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Florida Panhandle Initiative Update Citizen
Involvement in the Florida Panhandle (Foresight, Winter 2001) Empowering citizens to build better communities across Florida has long been a goal of 1000 Friends of Florida. Under the auspices of the Florida Panhandle Initiative, we have undertaken a series of activities to help citizens better protect rural resources while promoting compatible economic development in this predominantly rural but growing corner of the state. Nature-Based
Tourism Rural
Resource Protection This
work is being funded in part by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Florida Panhandle Initiative Moving Forward, Foresight, Fall 2001 A number of local governments, nonprofits, and concerned citizens in the Florida Panhandle are getting help with planning. After analyzing local comprehensive plans for selected cities and counties to identify those communities with planning needs, 1000 Friends has begun providing some technical assistance. The work, aimed at improving local and regional planning processes in a number of arenas, is funded by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. We are involved in several efforts to conserve environmentally sensitive lands in the region. In cooperation with the Georgia Land Trust Service Center, The Nature Conservancy, and existing land trusts, we are exploring the creation of a regional land trust that would aid in putting Panhandle lands under conservation easement. We also assisted Calhoun County with preparing an application to the Florida Community Trust Program to acquire approximately 650 acres along the Chipola River. This fall, 1000 Friends will be collaborating on a series of workshops on Panhandle issues. A September 13 workshop, co-sponsored with The Nature Conservancy and Visit Florida, will focus on promoting nature and heritage tourism in the Milton area. In October we will be partnering with the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association to present workshops on rural issues and land conservation in Walton and Jackson counties. For more information on upcoming workshops and the Florida Panhandle Initiative, contact Dan Pennington at 850.222.6277. Report
to the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
(1) capacity
building, strengthening the ability of local governments/NGOs/concerned
citizens to develop and implement effective local planning initiatives; and,
Capacity building and planning reform are both activities that will have to be flexible in regards to actions over the life of Gulf Coastal Plains Eco-region project. Many of our activities will be opportunistic and responsive to the needs of the local governments and NGOs in the Florida Panhandle. Below our current and ongoing actions are described in association with the defined project goals. Project Goal 1: Prevent inappropriate growth and development from impacting sensitive natural areas in the Red Hills/St. Marks River Eco-Region, the Apalachicola Eco-Region and the Gulf Coastal Plain Eco-Region, with improved local land use planning that includes smart growth principles in coordination with other land acquisition and easement programs. Action Step 1: Assisted one of the more rural counties in the Apalachicola River basin develop and submit an application under Florida's premier land conservation acquisition effort known as Florida Forever, Florida Community Trust Program. The proposed acquisition is for approximately 650 acres along the Chipola River (Florida's largest tributary to the Apalachicola River) in Calhoun County. The project is unique in that it is part of a regional effort to establish a greenway and canoe and kayak trail along the Chipola. Over the next several years the application cycle for the Florida Community Trust Program and other similar cyclic grant programs will reoccur and it is likely that we will partner with other local governments in the Gulf Coastal Plains project area to assist in the acquisition of sensitive natural areas. Often these partnering projects are "opportunistic" actions and deadline driven. They offer good opportunities for 1000 Friends to work with smaller, more rural cities and counties in the eco-regions. Action Step 2: The comprehensive plans for most of the cities and counties in the Gulf Coastal Plain Ecosystem area have been analyzed for their content and guidance in regards to environmental protection, land management and preservation/conservation goals, objectives and policies. This information will assist 1000 Friends in choosing areas to focus our land planning reform efforts. Action Step 3: 1000 Friends has become a participant in the existing Big Bend Environmental Forum. This group is working within the Tallahassee Red Hills, St. Marks and Ocklocknee River area as a coordinating body to facilitate communication amongst the state, federal and local governments and nonprofit groups and to develop and disperse resources to protect/conserve natural resources. Project Goal 2: Improve the capacity of public interest groups, citizen organizations and local and state officials to influence land use decisions by providing better environmental and cost of development information through polls, special studies, and workshops. Action Step 4: 1000 Friends of Florida has been partnering with The Nature Conservancy's Gulf Coastal Plains Ecosystem Initiative Office in Milton, Florida, and TNC's Mr. Bruce Boggs, Director, Community Partnerships & Compatible Ventures Group, from their Asheville, North Carolina office. These efforts have led to the planning of a workshop on September 13, 2001 to explore the current prospects for nature/cultural heritage tourism in the region. The meeting will be held at one of the major canoe and camping liveries and outfitters in the area, "Adventures Unlimited," of Milton, Florida. Mr. Jack Sanborn, the owner of Adventures Unlimited, and the Visit Florida representative for the Panhandle region, will also be participating. The objectives of this workshop include:
Speakers will include: Keri Post, who heads up the nature/heritage/cultural tourism development branch of Visit FLorida. She has sent us the existing inventory for the four panhandle counties of Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton. Ms. Post is also helping to put together some of the meeting packet materials and plans to speak at the meeting (Visit Florida Web Site - http://www.flausa.com/interests/index.php). Other speakers
planned for the workshop include: Mr. Kent Wimmer of the Florida Trail Association. Mr. Wimmer will discuss the trails development in the Panhandle region and the fact that they are the managers and planners of the Florida National Scenic Trail. Their group has some money available for land acquisition, easement development and trail development. Ms. Elaine McGrath of the FDEP, Division of Recreation and Parks' new Nature and Heritage Tourism Center in White Springs Florida. The Center focuses on nature-based activities, outdoor recreation, cultural events, landmarks, heritage sites and historical information from across the state. Action Step 5: Through our partner, the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association, a report is being prepared addressing agricultural and rural issues and land conservation and open space issues. The report will be used as support material for two educational workshops addressing agricultural and rural issues and land conservation and open space issues. The workshops are scheduled for October. One workshop is planned to be held in Walton County near Niceville, and the other in, Marianna in Jackson County. Project Goal 3: Encourage the formation of business and environmental coalitions that coordinate appropriate economic development with natural resource protection. Action Step 6: 1000 Friends has been developing a working relationship with several existing local groups including the Chipola River Environmental and Economic Council and the Apalachicola River Keeper, Inc., as well as with Jackson and Calhoun Counties within the Apalachicola portion of the Gulf Coast Eco-region. This has included individual meetings with these groups to discuss and identify areas of potential partnering supportive of resource conservation/preservation, land acquisition grant application development as discussed above. Action Step 7: 1000 Friends has been working with Hans Neuhauser of the Georgia Land Trust Service Center, and Vernon Compton from the Nature Conservancy's Gulf Coastal Plains Ecosystem Initiative Office in west Florida, to review the current scene and future development in the Florida Panhandle region for land trusts. Together we planned and held a meeting in Niceville, Florida on July 26, 2001 to bring together representatives from existing land trusts operating within the Florida Panhandle and to discuss the current scene and future development of land trusts in the region. As a meeting precursor, Hans Neuhauser developed a directory of active local land trusts in the area and with 1000 Friends, contacted these organization to invite them to the July meeting. The principal ones were the Apalachee Land Conservancy (ALC), Bay County Conservancy, Barrier Island Trust and the Panhandle Conservancy. ALC appears to be the most active. Unlike the Red
Hills portion of the project area where the Red Hills Conservation Program
of Tall Timbers Research is actively seeking to place sensitive lands under
conservation easements, the Florida Gulf Coastal Plains project area does
not have a functioning and/or economically sustainable land trust. Looking
toward the future, meeting participants made the following comments and suggestions: At the July meeting, representatives from the Apalachicola/Chipola Rivers and the Blackwater portions of the Gulf Plains Ecosystems project area were very supportive of these plans and look forward to the possible development of a regional trust to assist their conservation goals. 1000 Friends of Florida continues to help in bringing the expertise of Mr. Neuhauser to ALC and other in the region.
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