Opinions and Editorials

Aug 27, 5:52 PM

Saving precious lands

Brevard voters should support protection referendum before the bulldozers get it all

Brevard County is on the verge of learning a bitter lesson:

You don't know what you've got till it's gone.

Residents could find that out when they lose the best of Brevard's remaining green space and watch its struggling wildlife finally disappear.

And when the Indian River Lagoon, the long blue ribbon of serenity that helps make this area a paradise, is destroyed by the relentless flood of increasingly poisonous runoff.

As anyone watching development erase Brevard's natural beauty knows, open lands are being paved over at a relentless pace.

And the public doesn't want it to happen.

In fact, most residents favor preservation, a sentiment reflected in strong voter approval of the county's Environmentally Endangered Lands Program more than a decade ago.

We owe much to those responsible public officials and residents, whose foresight first helped save much of what we enjoy now.

Soon, we will have the chance to extend the favor, by approving the conservation referendum put on the Nov. 2 ballot last week by the Brevard County Commission.

And, no, it won't cost a penny more.

Approval simply OKs a change in use of the $15.64 already paid annually by the owner of a $100,000 house with a $25,000 homestead exemption.

That money now is spent on a Beaches and Riverfront Preservation program, but the program ends this year.

A "yes" vote at the polls would let the same money be used to buy scrublands, pine flatlands and oak-tree hammocks that otherwise will be chewed up and plowed under for still more housing, condominiums and strip malls.

Why save the land, apart from preventing Brevard from becoming another South Florida- style concrete nightmare? Because:

As part of the lagoon's watershed, preserved land cuts development-generated pollution making its way to the estuary. It also filters pollution from other sources before it also finds its way into the waterway.

It allows rainwater to be absorbed into the shallow aquifer from which some of us drink, and from which development is sucking water at a dangerous rate.

It creates ribbons of green in growing cities and neighborhoods, giving residents a place to unwind and relax, and children a place to play.

It creates corridors that provide wildlife enough connected land to allow their species to survive.

And it can increase the property values of nearby homes.

The lagoon has the largest number of animal and plants species of any estuary in North America. But a waning wading-bird population, and ugly diseases in fish, green turtles and dolphins are showing the increasing effects of environmental stress.

Indeed, scientists at a Florida Tech conference on the lagoon's fate in May said the diseases now showing up in mammals such as dolphins could starting showing up in humans.

The public health impact could be enormous, and so could the economic damage. Imagine what would happen to area property values if signs were posted along the banks of the lagoon saying "No Swimming or Fishing."

That's not doom-and-gloom fantasy. The Environmental Protection Agency says nearly half the estuaries in the United States are unsuitable for human activities because of pollution.

Voting "yes" on the referendum would generate about $4.4 million a year, but because EELs works with state and federal agencies, Brevard also could tap into state and federal co-funding the county would otherwise lose.

As for those who consistently reject all efforts to preserve the environment, voters should ask themselves: Who profits from that attitude?

Certainly not the everyday residents, who lose the beauty of Brevard and suffer from the tidal wave of new construction while developers and others reap the profits and move on.

Those who value their quality of life, environment and the treasure that is Brevard's unique natural landscape must show it at the polls in November -- or lose it forever.

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