Global warming, meet your new adversary

By DAVID ADAMS, Times Latin America Correspondent
Published January 23, 2007

TAMPA - To help her presentation on global warming, Roberta Fernandez flashes a map of Florida.

It shows the southern half of the state underwater, including Tampa Bay. "If Greenland melts the sea will rise 20 feet," says Fernandez, who calls herself a Climate Messenger.

There are gasps in the audience of smart, but mostly uninformed staffers at a local mortgage and real estate firm who have given up their lunch hour to hear her message.

Seven months ago she was just like them. But that was before she saw An Inconvenient Truth, former Vice President Al Gore's hit climate change documentary.

"I was astounded. I knew about global warming, but not in that way," said Fernandez, 48, who lives in Tampa and owns a Montessori school.

After she came home she found the film's Web site and learned that Gore was looking to personally train 1,000 "Climate Change Messengers" to spread the word on global warming. She signed up.

In her application she said that as owner of a school she felt a responsibility to be a model to children. "They were looking for people with passion who weren't afraid of standing up in front of people," she said.

She had considered becoming a volunteer for heart disease or breast cancer. "But I realized after the movie that no other cause mattered if we didn't have an inhabitable place to live."

In September she attended the first two-day training session for 50 volunteers at a downtown Nashville hotel. Not satisfied with that, she volunteered to be a mentor for future trainees. She has been back to Nashville twice, including three back-to-back training sessions earlier this month.

Trainees, who must pay their own airfare and hotel, come away from the sessions armed with materials to go forth and spread the gospel on global warming. They also sign a commitment to give 10 presentations of Gore's slide show on climate change, which is the basis for An Inconvenient Truth.

At the sessions Gore patiently goes through his now famous slides, explaining the science behind each one and the sources for the information he uses, as well as taking questions.

"All the trainees are very surprised how much time he spends with them," Fernandez said.

The idea for training the messengers was born from interviews Gore gave after An Inconvenient Truth was released in May. Gore found himself being asked repeatedly what he planned to do next. So he formed the Climate Project and tasked it with building a curriculum and Web site to attract trainees.

"It all happened very fast," said the Climate Project's director, Jenny Clad, a lawyer who is married to Gore's longtime friend and chief of staff, Roy Neel. "There was no model for this. It was all invented as we went along."

Rather than seek publicity the organizers decided to fly under the radar, fearing that if word got out too widely they might be inundated with applications. Even without publicity they were overwhelmed by requests.

"We didn't want to have to turn all those people down," said Clad.

In picking the successful applicants, organizers tried to select as broad a range of people and professions as possible, covering all 50 states, with a handful also from Canada, Mexico, Europe and Africa.

The trainees are a diverse bunch, varying in age from a woman in her 90s to a 14-year-old boy. They include judges, scientists, politicians and teachers, as well as Hollywood actor Cameron Diaz. Several other celebrities, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Laura Dern, were unable to make the sessions due to other commitments.

So far, about 850 messengers have been trained in the United States and another 85 in Australia. More sessions are planned in Nashville in late spring. Gore also plans to do training in the United Kingdom and Australia, and maybe India and China, too.

The success of the project may have answered Gore's personal frustration - one he expresses in the film - over his failure as a politician to get the message about climate change across to the public. An Inconvenient Truth has become the world's third best-grossing documentary, after Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins, and is a likely Oscar candidate.

"We have failed to mobilize an organized response in this country to global warming," says Stephen Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, who took the course in January. "This is one of the motivating factors for him."

Gore tells his trainees they are the "cavalry" who must take the battle forward from now on. Since the training began, the messengers have already surpassed Gore's personal tally of presentations, which runs into the thousands.

"That's what most tickles him pink," said Clad. "It's a grass roots organization, and it's sort of become a movement."

The message is certainly spreading. Fernandez has already exceeded her quota of presentations, conducting 18 in the Tampa Bay area, including local school students, as well as Hillsborough county science teachers.

More than 30 staffers at the Tampa offices of the Loan Corp., Florida's largest mortgage broker, packed the firm's conference room Friday for her 40-minute talk.

They listened intently as she flashed up Gore's slides with grim images of melting glaciers and graphs of population growth and rising energy demand.

She ends on a positive note. "It's not true that global warming is not fixable," she said, reeling off a list of "convenient" things everyone can do to be more energy efficient.

Her message seems to hit home. "I was clueless, it was very informative," said Maria Valeri, 40, who works in accounting.

"No wonder the rest of the world hates us!" added loan officer Matt Moskos, 28, referring to the United States' disproportionate 30 percent share of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Fernandez says that while the messengers may lack Gore's star power, the concept works well.

"Some people don't like Mr. Gore," she says. "A presentation is more personal. People want to ask questions. They want to know why you are doing it."

Fernandez has no doubts about her reasons. "So many people I talk to don't think it's going to happen in our lifetime. They need to hear it."

David Adams can be reached at dadams@sptimes.com David Adams is co-author of a blog on alternative energy, The Fueling Station, at blogs.tampabay.com/energy.

Fast Facts:

More information

Find out about the Climate Project at www.the climateproject.org

By the numbers

1 Rank of 2006 as hottest year on record in the continental United States.

1 Rank of United States as top global warming polluter, emitting almost as much as the European Union, Russia and Japan combined.

20% Increase of America's carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels since 1990.

15% Increase of America's carbon dioxide emissions forecast by 2020 if pollution is not capped.

78 Number of days by which the U.S. fire season has increased over the past 20 years.

200-million Number of people who could be displaced globally by extreme droughts, sea level rise and flooding by 2080.

0 Number of federal bills passed by Congress to cap America's global warming pollution.

Bird extinctions may quicken

Loss of habitat, warming, cats are all factors

BY JIM WAYMER
FLORIDA TODAY

A group of renowned biologists say if nothing's done, birds could go extinct 50 times faster, eliminating about 1,200 species by century's end.

The reasons: habitat destroyed by development, global warming and invasive species -- especially your cat.

"If we lose species -- parrots, toucans -- our world will be a poorer place," said Stuart Pimm, a conservation biologist at Duke University.

His fears are supported by a U.S. study, released just last week, that showed 30 North American shorebird species on pace to decline by 36 percent in the next 20 years.

And the subject hits close to home, where Merritt Island was the site of the most recent bird extinction in Florida and mainland America: the dusky seaside sparrow, declared extinct in 1990.

Conservationists fear inland species such as the Florida scrub jay or Everglades snail kite could be next.

"Florida is losing the battle to save most bird species," said Charles Lee, a lobbyist with Audubon Florida. "I think we have an increasing challenge to all of these species as development continues to march across Florida."

For most of the past 500 years, about one bird species went extinct annually across the globe. In the past few decades, conservation efforts improved the situation, with just one species on average going extinct every three years.

But if current threats persist, Pimm and his colleagues expect the extinction rate to jump to as many as 15 species a year within the next 93 years. That would threaten about 12 percent of the 10,000 known bird species.

They say scientists underestimated previous bird extinctions caused by Polynesian migration across the Pacific and five centuries of European explorers. Polynesians, for one, cut down too many trees on Easter Island, killing off most birds there, including the dodo.

Extinction rates are already 100 to 1,000 times what they'd be without human impacts, Pimm said. Only five times has life vanished so fast, the last being 65 million years ago, thought to be caused by large asteroids or volcanic activity. It took 10 million years for species to recover.

Merritt Island's dusky seaside sparrow became a casualty of the Space Race when its cord-grass habitat was flooded out for mosquito control -- so NASA workers wouldn't get swarmed.

Pimm cites its cousin species, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, as another potential victim of development, wetlands destruction and government.

But biologists point to several others of the 36 birds on Florida's imperiled species list that also could soon disappear, given the following threats:

Roughly one square mile of Florida wetlands, scrub and forest vanishes under roofs, pavement and other development every three days. In Brevard, an area about 4.4 square miles gets covered annually, or about six football fields per day, on average.

• Scientists say global warming could result in more extreme droughts, limiting food supply for wading birds.
• About 5.3 million stray and outdoor house cats kill as many as 78 million birds annually -- 213,700 a day -- in the state, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Ground foraging birds such as the threatened Florida scrub jay are especially at risk.
• Florida's exotic pet trade continues to introduce invasive species that outcompete birds or their food sources. Of 279 known exotic land animals in Florida, 27 are expanding, 10 are stable, 189 have unknown numbers, and only eight are declining.

Audubon's Lee worries most about the South American channeled apple snail and what it might do to the endangered Everglades snail kite, thought to number less than 1,000 birds.

"It's probably the bird that's the most in question right now," he said.

The South American snail chokes out much smaller native snails the kites rely upon, and some kites have fled the Everglades for the headwaters of the St. Johns River.

When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began reflooding thousands of acres in the river's upper basin, plants and the invertebrates that birds eat snapped back almost instantly.

But Pimm says such restorations -- especially the Everglades plan -- fall way short of mimicking wetlands' natural flow and rarely match their diversity of life.

"I think they've been a massive failure," Pimm said. "There is this extraordinary hubris on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers that believe they can recreate nature in their image. It's a Frankenstein phenomenon."

Pimm points to the dusky seaside sparrow as an example of one such failure.

"That went in large part because people manipulated the wetlands there and didn't really pay a lot of attention to the fact that it might look like a marsh but didn't have the ebb and flow of a marsh," he said.

The sparrow once frequented marshes of Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where managers still try to mimic nature's flows and volunteers such as Ned Steel show off wood storks.

"That's the last place it was on the refuge," Steel said, pointing to a grassy marsh along Black Point Drive where the dusky seaside sparrow once roamed.

Pimm hopes America learned a lesson from the tiny sparrow. He senses it has.

"I think an increasing number of religious groups are saying, 'We ought not be destroying species, we ought not be warming the planet,'" he said.

Vanishing Habitat

LAKE PLACID — Avid birders may be the only ones who notice the difference but fewer birds are making Lake Placid home this year.

The 20th annual Lake Placid Christmas Bird Count found 134 species of birds in the area. That’s four less species than last year and part of a downward trend in the number of species recorded in the past five years, which hit a high in 155 species in 1995.

Helen Obenchain, coordinator of the local count, said loss of habitat is probably the most obvious reason for the decline.

“Our number of species has been declining probably because of building in the area,” Obenchain said. “As development continues, the birds’ habitats are missing and they likely are then migrating elsewhere.”

Waterfront development is leading to loss of habitat for birds that live in wetlands, Obenchain said.

“We are losing some of our waterfront area and the plants along there,” Obenchain said. “When the habitats are cleared, the birds have to find new places to live.”

G.G. “Bud” Warren, who participated in the count, said he can see the effects of development in his back yard.

“It seems like growth is driving birds to fields and farms,” Warren said Friday. “I see examples of that in my back yard. This morning people were working to rehab the roof of a boathouse and with the noise, I didn’t see a single bird. As soon as the workers left, the birds came in to feed.”

Warren said he still has plenty of bird-watching opportunities in Lake Placid and even sees some rare ones on occasion, but he’s never seen one during the count.

Some participants did find rare species though. Unusual species recorded this year include three roseate spoonbills, four stilt sandpipers, one least flycatcher and three shiny cowbirds.

“We are finding some rare birds in the area, which is exciting,” Obenchain said. “We are happy to be in the right place at the right time, with a person who could identify those rare birds.”

Lake Placid’s count encompasses a circular area 15 miles in diameter and is one of the 920 sponsored by the National Audubon Society. Eight teams of volunteers traversed sections of the area on land and water, counting all birds they saw and heard and documenting the species.

“We cover as much of the area as we can in a 24-hour period,” Obenchain said. “We never know what we will see because birds are mobile, too … The birds also are most active first thing in the morning, and it’s hard to be everywhere at that time.”

Jon Greenlaw, a volunteer at Archbold Biological Station and retired biologist who compiled the data, said the methodology isn’t perfect but is widely accepted for this type of count. Having more volunteers could boost the number of species found, he said.

“We have a great group of volunteers,” Greenlaw said. “But having more people and more teams to participate in the count could make a difference.”

Obenchain said she doesn’t think weather in Lake Placid was a factor in finding fewer birds because the weather that day was ideal for birding. Warmer temperatures in the north, however, could have contributed to the decline in species count.

“With the milder winter, a lot of birds aren’t making it down to Florida,” she said. “Some of the species we usually see may have stayed up north longer if they were able to find food. And now that it’s getting colder up there, we may still see more species this year.”

Obenchain said local residents can make a difference in attracting birds to the area.

“People can help by thinking about the plants in their yards and making areas where ground-dwelling birds can live,” Obenchain said. “Trying to make a habitat friendly for birds and having food available for them can really make a difference.”

In 1984 I wrote an article about a pair of pet pythons, one of which was pregnant, that had escaped from their cages and were last seen wandering the wilds around Poinciana.

I asked a snake expert about the possibility that the pythons might breed in the wild and become a problem.

Not this far north, I was told.

I was also told by state wildlife officials that there were no known cases in which pythons or other large constrictors had survived and bred in Florida.

It seems the snakes had other ideas.

There is now a breeding population of Burmese pythons, which are large and long lived, in Everglades National Park. Nile monitor lizards are breeding uncontrolled in the Cape Coral area.

This year state wildlife officials, who in the past had only lightly regulated nonvenomous captive reptiles other than prohibiting their release into the wild, finally decided enough was enough and decided new rules were in order.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will hold a workshop today from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Kissimmee Civic Center, 201 E. Dakin Ave.

The proposed new rule requires owners of larger, potentially dangerous reptiles to permanently implant a computer chip under the animal's skin. The proposed rule also will require people who want to buy these reptiles to prove they know how to take care of them and have facilities to keep them that are secure and sturdy enough to prevent them from escaping. The rule takes effect Jan. 1, 2008.

It's good that there will be some kind of screening to prospective python owners, but it's a shame the chip technology isn't more mature.

What's really needed is not a computer chip that tells you where the python came from if you happen to encounter it, but a chip that would allow wildlife officials to track it, locate it and remove it from the wild.

When I asked about that, I learned that satellite tracking devices are still too large to fit under a snake's skin.

For now, the breeding colonies of large snakes still are confirmed only in South Florida. Whether warming weather trends will persist enough to eventually allow permanent python colonies in Central Florida is unclear.

Wildlife officials who work this part of the state say they are encountering more and more reports of individual pythons and other constrictors, but so far no breeding populations.

I did check with the folks at The Reptile Shack in Lakeland, the only local pet store I know of that sells pythons. To their credit, they told me they will take snakes of any size from anyone who doesn't want it or can't keep it, which certainly helps with the illegal release problem.

But people do release these animals or they escape and you never know what the pet trade will bring in next to further complicate the situation.

Although it's not on the list of creatures to which the new rules apply, wildlife officials have noted another new lizard called the giant tegu, a South American species that can grow up to four feet long. Its diet includes bird eggs, and I've read there's some concern these lizards could invade gopher tortoise burrows and eat anything seeking refuge there except the tortoises.

So far there are no tegu reports outside of Hillsborough County, but if these large lizards become established, it will only be a matter of time before they spread into Polk County.

By the way, if they do spread and you find them on your land, it's worth noting that you shouldn't try to capture them by hand because they have a nasty bite. On the other hand, they're edible (a delicacy in Argentina, I'm told) and the skin is an attractive leather.

Of course it would be better if we didn't have to deal with these critters in the first place.

In an ideal world state officials would simply prohibit selling these animals in the first place. But that's tough politically because of the economic forces involved anytime you try to regulate commercial activities.

Regulators have run into similar roadblocks trying to persuade the nursery industry to quit selling invasive exotic plants.

The proposed wildlife regulations will be an improvement if they aren't watered down over the next year and can be effectively enforced.

At this point, that's the best we can hope to see.

Tom Palmer can be reached at 863-802-7535 or tom.palmer@theledger.com.

UF: 'Terror bird' made early appearance

By ALICE WALLACE

Sun staff writer

Expressway Bailout Tab Grows More Expensive

By RICH SHOPES The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jan 23, 2007

TAMPA - Bailing the Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority out of its recent troubles is getting more expensive by the month.

Monday, the authority approved the transfer of $220,000 from capital reserves to pay for outside legal fees associated with implementing the recommendations of a stinging state audit.

That's in addition to the $150,000 paid for legal fees in September and October.

In a letter to the authority in December, the state attorney general's office told the authority it cannot exceed $500,000 in outside legal fees this fiscal year, which ends June 30, without state approval.

The letter also cites a state rule that generally limits attorney fees to $125 an hour, but gives the authority permission to exceed that rate.

Rhea Law, who became the authority's interim general counsel in September, is being paid $225 an hour.

Honey Rand, an expressway authority spokeswoman, said Law and other lawyers at her firm, Fowler White Boggs Banker, are helping the authority comply with the recommendations of a critical audit by the state auditor general.

She said the authority is undergoing a complete review and reworking of all of its policies and procedures. They also are helping to find a permanent executive director to replace Ralph Mervine, who resigned in November.

As for Law's rate of $225 an hour, Rand said it is not unusual for public agencies to pay that amount to outside lawyers.

"It is a lot of money, but it is not excessive for these kinds of situations and for a firm of the caliber of Fowler White," she said. "Their standard for rates is generally higher than $225 an hour, but the authority negotiated a lower rate from Fowler White."

Law, who started Sept. 11, replaced a lawyer who had been criticized for high bills.

The authority hired her firm as Gov. Jeb Bush began examining a competitive bid controversy at the authority. The governor's office and the state auditor general both have since admonished the authority for its contracts with lawyers and lobbyists.

Stephen Reich, the authority's interim executive director, told expressway authority board members Monday that he's evaluating the authority's legal billings to determine which jobs can be handled by in-house lawyer Mary Hall and which should be referred to outside firms.

He is expected to report his findings to the board in early February.

At that point, the board would have the option of capping some expenses for outside legal work by keeping some jobs in-house.

"This agreement with Fowler White was meant to be an interim fix," Rand said. "They have to have people in there who are qualified and able to meet the challenge on the fly. They don't have the time to figure out the issues. This was always meant to be interim."

Reporter Rich Shopes can be contacted at (813) 259-7633 or at rshopes@tampatrib.com.

EDC wants impact fee study

Raising impact fees has never been popular among builders, but a business group wants to know if the current proposal to hike the fees could crash the local economy.

The Citrus County Economic Development Council will ask county commissioners today to fund a study on the economic effects of raising the fees to the levels recommended by the county’s consultant.

The meeting begins at 1 p.m. Board discussion of the economic impact fee study is set for 3:30 p.m.

Officials from EDC agreed Dec. 14 to recommend a third-party economic analysis of the pending impact fee increase on the local economy. EDC also recommended funding the study with county occupational license fees.

“Due to the magnitude of the potential changes and the changing business climate the EDC board felt that the Board of County Commissioners may deem it appropriate to evaluate the anticipated economic impact,” said EDC President Jack Reynolds.

The county’s impact fee consultant, Tindale-Oliver & Associates, has recommended increasing the total impact fees for a single-family home of 2,000-square feet to $16,275. That’s about a $10,000 increase.

The impact fee for a 50,000-square-foot retail business would be about $691,000.

County Commission Chairman Dennis Damato said he would support such a study, given the dramatic increases proposed by the county consultant.

When impact fees were last raised, Damato said the economy was on the upswing, but he said it’s different now. The economy is in a downturn “and everything is slower.”

“Now people are starting to lose their jobs, not only in the construction industry, but in related businesses,” Damato said.

Commissioner Vicki Phillip said she would consider voting for an economy study, provided an independent third party not associated with EDC conducts the study.

If a study were approved, she said the county commission should advertise for bids and hire the best-qualified consultant to conduct the study.

She said she has no problem with the proposed impact fees for homes, but the fees for businesses are high.

“I do see where the large impact fees on business could be a deterrent to coming here,” she said.

On the other hand, Phillips said she questions why a study is necessary when it wasn’t done for the increases in property taxes and gas taxes.

“Why didn’t we do one for the gas tax and the ad valorem taxes before we raised them?” she said.

Commissioner Gary Bartell has offered a proposal that he says would buy the county time to conduct a study.

His plan would cut the school and transportation impact fees in half for the remainder of 2007, but adopt the other six impact fees in full.

In January 2008, Bartell said the economic study requested by the EDC would be complete and commissioners could determine whether the fees recommended by the consultant should be implemented or lowered.

Bartell said he also has an agenda item about budget matters that he says ties into the discussion of impact fees.

He said he is worried that projected property tax revenues may be lower this year and the county commission may need to scale back its construction projects if that is the case.

Bartell wants to move to zero-based budgeting for some portions of the budget. With zero-based budgeting, the departments start the budget process with zero dollars. They build their budgets by justifying every dollar requested.

He said zero-based budgeting would come in handy if the county’s revenues begin to drop.

“If those revenues are not going to be there, you can’t spend more than you take in,” he said.

A New Day For County's Growth - LAND-USE PLAN BEGINS

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jan 22, 2007

The rules for development changed today in Pasco County.

After years of study and a last-minute legal challenge, the county's Comprehensive Land-Use Plan, the framework that will guide growth in coming years, went into effect this morning.

"What resonated loud and clear was that citizens are concerned about their quality of life," said Allen Altman, who led the citizens committee that revised the land-use plan with the help of a chain of public meetings.

Altman now sits on the Pasco County school board.

The new guidelines embody four years of public debate about how the county should grow. They take in everything from employment and transportation to education and the environment.

On the whole, the new plan favors large, master-planned communities, clusters commerce in town centers rather than strips and makes room for pedestrians on local roads.

Supporters say the plan encapsulates the wishes of a broad swath of Pasco County residents. Critics say the plan will unfairly restrict growth, driving up costs for homes and retail space.

The new guidelines reflect the unease many county leaders feel about how the county has developed. Much of that uneasiness is embodied by U.S. 19 in west Pasco.

The land along that highway, which runs through the heart of Pasco's most populated communities, evolved at a time when the county had few, if any, rules governing growth. Now, it is a six-lane gaggle of strip centers backed by cookie-cutter subdivisions, infamous for its congestion and traffic fatalities.

County officials hope the new plan will keep the worst of west Pasco's troubles from infecting central and east Pasco.

Among other things, Altman sees the new plan as a way to ensure schools are built as they are needed to avoid the kind of overcrowding that has hit Sand Pine Elementary in Wesley Chapel.

"Those sorts of things, under the new education element, will not be allowed to happen again," Altman said.

In the coming months, the county will enact more than a dozen new ordinances to set the comprehensive plan's wheels turning.

The prospect of those ordinances provoked strong comments from the building community last year, but builders have been largely silent since.

"Twenty years ago, when there was a new proposal, the development community circled the wagons," said engineer David Fuxan of Odessa. "But they're being bombarded by changes now. They don't circle the wagons like they used to."

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

County land program must be prioritized

County staff is looking into ways to increase funding for the Environmentally Sensitive Lands program, or ESL, deputy county administrator Larry Jennings told commissioners Friday.

It will be up the commission to decide what kind of priority it will place in the budget for future purchases and whether voters should have a say.

“Land values in Hernando County are going up so quickly that keeping up with the land program gets more and more difficult,” Jennings said. “We’ve not been able to buy the projects that have been short-ranked as quickly as we’d like.”

From Bayport Park to Cypress Lakes Preserve in Ridge Manor, the ESL program has allowed the county to purchase hundreds of acres since its inception in 1988. A referendum authorized the county to fund the program with up to one-tenth of one mil of ad valorem taxes for the 30 years.

The program has raised $8.6 million from 1989 to 2006. It expires in 2018. Staff is recommending the county extend it for another 20 years.

The county currently has three projects ranked as a top priority: the Withlacoochee State Forest Corridor Connec-tion; the Little Withlacoochee Riverine Corridor; and im-provements to the Peck Sink Floodplain in Brooksville.

The value of the three projects is more than $35 million.

The county currently has $3.8 million budgeted for land acquisition this fiscal year. The ESL program is projected to raise another $15 million before it expires.

Commissioner Dave Rus-sell, a former state legislator, said the county should maintain ESL’s current funding level and “maximize and leverage state money,” particularly though the Florida Forever program.

The state in years past has come through for the county, dedicating money for the purchase of several projects, including the Weeki Wachee preserve, Russell said.

The state also kicked in funds to help the county purchase Peck Sink. The county plans to build a storm water park there to treat runoff before it enters the aquifer through the sink.

“There’s no reason to believe that (Florida Forever) program won’t be continued, as popular as it was,” Russell said.

Purchasing the land is only a portion of the cost, Jennings said. The county also has to come up with money to maintain the land and provide accessibility for the public.

“It’s really going to take a change in the way we do business in the county,” Jennings said.

Some municipalities have asked voters to weigh in on the matter. Pasco County residents voted to set aside a portion of its sales tax. Others have at least taken polls and surveys.

Commissioner Rose Rocco advocated that approach.

“The community needs to be involved,” Rocco said.

Reporter Tony Marrero can be contacted at 352-544-5286.

Plenty Of Road Work Planned In Hillsborough

Published: Jan 22, 2007

Start hunting for detours.

Florida's Department of Transportation has more than $219 million worth of road projects lined up for Hillsborough County in the next fiscal year, starting July 1.

That's for a laundry list that includes, among other big-ticket items, the resurfacing of U.S. 41 from 15th Avenue to Bull Frog Creek Road ($17 million); the reconstruction of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard ($10.5 million for construction, $13 million for right of way acquisition); and construction of drainage for Interstate 275 from Lois Avenue to Tampa Bay ($27.9 million).

Shop's Parking Gets Icy Reception

South Tampa resident A.J. Brent says the city is putting business interests ahead of public safety.

Angular parking in front of The Junction ice cream parlor, 4004 S. MacDill Ave., is posing a danger to drivers trying to spot oncoming traffic on the road, he says. The parked cars force drivers on Bayview Avenue to inch out into the intersection to peer around them.

"If there's an SUV at the corner, forget it. You can't see anything," said Brent.Irvin Lee, director of public works, says that public interests and business needs must be balanced.

As for the parlor, business manager Steve Reiske said he sympathizes with Brent but can't see giving up two or three parking spots when the shop has only eight. Losing spots might force customers to park in front of homes and businesses, potentially sparking another dispute.

"I live in south Tampa and this is a problem all over," Reiske said.

Beltway Boomerang

The Tampa-Hillsborough Expressway Authority is shifting focus, and that's good news for beltway foes.

Honey Rand, an authority spokeswoman, says the agency isn't dropping plans for the controversial 120-mile toll road, but it's not pursuing it either, at least not now.

That's a 180-degree shift from a month ago, when Planning Director Marty Stone said the authority was pressing ahead with the proposal.

Authority Chairman James Hargrett said last week that the board is busy trying to implement cost controls recommended in a state audit and hire a permanent executive director. It's also preparing to award a contract for a toll road in New Tampa.

"Everything is on the table," he said. "We'll be actively listening to all the elected officials to see if the highway can be useful and not a source of controversy."

The turnaround comes as lawmakers are deciding whether to disband the authority or change the board's composition so most of its seven members are from other elected boards and not appointed by the governor.

Hey, It's Dark Down Here

Commuters might have noticed that it's darker on the Lee Roy Selmon Expressway's lower lanes than on the upper lanes.

Maricelle Venegas, a spokeswoman for the expressway authority, said that many lights on the lower and upper lanes are designed to be wired together, but some connections on the lower lanes haven't been made. They should be connected fully in a week or two, she said.

Got a gripe about your commute? Contact reporter Rich Shopes at (813) 259-7633. Please include your full name, community and daytime phone number when sending e-mail. Look for more commuter news on TBO.com, Keyword: Shopes.

Impact fees: What to believe?

The looming battle over how much to raise impact fees comes down to a simple question for each of the five county commissioners: What do you believe? Do you believe that raising the one-time fee for new single-family houses from the current $6,664 to the proposed $16,000-plus will strangle home building in Citrus County, as opponents of the increases predict?

Do you believe this in the face of ample evidence both in Citrus County and in counties throughout Florida where such dire predictions simply have never materialized?

Do you believe that outside factors, such as national real estate trends and mortgage rates, have as much of an effect on the local building market as do impact fees?

Do you believe that the costs of building roads and schools, the two largest impact fee categories, are going to fall?

Do you believe this after seeing the price of right-of-way acquisitions skyrocket in recent years, after seeing the price of basic building materials soar, after seeing the cost of a new elementary school in Citrus County go from an estimated $11-million to more than $21-million in the blink of an eye?

Do you believe that imposing high impacts will slow the rate of growth and thus the demand for new services?

Do you believe this even though the exact opposite is true, that a community that anticipates problems such as crowded roads and schools becomes much more attractive to those looking to relocate homes and businesses?

Do you believe the cost projections provided by your own consultants, the experts that you hired to guide you through the complex impact fee process?

Do you believe that they have exaggerated these costs and, if so, why?

Do you believe in the lower estimates provided by other consultants hired by special interests to get you to go lightly on the increases?

Do you believe that these special interests, specifically the local building industry, are interested in giving you the unvarnished truth about the needs of the county, as well as the real costs of these public services?

Do you believe, even with impact fees, that growth comes close to paying for itself?

Do you believe that if the county adopts fees at lower levels than are recommended by the consultant, and if the costs are as high as projected, that the county will be able to find the needed money somewhere else?

Do you believe that asking current taxpayers, particularly those who have paid their own impact fees, to subsidize the costs generated by the newcomers is fair?

Do you believe that shifting this additional financial burden onto the businesses, rental properties, owners of vacant land and everyone else not protected by the Save Our Homes property tax cap is the right thing to do?

Do you believe that the money the county would lose by phasing in the increases over two years would be offset by whatever benefits the county would gain by having happier new home buyers and home builders?

Do you believe that higher impact fees will crush efforts to provide affordable housing in Citrus County?

Do you believe there are methods independent of impact fees, such as land trusts and developer funds, that other communities have used to help produce more affordable housing stock?

Do you believe there is some way to soften the blow to the commercial side of the impact fee ledger similar to what is being suggested for the residential side?

Do you believe that doing so would not simply exacerbate the difference between how much money will be needed and what will be collected?

Do you believe that existing small and midsized businesses should get a break on impact fees if they expand their operations?

Do you believe that doctors and other medical professionals should get a break on their impact fees to attract them to this community?

Do you believe the same generosity should extend to police, emergency medical technicians, teachers and other essential but low-paid public servants?

Do you believe that other sources of revenue, such as state transportation grants, could be tapped and thus offset the need for drastic impact fee increases?

Do you believe that the fact that the county may not be eligible for those grants for another three years or more should factor into this current discussion?

Do you believe that there is some level between what is recommended by the consultant and what the builders would like that would meet the true needs of the community while not crippling a vital industry?

Do you believe it is possible to find such an answer in the politically charged atmosphere that surrounds these impact fee battles?

Do you believe that a study by some outside research entity of the effects that higher impact fees would have on the local economy would be a worthwhile use of time and resources?

Do you believe that ordering up such a study would just work in favor of impact fee opponents by delaying your decision?

Do you believe that you have the courage to do what is right for the majority of the citizens, those here today and those who will be here tomorrow, as well as for the building community?

Do you believe that means imposing fees that are fair and equitable, not just legally defensible, putting the burden on those generating the needs for more services and not those who have already paid?

Do you believe you will be ready to do so on Thursday when you and your colleagues must make this multimillion-dollar decision?

Do you believe that you can live with the consequences?

[Last modified January 20, 2007, 21:20:07]

Hardee Sets Impact Fees

Businessmen sounded off Thursday as commissioners considered a resolution to set the residential and non-residential (excluding warehouse and industrial) impacts fees at the 75 percent level effective July 1.

Also, the proposed resolution would have increased residential and non-residential (excluding warehouse and industrial) impacts fees to the 100 percent level Jan. 1, 2008.

The commission approved a revised resolution with residential and non-residential (excluding warehouse and industrial) impacts fees to be imposed at the 50 percent level effective July 1.

Warehouse and industrial impact fees will be imposed at the 50 percent level starting Oct. 1.

The subsequent increases that were in the original resolution were deleted.

“When building some rentals, duplexes ... the problem we have, the amount that is being thrown around is about $6,000,” Larry Martel said about the impact fees. “We need affordable housing in the county, that $6,000 is a year’s rent.

The county is the one that gets the benefit, because if Florida Institute for Neurologic Rehabilitation expands or the cargo airport comes, there has to be affordable housing for the employees, he said. “They are going to go outside the county because you are going to put an impact fee on where it makes it impossible for us to build and give a quality place for them to live.

“When the rent goes too much over $600 a month it’s hard to find people who can afford it.”

“I’ve built 13 duplexes in the last three years,” said Howard Bolin. “I’m probably going to have to borrow money to pay the taxes ... if I have to put another $6,000 plus whatever the schools comes up with, it’s almost impossible to build.

People cannot pay more than $600 for rent, he said.

“Assuming that the [impact] study is correct, somebody is going to pay for this,” Commissioner Dale Johnson said. “Somebody’s gotta pay for the sheriff’s department, the roads, the schools.

“Now the state says if you don’t meet concurrency, if you can’t meet the services, then you can’t build. Then you are going to be out of business anyway.”

“The money for new growth has got to come from somewhere,” Commissioner Nick Timmerman said. “Do you want to put it on the citizens who pay ad valorem or the new growth?”

“Give us three years to go to 100 percent,” Martel suggested.

“Somehow we should be able to look at some cash-flow scenarios that show where the proper level to implement these fees are so that we can have growth,” and meet the concurrency requirements, Bill Lambert said. There has got to be some compromise here.

“I understand the need for the county government to have the revenue,” he said. “But, I also understand the need for a healthy private sector, especially in this little economy that is doing some form of transition from traditional agricultural economy to something else.

“If we don’t transition from ag we’re going to do nothing with this, but maintain the status quo in Hardee County.”

Sen. Alexander asked recently what the county has done to help itself, such as impact fees and a 5 cent gas tax, Commissioner Minor Bryant said. “Before they help us, we have to help ourselves, but I cannot imagine us doing 100 percent of this.”

A study will start soon to determine the recommended levels for school impact fees. With the school impact fees unknown at this time, commissioners discussed implementation of the county impact fees at the 50 percent level.

“Why is it that we have to start at 50 percent, why can’t we start at 25 percent like Highlands County and work our way up,” Tim Wells said.

Bryant said the administrative costs would make it impractical to implement at 25 percent level.

“We are going to make everybody a little unhappy,” he said.

MONTICELLO - Since last spring, Stephen and Tracie Fulford have been building a home on the Fulford family peanut farm in rural Jefferson County.

The house is a brick-and-mortar commitment to the farming lifestyle. Since 2004, Stephen, 30, and Tracie, 28, have been working on the 1,600-acre farm, sharing labor and profits with Stephen Fulford's family. The Fulfords own 300 acres and lease 1,300 acres of the farm, which Stephen Fulford's grandfather started in 1945.

"The country was foreign to me," said Tracie Fulford, who is originally from Melbourne. "Now, it's home."

But many young people have been turning away from farming as farms across the state are gobbled up by development or go under. Farmland in Florida dropped from 18.3 million acres in 1955 to 10 million in 2005, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Fulfords are among young farmers bucking the trend. Earlier this year, they were among 26 agricultural producers between the ages of 28 and 35 chosen to be groomed as Florida's future agricultural leaders. They are new members of the Young Farmer and Rancher Leadership Group, a two-year program of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation.

"Throughout the program, they go through public speaking, handling events, meeting with legislators, how to interact with the media," said Rachel Kudelko, the program's coordinator. "The whole purpose is to unearth and develop the next generation of leadership for our organization."

The young farmers know the obstacles they're up against.

"With the land prices, it's almost impossible for a young farmer to start out without a family history of farming," said Chris Lyons, 34, a cattle and chicken rancher in Mayo and the class president. "It's almost impossible to stay in farming, unless it's in your blood."

The Florida Farm Bureau has 144,000 member families statewide. Its role is to lobby on behalf of farmers and educate politicians and the public about food production.

Fulford mentions taxes, zoning laws and international competition as some of the major hurdles. Federal statistics show that Florida farms continue to disappear - 56,000 in 1955 and 42,500 in 2005. And at 235 acres, their average size is 40-percent smaller than in 1955. The average age of farm operators is now reaching 57.

Many young farmers have quit as a result. Jason Vinson, 30, works for the city of Tallahassee despite growing up on a tobacco farm next to the Fulford property.

"When I graduated out of high school (in 1994), farming wasn't looking too good and there didn't seem to be a lot of future in it," he said. My dad "persuaded me to get a job somewhere else because it was too rough."

Vinson has been growing watermelons on the side, though, to feel the freedom of being in charge of his time and income. But he's not ready to do it full time.

"One bad year," he said, "could set you back a long time."

Fred Gainous, former president of Florida A&M University and director of its Center for Agriculture Policy Research, said that because of land costs, people are typically either born into farming or marry into it. As a result, farmers who leave to do something else are unlikely to be replaced.

The trend has been especially true among black farmers, he said, with many of them selling their land for a profit while young people aren't taught about the rural lifestyle as much as they used to be.

"Even agricultural education has and is disappearing" in historically black colleges and universities, Gainous said. "That's significant because they have the responsibility of agricultural education in the public-school system."

The leadership program aims to slow the trend of young people leaving the farm by informing people that the family farm lifestyle is worth preserving, said Lyons, who has two daughters.

"It teaches them a lot of values and really shows them what hard work is," he said.

The Fulfords also want their children - Esther, 3, and Gannett, 1 - to have that option when they grow up.

In his 20s, Stephen Fulford worked as a cabinet maker and as a government employee, knowing well about the long hours and small profit margins in farming.

In the end, "I figured out that working for yourself is still a little better than having somebody else set your schedule and your income," he said. "I can put a car seat on the tractor, and my 1-year-old will go right to sleep. You just can't do that in a lot of jobs.”

Epperson Ranch Plans Redrawn

By KEVIN WIATROWSKI The Tampa Tribune

Published: Jan 20, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - Pasco County's slumping housing market has not been kind to Lennar Corp.'s plans for Epperson Ranch.

Lennar, Pasco's busiest home builder, has sent Epperson Ranch back to the drawing board in an effort to salvage the project, which was undone last year by a falling housing market and rising road-construction costs.

As part of those changes, Lennar recently offered to widen and relocate the south end of Curley Road between State Road 54 and Elam Road. The relocated road would meet S.R. 54 across from Meadow Pointe Boulevard.

The Epperson Ranch project covers about 1,740 acres along the west side of Curley Road between Lennar's Bridgewater community and Tyndall Road, the southern boundary for the Bella Verde development.

The land includes part of King Lake and the Epperson family homestead. Lennar plans to build up to 3,500 homes.

Lennar's previous deal with the county - written into Epperson's pending Development of Regional Impact paperwork - calls for the builder to give the county $20 million upfront so it can build the road. Given the current state of the housing market, the company can't afford to do that, said Ken Wagner, president of Lennar's Tampa office.

Instead, Lennar wants to build the road as part of the development process for Epperson Ranch, which could start next year, Wagner said. The county would provide designs and buy the right of way, Wagner said.

So far, though, the county remains unconvinced. The deal could change how much Epperson Ranch pays for other road projects and how many homes it's ultimately allowed to build, Assistant County Attorney David Goldstein said.

"I think it's fair to say both the county and the developer support the concept," Goldstein said.

Beyond remaking Curley Road, Lennar also is committed to building part of a downtown-style town center along Curley. Lennar shares the project with Crown Communities, which is developing the WaterGrass neighborhood with Centex Homes on the east side of Curley.

Crown is responsible for designing the town center. Then each builder will put in the streets, sidewalks and public utilities on its part of the town center. The commercial components will be sold to a developer specializing in town centers, Wagner said.

Crown made strides last year on WaterGrass and has begun laying out its part of the town center, which will straddle the intersection of Curley and a future extension of Overpass Road.

Given a 2008 start date for Epperson Ranch, Lennar won't be able to match Crown's schedule for construction on the town center, Wagner said.

"One of the difficulties we face now is timing," Wagner said. "There's a strong likelihood now there could be a gap."

Still, Lennar remains committed to building its part of the town center, Wagner said.

"It's become certainly a more significant part of our community," Wagner said.

The town center is a pet project of County Administrator John Gallagher, who envisions it as the hub for a region without a strong community identity. The town center will include housing, offices and retail focused on grocery stores and other local needs, leaving out big regional draws such as Wal-Mart and Target.

Plans call for the town center to go up at about the same pace as the housing around it, rather than after residential construction, which is frequently the case with commercial projects.

"The success of that [town center] is going to be dependent on the occupancy of their homes and ours," Wagner said of Crown.

"If there isn't a certain amount of infrastructure put into the town center upfront, it may never attract the attention of the commercial developers," Wagner said.

Reporter Kevin Wiatrowski can be reached at (813) 948-4201 or kwiatrowski@tampatrib.com.

A 50-foot elevation change has subtle implications for most of us. You could scarcely realize any difference if you are used to the high peaks of the Rocky Mountains or the Smoky Mountains. But, even slight elevation changes can have dramatic effects on plants and wildlife.

The white sandy soils on the west side of the county are from ancient sand dunes. They formed eons ago when the sea level was higher and ocean waves lapped at our coasts and deposited deep sands in the middle of the state. The high water surrounded islands of isolated high ground, and plants and animals developed unique connections.

We call the association of plants and animals an "ecosystem," and this particular type is called "scrub." Rare sand skinks, scrub mint and scrub-jays are specific only to this ecosystem and are found nowhere else in the world.

The natural landscape has changed over time with human influence. The rolling sandy soils are high and dry and ideally suited to some types of agriculture. Citrus trees and grapevines prefer well-drained soils and grow well in this region. Cold air from winter nights flows downhill into the low depressions of the rolling hills. Water in the lowlands is solar-heated during the day and warms the cold air at night, offering protection from frosts and mild freezes.

Native plants that are typical of scrub soils evolved to survive on summer rain and tolerate winter freezes. Wild plums, rusty lyonia, Chapman's oak, runner oak, wire grass, gopher apple, golden aster and hawthorns are natives tolerant of dry conditions and cold winters. Unfortunately, many of the tropical landscape plants selected for home landscapes in these areas are not so tolerant.

Spring and summer storms bring lightning and fires. Fire is a natural process that helps recycle nutrients into the soil as the ash that remains is washed into the sand. Frequent fires favor the development of low shrubs and wildflowers as well as plants with survival strategies such as thick bark and deep, well-developed root systems.

Scrub-jays are adapted to the scrub since the fires keep the soil exposed and allow easy feeding on acorns that fall to the ground. If fire is not frequent enough and the oak canopy becomes dense or pines grow tall, scrub-jays are more likely to be eaten by predators such as hawks that prefer to perch in tall trees.

The relationships of plants and animals and how they developed together is so interesting. I encourage you to learn more about our natural world and look for ways to work with it as you enjoy your landscape.

One way to learn more is to attend Woods Walks. The next free interpretive walk is scheduled for Thursday at 9 a.m. east of St. Cloud. We will go to Lake Lizzie Preserve on the Marsh Loop. You will learn about the sand pine, oak hammock and slash pine ecosystems as well as the marsh. Send an e-mail to crut@osceola.org for a schedule or call 321-697-3015 to reserve your space.

Learn about outdoors

Many readers have been waiting for the next Florida Master Naturalist training.

I will be teaching about upland ecosystems including scrub, oak hammock and pine lands. The program is open to anyone interested in Florida, especially those who want to know more about the outdoors.

Environmental professionals, teachers, volunteers, nature guides, eco-tour operators, land planners, Scout leaders and outdoor enthusiasts will find the program interesting. The reference manual includes nearly 1,000 pages of information on plants, birds, mammals, soils, insects, reptiles and interactions.

The training is six full days and includes classroom presentations and field trips. The program is limited to 20 students. It starts April 18 and continues through May 23.

The class is posted on the Web at MasterNaturalist.org, and registration is online, or you can call our office to have a form faxed.

Stormwater ponds

Join me for a presentation on stormwater ponds at the Kissimmee Civic Center at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Kissimmee Valley Audubon is putting on the program, which is open to the public. Learn more about stormwater ponds and neighborhood lakes and get answers to common questions about how to take care of them and how to manage weeds and wildlife.

Eleanor Foerste is a natural resources agent with the University of Florida/IFAS Osceola County Extension office and can be reached at 321-697-3000 or efoe@osceola.org.