I attended and spoke at a meeting hosted by the Florida Park Service Office of Park Planning here in Key West. It was a public input workshop for the proposed management plan for Fort Zachary Taylor State Park.
The feedback given to the state representatives at this meeting was unified and overwhelming. We want the shaded area of the park along the southern shore returned to its original state — dense Australian pines — and the plans for increased concessions and shelters stopped immediately.
Over 100 park patrons attended the meeting to explain that we are not against progress, but we do not consider what is proposed to be an improvement. We think it is commercialism and destruction of the park's natural beauty. I respectfully challenge you to ask the Park Service director if a survey of this park's users indicates support for the management plan as currently proposed.
We are a small community at the end of the road. We do love our park, and we feel we have a pretty good idea what the vast majority of patrons want to see done with the park. I am therefore asking you to personally become involved in the review of this proposed plan. I ask you to direct the elimination of any further development in the pines area until local support for such development is obtained. I am also requesting that you facilitate the granting of an exception to the guiding principles for state park management, as they apply to Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. This exception would reverse the destruction of the pines, and promote their controlled maintenance.
Bill Hunter
Key West
From Key West Citizen Oct 24, 2007
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