November 15, 2010
Little Orange Creek Conservation and Environmental Center
Contact: Robert S. Blount, Executive Director
386-336-5400 robblount@mindspring.com
The Florida Communities Trust program awarded the Putnam Land Conservancy (PLC) and the City of Hawthorne a $4 Million grant to purchase a 1,200-acre nature preserve. Pending City Commissioners’ approval, the PLC and City will jointly manage the property as a public park preserving Hawthorne’s natural and cultual heritage. The $4.5 million purchase price was made up by the Florida Department of Community Affairs grant and $500,000 in private contributions.
The Putnam Land Conservancy is a four-year-old private land and wildlife conservation charity. Its mission is conserving land and water for people and wildlife in and around Putnam County Florida. PLC has been active in assisting conservation-minded private citizens sell or donate environmentally sensitive lands for public recreation and providing critical habitat for Florida native plants and animals.
The LOCCHEC park includes over 700 acres of surface water protection along Little Orange Creek as it meanders through Fowler’s Prairie. The park contains a rare pitcher plant bog that borders State Road 20. The area is home to many Florida native plants and animals and is used by the Florida black bear as it travels from the Ocala National Forest to the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge in Georgia.
Future plans for the LOCCHEC Park include connecting it to the Gainesville-to-Hawthorne Trail. Also in the planning is a renovating an existing 5,000 sq. ft. building into a nature and culture center. Here programs and exhibits will interpret the local environment and the original pioneer settlement at Morrison’s Mill. The remnants of this founding site of present-day Hawthorne can be seen on the park. The park will provide access to the historic Carlton Cemetery where a number of Hawthorne pioneer families are interred.
The park lands will undergo restoration to remove exotic, non-native species. Recreational amenities will be added including handicapped accessible fishing pier, canoe and kayak launch, picnic pavilion, horseshoe pit, volleyball court, and hiking trail. The park is scheduled to open to the public in 2011.
I would like Kathy's friends and family to know the following information - she supported the Biomass/GREC proposal. As women that emersed both careers and love of the planet in sound science, for us being good stewards of the earth is paramount. Though I did not know her we both shared this core value.
ReplyDeleteI am very proud to make the following announcement, and I know Kathy is smiling at this news...
After viewing week long legally sworn testimony (emissions data, fuel supply, water impact, etc )virtually evey aspectfrom both opponents and supporters of GREC Dr James Hansen, chief proponent of Global Warming, NASA Director, and world renown Climatologist made the following statement about Gainesvilles proposed Biomass/GREG renewable, clean power plant.
"Well-planned sustainable biomass power plants are a viable source of clean renewable electricity, and thus are helpful for the task of phasing out coal-fired power plants.
Knee-jerk opposition to all biomass projects has no sound scientific basis and is harmful to attempts to stabilize climate for the sake of our children, grandchildren, and future generations.
In my opinion, the proposed waste and residue-powered 100 MW Gainesville Renewable Energy Center deserves support and is a useful step toward the essential task of phasing out coal emissions."
James E. Hansen
Climate Scientist
Columbia University, Dept. of Earth & Environmental Science
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hansen
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/jhansen.html
I will include more, but this is quite a profound moment for addressing climate change and Environmental organizations in the US.
Local opponents (& you know who they are)aggravated Kathy endlessly. Opponents have had no support from Greenpeace, Union of Concerned Scientists, Nat'l Audubon, National Sierra Club.
Yet they were relentless, and frequently it was Rob standing alone with Kathy.
Dr Hansen has now weighed in. Kathy, her dear friend Rob Brinkman (& myself) have been vindicated by knowledge, science, experience and passion to save the planet. Uninformed Opinion will no longer be able to drive the agenda for Gainesville's renewable, sustainable, clean energy future!
More on Dr Hansen:
Long regarded as the first US proponent of the dangers of Global Warming, he is considered so influential, knowledgeable, and such a great scientific thinker, that the Bush Administration (at the encouragement of the Mining/Fossil Fuel Industry) attempted to fire and silence him. Subsequently non scientist Bush political appointees were assigned to suppress and censor his scientific research publications at NASA. This continued until it was made public by Dr Hansen and his staff of scientists at NASA GISS. There are extensive news reports of these events.
Dr Hansen is the author of well over 100 scientific studies (including emissions analysis, black carbons, gases created in power production, etc) many of which have received awards as "Best Scientific Publication" of peer reviewed science achievements. His science is considered to be of the most meticulous, carefully researched in the world.
He has been acknowledged as the Bellwether of Climate Change, testifying first in 1988 before the US Congress about the catastrophic increase in Greenhouse Gases and Climate Change. His projections of 20 years ago have been substantiated by many recent climatology and meteorological events.
It should be noted that Dr Hansen has been critical of Biomass when it has been done poorly, the GREC plant however has won his whole hearted endorsement.
(Inclusive in that plan is a land and forest Stewardship plan that is total compliance with the environmentalist scientists of Union for Concerned Scientists Land Stewardship policy.)