Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 13:48:41 -0500 From: "Michael Hunt" <stovehouse@earthlink.net> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg3378$foo@default> Subject: Re: Saving bogs: the good news, and....
This is good news!
I think a point missing, like it or not -to truly save wetlands you need
large parcels of land. The private groups for the most lack funding to
purchase parcels necessary to make a long term difference, or maintain them.
The purchase of 50 or 100 acres is a good attempt, but if seep, drainage
patterns are altered on the adjoining land due some form of man made project
a decline will occur rapidly, or slowly but a decline will occur.
Further, I haven't made it up to the Nature conservancy Green Swamp/Bear
preserve site in a couple of years. The last time I was up there it was
almost totally overgrown and the cp were in pretty poor shape. It is even
harder for private funded groups to obtain the needed permits for a
prescribed burn than a Government agency. While the Green Swamp/Bear
preserve area is a good amount of property the fact is that the paper
company donating it, didn't do it without receiving something in return. I
am talking about something monetary here be it tax write offs, harvest
rights in a National Forest, or plantation land nearby, public relations is
just a added benefit.
The southeastern coastal plain of the United States is a ecosystem based on
regular wild fire. We have been taught that wild fire is bad. As the local
TV news often points out when wildfire occurs, " 8,000 acres were lost so
far to wildfire today"..... For the forest this is the reality, for man
made homes & business this is tragedy
I would ask Barry if the Nature Conservancy main function is to purchase the
land and hold it until governmental funds can be found to change the hands
of ownership.
While I agree that the Government may not be the best land owner, does
anyone truly think that Croatan, Franics Marion, Apalachicola, Osceola,
Ocala, the Okefenokee, Blackwater, De' Soto Forest would be such huge
pieces of intact acreage of cp/flatwood habitat without the Government
owning them?? And these are just a few. No, this land would be tilled,
subdivided, logged, and drained.
Take care all.
~ Mike
Michael Hunt
St. Petersburg Florida
----- Original Message -----
To: "Multiple recipients of list CP" <cp@opus.labs.agilent.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 12:15 PM
>
> Well, the good news is that CP's, private landowners, the government and
> non-profit conservation groups can ALL win sometimes.
>
> Next week we're celebrating the establishment of the Boiling Spring
> Lakes Preserve, a chunk of land in southeastern North Carolina that's
> rife with Venus flytraps, a lot of other CP's and a long list of rare
> species including the federally-listed roughleaf loosestrife and
> red-cockaded woodpecker. The preserve, which will eventually total about
> 5400 acres, came about thus:
>
> - The private landowner freely offered it for sale.
> - The Nature Conservancy (TNC) wanted to buy it but didn't have the
> funds ready.
> - The government (the State of North Carolina, via the Plant
> Conservation Program (PCP) in the state Dept. of Agriculture) could get
> the money through the state Heritage Trust Fund which is funded by the
> sale of vanity license plates (i.e. nobody's forced to pay taxes for the
> fund).
> - So TNC and PCP made an agreement: the State will hold title to the
> land as a dedicated nature preserve in perpetuity, while TNC will manage
> the preserve.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Jan 02 2001 - 17:35:15 PST