Michael Chenoweth, a former member of the City of Miami’s Waterfront Advisory Board and currently a national director of the Izaak Walton League, one of the nation's oldest and and most respected conservation organizations, recently wrote to the National Parks Director Jon Jarvis about the need for a Biscayne National Park Visitor Center on Virginia Key. Following are excerpts for a letter hand-delivered to the director during the National Park Service's visit to Miami:
The Greater Miami area is wonderfully fortunate to have two national parks, Everglades and Biscayne, hugging it on the west and east, and Big Cypress Preserve just an hour to the west. But public access to those parks is inadequate, both because of their size AND because of the unique and remote character of their resources.
The Biscayne National Park Visitor Center is a 40-mile drive from downtown Miami. Access into the park is severely constrained by the huge size of the park and the absence of affordable rental boats. This is despite the fact that people living in Miami can almost throw a rock into Biscayne National Park from Miami at the edge of the Bay. Park rangers have a real challenge patrolling the park, with the Visitor Center being located at the far south end, many miles from the north end of the park, where most current park users enter in their private boats from the urban area.
The bottom line: Virginia Key is the sensible location for a northern Visitor Center for Biscayne National Park. And the boundaries of Biscayne National Park should be expanded to incorporate the presently undeveloped parts of Virginia Key, including the Marine Stadium.
In addition to the opportunity to make a dramatic difference in the accessibility, addition of this area would incorporate the Historic Virginia Key Beach and Civil Rights Park on the Bear Cut side of the island, and provide an opportunity to revitalize the historic and architecturally significant Miami Marine Stadium as a venue for events, such as concerts, similar to events at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Virginia.
In addition, significant natural resources of Virginia Key are important for the health of Biscayne National Park. The water quality of nearshore waters surrounding Virginia Key are dependent on the continued natural state of the upland of Virginia Key. ...Those resources face significant risks of damage if (development) interests prevail over the need to protect nearshore water quality.
It takes only a little imagination to recognize that a Visitor Center here could serve not only Biscayne National Park, but also serve as an educational facility, working in conjunction with other important educational organizations in the vicinity (The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center, located on Key Biscayne, one island away; The Dade County Science Museum, located at the foot of Rickenbacker Causeway; The MAST High School; RSMAS; and others), and provide a single, accessible opportunity for visitors to Miami to get on a tour bus at the new Biscayne NP Visitor Center on Virginia Key to visit Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, or the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary and local wildlife refuges.
It is time for all of the federal agencies with interests in our natural resources to be working together to improve the effectiveness of their management as well as the ability of visitors to learn about and visit their special protected areas.
Photo: Biscayne National Park boardwalk at Visitor's Center shows Xavier Cortada flags art installation, "Endangered World: Biscayne National Park."
Resources:
Biscayne National Park, http://www.nps.gov/bisc/index.htm
Izaak Walton League, http://www.iwla.org/
2010 Copywright. @All Rights Reserved.
On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key
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