President's Message

President’s Message

By Tom Atkinson, President

Once again I have the opportunity to welcome you to a bright, shiny new year. This is always a time for assessing where we have been and where we are going.

Last year at this time we had just witnessed the final plat approval for the Plantation Point (PP) subdivision. PP is a big piece of property south of Barnes and west of U.S. 1 on the border between Rockledge and Viera. Preserving a slice of this property from development held the potential of providing a wildlife corridor between the Viera mitigation area to the south and the Cruickshank Sanctuary to the north. Then members of the environmental community were bending all efforts toward encouraging the developer or the County Commission to preserve a small piece of this property as a wildlife corridor. Now you can look in the real estate section of the newspaper and see ads for homes in PP for sale in the mid six-figure range. If this were the only measure of our progress as an environmental group, we might as well all throw up our hands and go home.

We have, however, made small progress in some areas. We continue to carry the message to the public that habitat preservation is important for wildlife. One example recently was the case of the “Sawgrass Eagles.” This is a case where the developer was sent back to the drawing board to revise plans to protect an eagle’s nest in the middle of our county. We probably have not heard the last of this case, but at the moment it seems we have made some progress. We will continue to be vigilant.

Our chapter has been supportive of the Marine Resource Council in their taking exception to Palm Bay city officials armoring the Indian River bank with rocks and plastic in front of Lagoon House, the new $1.2 million environmental education center. The lion’s share of the money to build the center came from the Federal Highway Administration’s National Scenic Byway program. The building is the center piece of the Indian River Lagoon National Scenic Byway, a 150-mile loop along U.S. 1 and SR A1A and should set an example of how to preserve and conserve the lagoon. We feel that natural shoreline vegetation should have been left in place and not replaced by rocks and plastic. We still have a chance here that the Palm Bay city officials will hear us.

One topic about which you should keep yourself informed is the Significant Environmental Areas and Crucial Habitat Ordinance that is being considered by the Brevard County Commission. Please refer to Secretary Sarah Linney’s excellent article in last month’s Limpkin for details. This ordinance deserves to be adopted if we hope to conserve some of the remaining habitat vital to wildlife here in our county. If you believe that preserving green space, aquifer recharge areas, and habitat for bird and wildlife is important, you must show your support. The County Commission is meeting on January 27 to act on this ordinance. Your presence at the meeting would be a big help. In the meantime write or call your commissioner and say that you support the SEA ordinance.

In other areas of interest we want you to know that your chapter is raffling off a fabulous reproduction of local artist, Spence Guerin’s, famous oil painting entitled, Tootoosahatchee The original painting took the artist nine months to paint and measures 48 by 60 inches and is now in the collection of Brevard Museum of Art and Science in Mel-bourne. Our superb reproduction is professionally framed and measures 32 by 37 inches. Tickets may be purchased at our meetings for $1 each or an arm’s length for $6. The drawing will be held May 21 at our spring pot luck dinner. All proceeds from this raffle go to support the programs of your chapter. The ticket holder need not be present to win.

Put a big tomato sauce blotch on your calendar for Sunday, February 22, 2004. Mr. Bob Brown, of Beau Jean’s Restaurant and the Strawberry Mansion in Melbourne is once again making his delightful facility available to us to hold our annual spaghetti dinner fund raiser. This really is our only big fund raiser during the year. This event has always been well received and we are deeply grateful to Mr. Brown for making his popular restaurant available. All the proceeds from this dinner goes to support the programs of your local chapter. We need you to sell tickets, volunteer to help serve the dinner and/or donate dessert. Call a board member or come to the January meeting to let us know what you want to do.

Thanks to the Fly by Night people for the most edifying and entertaining presentation on bats at our December meeting. The assembled crowd gave the presenters a warm reception. The pictures they showed were outstanding. I think that everyone present learned something. I, for one, learned that bats can live for 30 years and that fish catching bats use their hind feet to do the snatching. Much thanks to Vice President Dee Fairbanks for arranging our outstanding programs.

Thanks also to all the dedicated folk who participated in the winter bird counts. Special thanks go to Dick Novier and Nedra Sekera for leading the Cocoa count and Dan Click and Judy Dryja for leading the MINWR count. Thanks to Karl Eichhorn for his informative article on the beginning of the Cocoa count which appeared in last month’s Limpkin. To accomplish good things in the future it’s always good to know what we have done in the past. Thanks also to the hard working people who made the Cocoa Count pot luck a success. Particular thanks to Lenny and Charlotte Liberman for being hosts, to Pat Meyer, Marie Slaney, Barbara Venuto, and Polly Atkinson for working their organizational skills in the kitchen. Thank you also to all those who helped set up and clean up and to those great cooks who brought dishes to share. We served dinner to 48 people and it was a snap because everyone did their part. As you probably know, people who have been birding all day have big appetites come evening. The pot luck was much appreciated. Thank you all.

We are heavy into the cycle of changing the name of our chapter from Indian River Audubon Society of Brevard County to Space Coast Audubon Society. Last month’s Limpkin had a small ballot which could be returned so that each member could express his or her wishes in this important matter. The board set December 1 as the dead line for the return of the completed ballots. Of the ballots returned 86% had marked that they were in favor of changing the name. The ballots were reviewed at the December board meeting and all of the board members present at that meeting signed a certificate confirming the 86% favorable vote. So there is nothing left to do but to get the job done. The agenda for the January board meeting will contain a item for revising our bylaws. The schedule for getting bylaws changed as I see it would be to present the revised bylaws at the January general meeting and hold the vote on the revision at the February meeting.

There are a lot of other items I’d like to talk about such as members of our chapter observing bird nesting islands in the Banana River south of New Found Harbor peninsula, constructing bird blinds at the Viera water treatment plant, in-service teacher training at the Zoo on February 7, 2004, the great back yard bird count February 13–16 (see article), and activating a nominating committee to propose candidates for leadership positions next year; but enough for now.

Let me close by wishing you and yours the best New Year’s ever and may it include health, happiness and an increased appreciation for our wonderful natural world.