Biscayne Bay Waterkeeper Visits Rickenbacker Beaches

Biscayne Bay Waterkeepers - One Water Workshop 2010 from Miami World on Vimeo.

Pennekamp History Offers Cautionary Tale for Virginia Key

Key Largo’s coral reefs has the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park. Virginia Key has the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve and the Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area.

Biologists monitor bird rookeries in the 700-acre Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area on Virginia Key,

These special designations by the State of Florida have helped protect the wilderness areas of Virginia Key, including the surrounding waters, just as the creation of John Pennekamp State Park 50 years ago stopped the unfettered blasting and spearfishing that was on  course to devastate the fragile coral reefs off Key Largo.  

 A Miami Herald story today, “Aquatic Gem: The world’s first underwater park - John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park” documents the tenacity of those who understood the perils the area faced and worked to save it. 

It’s a cautionary tale and an inspiration to those fighting today to protect the wilderness areas of Virginia Key from proposed development both within and adjacent to the sea turtle nesting beaches, mangroves, tropical hammock and dunes.  

Until the island becomes part of the State Park or National Park system, it’s all we’ve got. That and a band of dedicated and vigilant citizens who have managed to carry the story so far.  

@2010 Copyright. All Rights Reserved. viewfromvirginiakey.com

On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key 

What No One Talks About Needs to be Remembered on Virginia Key

The Historic Virginia Key Beach Park is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Historic Virginia Key Beach Park is a park born of the legacy of segregation. 

It is a legacy that the late M. Athalie Range, founding director of the park’s Trust, wanted to make sure was not forgotten. 

In her recollections (reprinted in a park brochure), Range revisits both the joy and pain of the past to summon a call to action to a new generation:

"Virginia Key Beach was special to us because of the laws of segregation. It was ours. It was the only place that welcomed us and the only place where we could be free, in a way. It was not a very good feeling to have the coast of Miami as a beach with all this beautiful water around you and you couldn’t enjoy it during the days of segregation when blacks were not welcome. Signs on beaches said No Jews, No Dogs, and No Coloreds.

I remember the popcorn, corndogs and Nehi sodas. The hurdy-gurdy music of the carousel, the whistle of the beach’s mini-train. I remember how going to the beach was an all-day affair; families would pack blankets an enough food to feed a small army and while away hours at the beach dancing, swimming and fellowshipping.

There were several developers and entrepreneurs who wanted to build on the beach. When we found that out, through public meetings, we had to plead with them not to let this happen. That is when we made the push to revitalize the beach as it was in those days. People don’t know the history of South Florida. Nobody talks about the segregated beaches and golf courses.

Those were our lunch counters (at the concession stand). Those are the things that need to be remembered. I hope my 10 grandchild and 10 great-grandchildren will be able to enjoy the work we’re trying to accomplish today. There is a legacy here.”

Miami-Dade County opened the beach park in 1945.

Support the legacy: 

The Historic Virginia Key Park Trust will be holding a fundraiser next month. All proceeds from the Larry Little Annual Celebrity Charity Golf Tournament  to be held Dec. 2-3, 2010 at the Inverrary Country Club in Lauderhill, will benefit the restoration, operation and capital improvement projects at the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park.  For more info on this event and other ways to support the park, contact Ingrid Stuart at 305-960-4617 or email istuart@miamigov.com.

The park was restored and reopened in 2008 after extensive renovations spearheaded by the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park Trust. 

@Copyright 2010. All Rights Reserved.  Subscribe to viewfromvirginiakey.com for the latest articles on ecology, history, explorations of Virginia Key. Also on Facebook: join Friends of Virginia Key. 

MiMo on Virginia Key

The Miami Seaquarium is MiMo  central on Virginia Key.
MiMo stands for Miami Modernist Architecture, a term landscape architect Randall Robinson and Miami Beach interior designer Teri D’Amico coined to describe a style of architecture from the 1950s and 1960s. (see info and link to the Nov. 28 MiMo Festival below).

The Miami Seaquarium, with its Buckminster Fuller-designed geodesic dome (19
60) and the historic Miami Marine Stadium, distinguish Virginia Key as home to a small, yet remarkable collection of institutional mid-century Modern architecture, according to Miami Architecture (University Press of Florida), a new book co-authored by Robinson.

The entry on the Seaquarium explains how it came to be:

..the Miami Seaquarium was one of a network of attractions constructed to exploit tourists’ thirst for exotic flora and fauna in this outpost of ‘subtropical America. It was also a major thematic attraction, designed to bolster tourism in Miami and to increase toll revenue on the Rickenbacker Causeway. ...The construction of more advanced aquatic theme parks in the intervening years, such as Sea World near Orlando, makes the Seaquarium’s 1950’s vintage plant seem quaint today. However, when completed it was one of only three large tank oceanariums in the United States and a technological feat of marine architecture and showmanship. 

LEARN MORE ABOUt MiMO:
The inaugural MiMo Festival takes place Sunday, 28, 2010. This "living art" festival includes a walking tour, art mural installations and performances throughout the day. 

@All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa, View from Virginia Key.

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Reading Virginia Key’s Future Through Climate Change

Given the odds of the significant impact on South Florida, one of the most important sessions of the Miami Book Fair for island hoppers could turn out to be the “Climate and the Environment”  session, where expert authors on climate change discuss our future under global warming.

This “Idea X-Change” session begins at 4 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 20, Room 7106 (Building 7, first floor), Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus,  and features Heidi Cullen, a climatologist and environmental journalist, (The Weather of the Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet );  Gyynne Dyer (Climate Wars) and Peter Maass, (Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil). 

Scientists are predicting at least a three foot rise in sea level worldwide by the year 2020 and a recent New York Times  story, “Reading Earth’s Future in Glacial Ice,” singled out Miami as one of our country’s most vulnerable communities:
"Parts  of the East Coast and Gulf Coast would be hit hard...About 15 percent of the urbanized land in the Miami region could be inundated.” 

But don't take the New York Times word for it, the Miami Dade County  official climate change website has this to say:

“The biggest concern for South Florida, especially in Miami-Dade County, is the threat of "sea level rise." The oceans are expected to swell as the world becomes warmer. Ice melting from the poles will add to the volume of the oceans and the warmer oceans resulting from a warmer atmosphere will actually cause the oceans to grow in volume (warm water expands; cold water contracts). The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicts that Florida will see a rise in sea level of about 18-20 inches by the next century.

Higher seas means more than just less beachfront. Miami-Dade would become more vulnerable from storm damage. Wetlands and coastal mangroves would be lost to a rising sea, impacting our commercial fisheries and even our water supply as the ocean pushes westward and north into the Everglades and the Biscayne Aquifer.”

Given this information,  it seems it would give pause to Those Who Would Build Megastructures (you know who you are)  on Virginia Key. 

Probably not.  But that’s another story.....


@2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa, View From Virginia Key.

Subscribe to viewfromvirginiakey.com for latest articles on ecology, history and explorations of Virginia Key.  Also on Facebook: join Friends of Virginia Key

Biscayne Bay, Manatees and more at Miami Book Fair

Friends of Virginia Key can get into the conversation about Florida’s wild landscapes at the Miami Book Fair this weekend which features authors discussing books on everything from kayaking across Florida to manatees to an updated handbook on the Everglades. 

The month-long journey included encounters with sharks, pythons and alligators. 

Here’s a session I call “Environment 101.” The authors will speak about their books Sunday, Nov. 21,  12 p.m., Room 7128 (Building 7, 1st Floor) at Miami Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami. 

Warren Richey -- Without a Paddle: Racing Twelve Hundred Miles Around Florida by Sea Kayak (St. Martin’s Press) is a poignant memoir about Richey’s solitary trip that includes a passage through Biscayne Bay. 

Doug Alderson -- Encounters with Florida's Endangered Wildlife (University Press of Florida) combines natural history with adventure tales while reporting on the fragile environments Florida's indigenous creatures inhabit. 

Tom Lodge -- The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem (CRC Press) explores how the Everglades evolved as an ecosystem and how it has been shaped by natural and man-made forces; features a new chapter on Biscayne Bay.

Craig Pittman -- Manatee Insanity: Inside the War Over Florida's Most Famous Endangered Species (University Press of Florida) provides a history of manatee protection in Florida, including a cast of characters only Florida could produce. Pittman is also the author of Paving Paradise: Florida’s Vanishing Wetlands and the Failure of No Net Loss. 

The Miami Book Fair "Festival of Authors" featuring readings and workshops takes place at the Miami-Dade College Wolfson Campus in downtown Miami Fri., Nov. 19 - Sun., Nov. 21. For more information on all books, fees and directions during the weekend readings, go to miamibookfair.com

@All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa

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Black Seminole Perspective Featured in History and Cultural Series

The Historic Virginia Key Beach Park Trust will kick off its History and Cultural Lunch Series Friday, Nov. 19,  12 noon to 2 p.m.,  4020 Virginia Beach Drive, Virginia Key with a presentation on Florida’s Black Seminoles by historian Dr. Anthony E. Dixon.

Dixon is the former historian and curator for the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park, which is on the National Register of HIstoric Places.

 “Black Seminoles” is used today to describe the descendants of free blacks and slaves who fled from coastal rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia into Spanish Florida in the 17th century. Eventually, some traveled down the U.S. peninsula to the reach the last  barrier island of Key Biscayne (past Virginia Key) to board ships bound for the Bahamas and freedom.


 Historian Joan Gill Blank recalls this journey in her book, Key Biscayne: A History of Miami’s Tropical Island and the Cape Florida LIghthouse:

 It is estimated that just before the lighthouse was built at the southern end of Key Biscayne, in the early 1820s, that three hundred brave men and women, with their children, left Cape Florida to take asylum in the Bahamas ....The escapes did not all occur at once. Five years before the lighthouse was illuminated, one traveler reports seeing sixty Indian and sixty runaways and “27 sails of Bahamian wreckers” preparing to leave uninhabited Cape Florida.”

The lecture series is made possible by a grant from the Florida Humanities Council to explore the diverse cultural heritage of Floridians, concentrating on Native Americans, African-Americans, South Americans and the Caribbean. 

@All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa
Also on Facebook: Join Friends of Virginia Key.

Habitat Restoration Offers Opportunity to Explore Island Wilds

Wetland restoration in the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park includes construction of boardwalks. 

Extensive environmental restoration of natural areas on Virginia Key is set to begin anew under a federally funded program that has already re-sculpted the island to restore wetlands, dunes and hammock habitat in a 95-acre stretch of the island. 

The aim of the project,  which began in 2002, is to enhance local fish and wildlife resources as it restores the rich biological diversity of the various native habitats on the island.  

One side-benefit:  accessibility.  Where the restoration has been completed, you’ll find scenic trails, wooden bridges and boardwalks that carry you to the heart of wilderness areas. 

Re-sculpting the land includes opening up waterways in the interior of the island. 

Mangrove wetlands, fresh and brackish water ponds, wetlands, hardwood hammocks and coastal strands are part of the restoration.

In the areas where native species have been reestablished or enhanced, you can already see an increase in the numbers of wading birds such as herons and ibis. Migratory birds, including warblers, buntings, vireo and cardinals are seen as well as rare migratory and wintering bird species, including the least tern, great white heron, lesser black-backed gull, peregrine falcon, merlin and brown pelican. The beach areas provide foraging and leafing habitat for shorebirds and nesting habitat for sea turtles.

The multi-million dollar federally-funded program authorized under a section of the Water Resource Development Act of 1986 is directed by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers in partnership with the City of Miami. 

Though the heavy-lifting -- carving out lakes, rebuilding dunes -- has been carried out by professional crews, a lot of the planting has been done by volunteers painstakingly digging and replanting flowering plants, native grasses and trees. 

Volunteers with Urban Paradise Guild plant native grasses. 

“It’s very important to get the community involved,” said restoration specialist Gary Milano,  the biologist with the Miami-Dade Department of Environmental Resources Management who has been directing the restoration effort. “The stewardship component is critical to the project’s success.” 

@All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa
Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key 

Explorations by water

Waterplay

A blustery day is perfect for windsurfing on Virginia Key.  Windsurfer's Beach (aka Sewer Beach)  is found just past Jimbo's. At the beach park, you'll find picnic areas, a children's playground and a tropical hammock.  

Kayakers can also  launch off Windsurfer's Beach. Enjoy great views of the restored dunes and tropical hammock on a paddle  along the shoreline towards the Historic Virginia Key Beach Park. Or check out the fossilized mangrove reef  across the cut  at the Bear Cut Preserve in Crandon Park on Key Biscayne. 

@2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa

Also on Facebook: Join Friends of Virginia Key

Beware of Dragons On Virginia Key This Weekend

The Miami Hong Kong Dragon Boat Festival takes place this weekend  in the Miami Marine Stadium basin.  Colorful 40-foot-long boats carrying 20 paddlers each will race down a 250-meter and 500-meter waterway as part of the team sport that has its roots in Ancient China. 

The public is invited at no charge to watch the races 10 a.m.,  to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 13 next to the Miami Marine Stadium, 3601 Rickenbacker Causeway, on Virginia Key. Look for the fluttering flags posted on the chain-linked fence surrounding the closed stadium. 

Eco-challenge: Save money on parking fees and bike or walk over the Rickenbacker Causeway. The money you save can be used at Jimbo's!

Dragon boat racing, is one of the fastest growing water sports in the U.S., attracting millions of participants worldwide, according to enthusiasts who also herald its uncanny ability for team-building.

 @2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa


Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Lighthouse Run Honors Black Bears of Virginia Key

Do it for the Black Bears that once roamed Virginia Key’s coastline raiding sea turtle nests. 

The mascot of the 33rd Annual Key Biscayne Lighthouse 10K/5K Run that takes places Saturday, Nov. 13 is the Florida Black Bear. 

Bear Cut, so-named for the bear, is the channel that separates the two barrier islands of Key Biscayne and Virginia Key. 

It’s believed both islands were once connected. Erosion and a powerful 1825 hurricane made the cut and hence, the need for the Bear Cut bridge. 

There’s still time to register for the race, which starts and ends at the Cape Florida Lighthouse in Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne. Go to the race website or Island Athletics store on Key Biscayne to register. 

Though the sea turtles are still with us on Virginia Key, its been awhile since anyone spotted a Black Bear in the vicinity. Today, the Florida Black Bear is on the threatened species list. 

Photo: Virginia Key's beaches are essential sea turtle nesting habitat. Bear Cut bridge in background.


@2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa
Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key 

Love, concrete and a stadium

It was a love of concrete that led to the Miami Marine Stadium. 

In a recent article in Modern magazine titled “Brute Force,” the Miami Marine Stadium’s architect Hilario Candela recalls the hold-your-breath moments during the stadium’s construction. 

It was like “making a dessert mold,” Candela recalls of the creation of the cantilevered roof we marvel at today.  

In the  article, Miami Beach-based writer Rebecca Kleinman,  documents Candela’s early love of concrete:

...Candela is drawn to concrete’s honesty and rawness. In the mature years of his career he could properly be classified as a member o the brutalist school but with a twist. He always incorporated Caribbean design staples for controlling sunlight and capturing breezes, such as covered walkways, bruise soleils, and plazas.

The American Institute of Architects has posted a remarkable slide show, "Study and Sculpture," of the Miami Marine Stadium  where you can see the construction progress from scaffolds to opening day. 

@2010 All Rights Reserved by Blanca Mesa

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Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key 

Two centuries plus 740 species = one new hammock

Recreating a tropical hammock on Virginia Key -- where the removal of exotic, invasive species has left a moonscape-- is no casual gardening project. 

“This is as rigorous a restoration as I can do,” said Gary Hunt, a volunteer who has been planning the Nov. 6 TREEmendous Miami planting project at Historic Virginia Key Beach for two years. 

You could say, however, this has been in the works over the span of almost two centuries.  

The species list used to select the 740 native trees, shrubs and ground cover plants that will be planted by volunteersis based on the records of plant explorers going back to the 18th century, most notably  the  work of John Kunkel Small.   

Small was one of the first American botanists to explore Florida, beginning in 1901. For nearly 40 years, Small returned to collect specimens and photograph natural landscapes. He recognized early on how Florida’s unique natural treasures were being systematically destroyed and wrote about it in his seminal work, From Eden to Sahara -- Florida’s Tragedy. 

South Florida is one of the most biologically diverse regions in North America - with more than 1,400 species of native plants. And yet...the unparalleled disturbance and destruction of critical habitats has brought an alarming loss of species, according to the Institute for Regional Conservation (IRC), a private, nonprofit dedicated to the protection, restoration and long-term management of biodiversity. 

Small conservation projects, like the replanting of the tropical hammock on Virginia Key, are critical  to the protection of the rarest plants in the region, according to the IRC. 

The plants selected for Virginia Key provided by the Citizens for a Better South Florida nursery come from seed sources collected by City of Miami biologist Juan Fernandez. Fernandez has already restored a 13-acre maritime hammock on the island, which is  considered the best example of this forest type in Miami-Dade County, according to a recent biological study of Virginia Key conducted by Miami-Dade County’s Environmentally Endangered Lands Program. 

With the help of dedicated volunteers, the strangler fig, sea grape, cocoplum, pigeon plum, saw palmetto, wild coffee and myriad other species found in Fernandez’ restored hammock will soon be proliferating throughout the island, creating habitat for songbirds and butterflies as well as wonder and joy for the rest of us. 

@2010 All Rights Reserved

Subscribe to View from Virginia Key for latest articles on ecology, history and explorations of the island.

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Volunteer to Restore Tropical Hammock with TREEmendous Miami

Help to “releaf and restore” the tropical maritime forest on Virginia Key with TREEmendous Miami, a volunteer tree-planting group,  on Saturday, Nov. 6, 2010 from 8 a.m. to 12 noon at the historic Virginia Key Beach Park. 

Continuous heavy coastal development has severely diminished the dune and forest habitats that once supported wildlife and maintained water quality in Biscayne Bay, say project coordinators. Restoring the tropical hammock on Virginia Key offers an  opportunity to begin reversing that trend. 

Volunteers will meet at the historic Virginia Key Beach Park (just before the Bear Cut Bridge across from UM Rosensteil School). The $5 entrance fee will be waived for volunteers. Bring sunscreen, closed toe shoes and a refillable water container.  If you have your own - also bring shovels, gloves, hard rake and pick axe. If not, some will be available, too. 

For more info and registration,  contact TREEmendous Miami at (305) 378-1863.

The historic 83-acre Virginia Key Beach Park on the island contains myriad critical habitats, including freshwater wetlands, mangrove wetlands, dunes and an enhanced hammock and mangrove area that includes red, white and black mangroves and green buttonwood. These mangroves serve to stabilize the shoreline as well as provide habitat for many endangered species. 

Before Hurricane Andrew the Virginia Key Hammock was a barren area, low in plant diversity and overrun by exotics, including Australian Pines and Brazilian peppers. Extensive restoration work has brought the area back to life, where it is a haven for migrating songbirds and native butterflies.