florida Audubon Society with the stipulation that it be maintained as the Ahhochee Hill Sanctuary. (The origin of the name Ahhochee is being researched.) The land was the last of the many environmental gifts that Ms. von Borowsky, who managed the gardens on Chinsegut Hill, gave to the state.
But, even as members of Florida Audubon are pleased that her land will be left natural, they are concerned about another of her projects, the Chinsegut Nature Center, which is just about a mile to the southwest of Ahhochee Hill.
The nature center has been placed on a list of dispensable projects by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission -- part of a statewide effort to trim expenses in response to an estimated $1.4-billion deficit in this year's state budget. The commission has listed the center because its aim, education, is different from the focus of the commission, which is land preservation and wildlife management.
The state Legislature is scheduled to meet this week to determine which programs will be cut.
Charles Lee, senior vice president of Florida Audubon, noted that von Borowsky had worked hard to establish the nature center in the 1970s. She hoped that it would remain natural and that it would always be a place where the public could learn about plants and animals, he said.
"It's a tragic irony," Lee said of the timing of the proposed cut.
"We at Audubon are not sure what can be done about it, but we are looking at that right now," he said. "Obviously, the loss of a cherished nature center, especially one that is closely tied to Lisa, is something we will work very hard to prevent."
The first way to save the center, he said, is to keep it from being cut. Both state Sen. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, and Rep. David Russell, R-Brooksville, have said they would try to preserve its annual funding of $91,000. Both, however, said that could be difficult, considering the gravity of the budget crisis.
If that fails, said Hernando Audubon Society president Jeanne Brown, the Hernando County school system should be approached about contributing to an educational program at the center. Brown noted that the school district is cooperating with the Southwest Florida Water Management District on an environmental educational center on the Weeki Wachee River.
"It just isn't right for another nature center to start up from scratch, while another one goes under," said Brown.
Nobody has approached the School Board about providing support for the center, said board Chairman Jim Malcolm. He is certain the board cannot pay the entire amount, he said, "but if it were less than that, we might sit down and look at the possibility. That would be intriguing."
If the programs at Chinsegut are in danger, the land itself probably is not, said Kristin Wood, the biologist at the center. The Big Pine Tract, which is south of the nature center, has a stipulation on its deed that it be returned to its previous owner, the federal government, if it is not being used for education.
There is no such clause regarding the 408 acres at the center, she said. That means it will continue to be part of a chain of undeveloped public or preserved land, of which Ahhochee Hill will become an important link.
The sanctuary is adjacent to federal land to the west, much of which was donated by Col. Raymond and Margaret Robins, the former owners of Chinsegut Hill and Ms. von Borowsky's former employers. Ahhochee Hill is separated by only one private lot from the Withlacoochee State Forest on the east, said Vince Morris of the state Division of Forestry.
From the perspective of a professional forester, he said, the land is not perfect habitat. It has not been burned in decades. Ms. von Borowsky cultivated many exotic plants while working at Chinsegut Hill and allowed them to grow freely on Ahhochee Hill as well. Some of them, including cogangrass, are now considered noxious weeds, Morris said.
Instead, the sanctuary has grown up with Ms. von Borowsky's ideas about nature. Though she was extremely knowledgeable, her relationship with plants and animals was more spiritual than scientific.
"She really communed with nature," said Eddie Money, the former manager of Chinsegut Hill. "I would go for walks with her in the woods and she would stand in front of a tree for a long, long time and she would just be meditating."
"She liked to keep things as natural as possible" Fickett said. "She didn't want to destroy anything."
Her home is surrounded by flowering plants: a grove of camellias, stands of broad-leaved lilies and climbing rosebushes, one of which was in full bloom last week.
She fed the deer and turkeys because she liked to see them gather in the meadow, Fickett said. Partly because of her feeding, and because no hunting has been allowed for generations, wildlife is generally very abundant on the property, Lee said.
"It has an extremely large and visible population of deer," he said. The meadow, being surrounded with woods, "creates an edge effect. And that's an extremely productive area. A lot of hawks, kites."
The flowers Ms. von Borowsky planted attracted hummingbirds and butterflies. The small pond is home to wading birds, Fickett said, as well as a good-sized alligator that he once nearly stumbled on while admiring the birds overhead.
Florida Audubon has no definite plans for the sanctuary, said Lee. It may be used for meetings, he said; it may host some educational programs.
Most important, though, is what Audubon will not do, he said, which is change things.
"This is not destined to be a big flashy public place," he said. "She wanted this to be an island of sanctuary in an otherwise busy world, and that's what it will remain."
-- Staff writer Dan DeWitt covers the city of Brooksville, politics and the environment. He can be reached at 754-6116. Send e-mail to dewitt@sptimes.com.