Study, Part 2: How Virginia Key fits into Biscayne National Park’s “Story”

A good visitor center tells a story.

In the case of Biscayne National Park -- which is considering placing a northern visitor center in the Virginia Key area -- it would be the story of its inception.

Biscayne National Park was created in 1968 to protect “a rare combination of terrestrial, marine and amphibious life in a tropical setting of great natural beauty.”

What makes it special is the “interplay of the mainland, Biscayne Bay, keys, reefs and the Florida Straits...The land is filled to overflowing with unusual trees, ferns, vines, fowers, and shrubs,” according to the National Park Service brochure.

Biscayne Bay, which is within the park’s boundaries, is home to brilliantly colorful tropical fish; its shallow waters filling with light.

These are, of course, characteristics it shares with Virginia Key and the surrounding waters of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve.

Two locations on Virginia Key -- one near the Miami Seaquarium and the other next to the Miami Marine Stadium -- were recently examined by Bernadette Rabb, a graduate of Florida Atlantic University’s Urban Planning Department, as possible sites for a Biscayne National Park Visitor center.

According to her report, these are some of the reasons either site on Virginia Key would be an attractive location for a National Park Visitor Center:

(Virginia Key) has many similarities to Biscayne National Park’s protected areas in that it is an ecological land flourishing with vegetation and life...The Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve is the bay area around the island..that eventually meets up with the waters of the protected areas of Biscayne National Park.

Virginia Key is a place that has history and ecological significance. Most of the properties located on the island have cultural, historical or ecological significance and environmentalists argue that these areas and the rest of the island should be preserved. On the island there already exists a 700-acre state-designated Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area...Virginia Key Beach Park, once an African-American beach, is now listed in The National Register of Historic Places....

The report also comments on the historic Miami Marine Stadium, an icon of modern architecture that is part of Miami’s mid-century architectural heritage. The siting of a visitor center near the stadium would not create much additional environmental impact since this land has already been developed. In addition, its waterfront location with an adjacent marina would provide ideal access for marine tours.

In conclusion, the report states: “The island that is already appreciated by nature lovers seems like a good place to represent Biscayne National Park.”

Study: Looking into a National Park Visitor Center on Virginia Key.

With Biscayne National Park’s boundaries just outside Virginia Key, the National Park has long been eyeing the island and surrounding areas as locations for a new northern visitor center.

Sites that could be considered include the Miami Marine Stadium parking lot area, an area near Miami Seaquarium and Cape Florida State Park on Key Biscayne.

Bernadette Rabb, a graduate of the Florida Atlantic University’s College for Design and Social Inquiry in the Urban and Regional Planning Department, took on the issue in a recent planning project that explored the significance of this unique, (mostly underwater) 173,000-acre national park in our community and the challenges and opportunities of proposed sites in the Virginia Key area.

Rabb’s study has been shared with the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), the nonprofit National Parks advocacy group. The following multi-part series are excerpts from her paper:

An additional visitor’s center at the northern end of the park would benefit people in the Miami Dade area, including those who live in or visit the City of Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables and other surrounding communities. It would also attract those coming from Palm Beach and Broward County who would not consider driving down to the existing facility in Homestead.

Biscayne National Park is one of 392 national parks in our country. What makes it unique is that it contains 173,000 acres of mostly aquatic life with 96 percent of the park being water and the other 4 percent land. It is the largest marine park in the United States... It has an extensive mainland mangrove shoreline, is part of Biscayne Bay, and it contains the northernmost chain of coral keys in the United States with 20 miles of submerged coral reefs.

The issue at hand in 2010 is that the park encompassing a large area from just below Key Biscayne at the north end to Key Largo at the southernmost point has one visitor’s center located in Homestead, Florida. This location is 30 miles south of Miami. With the majority of the population and visitors being close to the Miami area, approximately 2 million people, it makes sense to have another access point to the park at the northern end.

This visitor’s center would provide a place of civic engagement, public education and general outreach to the public. Its purpose would be both informational and educational. It would also serve as a source of protection for the park’s many cultural, historical and natural resources by having a physical place for law enforcement. This structure would give enormous support to the proper management of Biscayne National Park.

Next in the series: what makes a good visitor’s center and what is offered at various sites under consideration.

Photo: Angelfish in Biscayne National Park waters. Courtesy of U.S. Geological Survey.
Resources:
Biscayne National Park: http://www.nps.gov/bisc
National Parks Conservation Association: http://www.npca.org/southflorida/

@All Rights Reserved 2010



Also on Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Virginia Key's sister community: Stiltsville

Viewed from the edge of Hobie Beach off Virginia Key, the houses on the far horizon appear almost as apparitions in Biscayne Bay.

But they’re not.

They are the seven remaining houses of Stiltsville, the quirky, beautiful, battered collection of wood stilt houses that rise from the bay bottom in Biscayne National Park.

Some historians believe houses started sprouting atop the flats of Biscayne Bay as early as the 1920‘s, originally as ice houses for fisherman plying deeper waters. Eventually there were as many as 25 houses out there, with some becoming notorious party houses, worthy of police raids.

In June 1980, Congress expanded Biscayne National Park’s boundaries to include the “community” of Stiltsville whose property owners had once leased the bay bottom from the State of Florida.

Today, the National Park Service, in conjunction with the Stiltsville Trust, maintain and operate the structures, which are made available to groups for special events and educational purposes. The Park Service indicates the ultimate goal is to rehabilitate the buildings for community meeting spaces, a National Park Service Visitor Centers, research facilities or an artist-in-residence program.

Learn more about the colorful history of Stiltsville and its denizens in a new documentary
“Stiltsville: Generations on the Flats” that premieres Sunday, August 22 at 7 p.m. and 11:30 p.m on WLRN - 17. It will also air again Wed., August 25 at 9:30 p.m. and Thurs., August 26 at 9 p.m.


Resources:

http://www.nps.gov/bisc/historyculture/stiltsville.htm

http://www.wlrn.org/stiltsville/

Miami Artist To Open Studio Featuring Biscayne Bay's Endangered Species

“Today, the biggest threat we face is a lack of connection to one another and to our natural world.” Xavier Cortada.

Xavier Cortada, the ecologically-minded Miami artist, who once organized mangrove plantings on Virginia Key as part of an art installation, will celebrate the opening of his art studio on Miami Beach at 7 p.m., Saturday, August 7 at ArtCenter South Florida, 924 Lincoln Rd, Studio 201, Miami Beach.

Featured works include the Endangered World: 80.15:W (Biscayne Bay’s longitude) series of drawings of 17 threatened and endangered animal species that find refuge within the federally protected waters of Biscayne National Park in Biscayne Bay.

Susan Gonshor, Chief Park Interpreter at Biscayne National Park will be a featured speaker at the art studio opening, which takes place during South Beach's Gallery Night walk.

Biscayne National Park’s 173,000 acres stretch out between Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, punctuated by a string of small islands - semi-tropical “keys.”

The park’s boundaries stop just short of the state-designated Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, which surrounds Virginia Key.

Ecologically, Virginia Key shares many of the same characteristics of the barrier islands currently found within Biscayne National Park. At the island’s center is the 700-acre state-designated Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area (CWA), established to protect shorebirds, herons, and egrets that forage within the site, as well as sensitive and or endangered species such as the American kestral, osprey, bald eagle, and peregrine falcon. The CWA’s beach dune communities are essential sea-turtle nesting areas and its mangrove forests provides undisturbed spawning areas for many species of fish and invertebrates, including several threatened and endangered species.

Biscayne National Park could be expanded to include Virginia Key and the southern portion of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, which is home to several federally listed endangered turtle species, including the green, hawksbill, leatherback, Atlantic ridley, and loggerhead and the federally listed American crocodile.

Biscayne Bay’s seagrass ecosystem provides habitat for at least 512 species of fish and more than 800 species of invertebrates, including more than 150 species of shrimp, crabs, and lobsters. (All this diversity is due in large part to the Bay’s overlap of the Atlantic and the Caribbean marine provinces.)

If you go: Xavier Cortada Studio, ArtCenter South Florida, 924 Lincoln Rd., Studio 201, Miami Beach.

Resources: www.cortada.com
http://www.nps.gov/bisc/parknews/xavier-cortada-to-mount-major-installation.htm

Photos: Xavier Cortada's "Reclamation Project" on Virginia Key; mangrove seedlings growing in the restored wetlands at Historic Virginia Key Beach Park.

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On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Boaters Be Aware of Manatees of Virginia Key this Fourth of July weekend

Boaters traveling through and around Virginia Key this Fourth of July weekend are being asked to be especially careful of the endangered manatee, which uses the surrounding waters for feeding, resting, mating, traveling and calving.

Virginia Key is located within the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, which shares the bay with Biscayne National Park, where manatees frequent. And the Virginia Key marinas are across from the Bill Sadowski Critical Wildlife Area (CWA), a 700-acre state-designated refuge with “extraordinary habitat values” that contains the island’s largest remaining portion of unaltered mangrove forest and largest amount of unaltered, submerged land, is an important undisturbed spawning area for many species of fish and invertebrates.

The Save the Manatee Club is asking boaters to abide by posted speed limits, to slow down in shallow areas where manatees like to feed and rest and to travel through deep water channels whenever possible in the interest of saving the endangered species.

Other tips range from wearing polarized sunglasses to reduce glare and see below the water’s surface to limiting high-speed watersports (jet-skiing, water-skiing) to landlocked lakes or waters well offshore. Ideally, boaters should remain a safe distance away - at least 50 feet - while operating a boat or personal watercraft. Cut your motor if you want to observe a manatee, the club suggests.

Last year, a record 97 manatees were killed by boat strikes, according to the club. But the population also succumbed to the cold winter, with more than 500 manatees dying in the first six months of the year.

If you see an injured, dead or orphaned manatee, call the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 1-888-404-3922 or #FWC or *FWC on your cellphone, or use VHF Channel 16 on your marine radio.
Resources:
http://www.savethemanatee.org/boatertips.htm
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/biscayne/

Wish List for Virginia Key that Keeps the Public In Mind

The City of Miami Planning Department has announced the Virginia Key Master Plan will be going back to City Advisory Boards and the City Commission in July.

The new proposed Virginia Key Master Plan is still a mystery. But the public’s wishes for the island are not.

These were culled over a five year period of public meetings - some decidedly heated -- where many expressed their disappointment, frustration and anger at what they perceived to be incompatible commercial and recreational development proposals.

The area of biggest contention continues to be the Marine Stadium Basin, which city officials and planners have targeted for commercial redevelopment.

But many members of the public who participated in the public planning process envisioned a different future. Here’s one wish list of proposals that restores the area to public uses:

-Restore the Miami Marine Stadium.

-Surround the Miami Marine Stadium with a waterfront park with picnic shelters, play areas and public gardens.

-Build a Virginia Key Welcome Center. This would be the first stop for all cultural, recreational public uses, where visitors pick up maps, sign up for boat tours, learn about the island’s history. The center could include space for permanent and temporary exhibits. It could also include a gift shop and waterfront cafe as a recurring source of revenue.

-Build a public promenade the length of the stadium basin from the Rowing Club to Rusty Pelican restaurant.

-Bring back the public boat launch (it’s there but use is blocked by signs stating the area is closed to public use).

-Build a Boat House where the general public can rent kayaks and canoes to tool around the basin, just like members of the Miami Rowing Club do.

-Provide for bike rentals and bike paths that roll the length of the island, through the North Point peninsula.

-Dock Tour boats and water taxis. The existing marina could dock tour boats for nature tours of Biscayne Bay, extending to Biscayne National Park, including Stiltsville. Water taxis docking in the area could connect to other waterfront destinations, including Coconut Grove, Bayside, Brickell and County and City parks.

What’s on your wish list?

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On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

National Parks Traveler on Virginia Key

An article in the National Parks Traveler, a web magazine dedicated to the National Parks, considers how creating an urban gateway to Biscayne National Park on Virginia Key would put a national park within steps of downtown Miami, accessible through the scenic Rickenbacker Causeway. This would make Biscayne National Park perhaps the only national park that combines both remote island wild lands, such as the Channel Islands National Park, with the easy accessibility to natural and historic sites provided by urban parks such as Santa Monica Mountains or Gateway National Recreation Areas in California, the article states.

The expansion could include the southern portion of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve. The park’s expansion would link the natural and historic heritage of the Miami region and help foster and fund the restoration and protection of important historic and cultural sites and facilities, such as the historic Virginia Key Beach Park, an 82-acre public park that played a critical role in the nation’s civil rights history as well as the the historic but neglected Miami Marine Stadium, an icon of modern architecture.

The City of Miami currently owns most of Virginia Key, including the historic Virginia Key Beach Park and Miami Marine Stadium. Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve is owned by the State of Florida.

After nearly a century of neglect, mismanagement and/or ill-conceived development plans, there has recently been a new appreciation in the community for the ecological, historic, and recreational significance of Virginia Key. It was that concern and the outcry that resulted when extensive commercial development was proposed for the island, that postponed approval by the Miami City Commission of the last master plan proposal for the island.

A March 2010 Miami Herald editorial stated:

"The value of this semi-tropical natural haven can't be overestimated in a city that sorely lacks adequate park and recreation space. The city has targeted Virginia Key for a make-over, but so far its plans have given short shrift to Mother Nature in favor of concrete."

Under the National Park proposal, parts of the island and the surrounding Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve could be acquired by the National Park Service through donation or exchange. These additions and the placement of a northern visitor center for Biscayne National Park on the island would help to address longstanding public concerns about the protection of these areas, and also make Biscayne National Park a more interesting and accessible national park.

This hybrid urban/wild national park property with tales to tell about the American experience - from civil rights, to restoring Florida's fragile ecology to Miami's modern architectural heritage - may be the new model for the National Park system, which is eager to reach out to an urban, diverse America.



To read more of the article in National Parks Traveler, go to:
http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2010/04/creating-urban-gateway-biscayne-national-park-virginia-key5739

To Save Biscayne Bay Again

To save Biscayne Bay, Lloyd Miller battled oil magnates, rapacious developers, causeway proponents, chambers of commerce, newspaper editorial boards and lots of politicians touting progress.

In the course of things, his dog was poisoned, his job was threatened and, looking at the odds, it’s no doubt he also had to face down the fear that he would lose. And southern Biscayne Bay - which he knew as the most beautiful, serene, productive gem - would be forever ruined.

Fortunately, Miller won. He won on behalf of all of us who today gaze over the tranquil, vibrant waters of Biscayne Bay, and sigh with relief there’s not an oil refinery in the distance or causeways criss-crossing the emerald green islands of what is today Biscayne National Park.

In case anyone doesn’t believe just how close it all almost came to ruin, Miller, the “father” of Biscayne National Park, documented it in his book. “Biscayne National Park: It Almost Wasn’t.”

Fortunately, all schemes to pave over, dig up, channelize and fill in South Biscayne Bay fizzled for one reason or another but mostly because none of the promoters found a way to finance their projects. That our beautiful bay survived as well as it did for as long is part miracle, part bungled development schemes and partly because it remains a little remote. It certainly hadn’t been saved by an official awareness and concern for its fantastic value as a marine resource, economic engine and recreational wonderland for our ever-expanding population.

But Miller isn’t content just creating Biscayne National Park (and saving Biscayne Bay), Nowadays, this South Dade resident who is in his eighties, continues to fight for his beloved park. This time, his quest is to find a way to increase visitors to what is arguably one of America’s most beautiful and unique parks, but also one that is virtually inaccessible, especially to those without a boat. With the main visitor center near Homstead, few Miami residents even know Biscayne National Park exists.

Biscayne National Park is virtually unknown to our many visitors from across the nation and the world. Many who are aware of Biscayne Bay don’t know that the south half IS Biscayne National Park. This beautiful treasure should be made known and available...There are no mountains, no valleys, no geysers, no elk nor wolves. There are mangroves, beautiful barrier islands, clear water, sea life that doesn’t exist in any of our other parks and tranquility, blessed tranquility, and America’s only coral reef at our front door.

Miller’s fix: bring Biscayne National Park closer to Miami by opening a northern visitor center on Virginia Key.

Miller has been circulating a proposal for more than five years, hoping the political leadership will emerge to champion his vision.

Several sites have been identified, including the keyhole boat basin west of the Miami Seaquarium. Another site would be next to the Miami Marine Stadium, where Biscayne National Park tour boats could start their tour of Biscayne Bay at historic Stiltsville. Boca Chita, with its little lighthouse, would also be within easy reach.

Miller’s dream is not just about promoting Biscayne National Park - - it’s also about sharing our ecological and historic bounty with future generations.

“It is so important that we all learn of the magnificent heritage the National Park Services provides,” Miller writes in his proposal for a new visitor center on Virginia Key. “Our system is the envy of and the model for park systems around the world - and it belongs to the people.

2010 Copyright.@ All Rights Reserved
On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Voices of the Community: A Biscayne National Park Visitor Center on Virginia Key

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

Worthy of a National Park

Biscayne Bay National Recreation Area. Virginia Key National Monument. Virginia Key Visitor Center at Biscayne National Park. Virginia Key Heritage Corridor, national seashore, refuge, wilderness area.

Or any combination of the above.

Miami should be so lucky to have any of these become a reality.

This past weekend, the man who could get that going was in Miami. National Park Service Director Jon Jarvis was on Virginia Key, in fact -- looking and listening to Miamians talk about how to make America’s National Parks more relevant and accessible.

“What is the role of the National Park Service in the next century? It is deeper than stewardship.” Jarvis told the audience of about 100 environmental educators and activists at a stakeholder meeting held at the University of Miami Rosensteil School library last Friday, March 19.

“We’re interested in making the connections (with the American people), particularly where we have this urban/wild interface,” he said. That morning Jarvis had explored parts of the island, including the historic Virginia Key Beach Park.

Jarvis traveled to Miami with the Deputy Director for Communications and Community Assistance Mickey Fearn, Regional Director David Vela and the Superintendent of Mt. Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota, Gerard Baker. The diverse contingent conveyed the park system’s commitment to increasing the diversity of visitors, in part by bringing the parks closer to the people but also, by educating the public about the different kinds of park properties.

“The National Parks are not just about majestic places,” said Deputy Director Fearn. “They are educational institutions, spiritual places and science centers. And they are about places that tell the story of America."

Virginia Key would certainly seem to fit that descripton.

Certainly it would be one of the nation’s most beautiful and unique additions, making Miami an urban gateway to the National Park System. Wild, yes, with its sea turtle-nesting beaches, manatees and dolphins, rare songbirds, and critical habitats of hammocks, mangroves and dunes. And urban, too. So urban, in fact, you could walk to it from downtown Miami.

And the stories it could tell - from Tequestas to the Civil Rights Movement to the cultural legacy of MiMo (Miami Modern) architecture embodied in the historic Miami Marine Stadium.


The Virginia Key Visitor Center of Biscayne National Park and in Biscayne National Park, steps from downtown Miami.

Now that's an "urban/wild interface."

Virginia Key: the heart of Biscayne Bay


In 1877, Commodore Ralph Munroe, for whom the Miami Marine Stadium is named, sailed for the first time from Key West to Miami. His route: Biscayne Bay. The Bay was the community’s highway, north and south and from the Atlantic to the mainland.

Though our highways are now steel and concrete, Biscayne Bay remains an important corridor -- a critical link to our environmental heritage.

And Virginia Key is at the heart of that corridor, connecting North and South Biscayne Bay.

“The pivotal location of Virginia Key offers the opportunity to interpret and manifest the diverse natural and cultural heritage of Biscayne Bay through a network of aqualinks - an Aqua Necklace ....to connect the waterfront resources of Biscayne Bay.”

This was the recommendation of the Virginia Key Park Civil Rights Task Force to the City of Miami Commission in 2000.

The task force went on to enumerate the many ecological, historic and recreational sites along the Bay that would be linked - starting with Oleta State Recreation Area in the North to Biscayne National Park Convoy Point Visitor’s Center in the south. In between would be historic sites - the Miami Circle, The Barnacle, the Charles Deering Estate and trailheads and wildlife observation areas, including preserves and refuges.

“A string of pearls” they called this “aqualink” and Virginia Key would be the Aqua Pearl in the center.

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On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Kayaking the Key

The Virginia Key “experience” is as much about the waters surrounding the 1,000 acre island as it is the wilderness of its tropical hammocks and dunes.

The island is surrounded by the protected waters of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserve, which includes 67,000 acres of sovereign submerged lands. The Preserve shares the bay with Biscayne National Park, whose watery boundary begins just to the south. (If you’ve ever sailed past Stiltville in Biscayne Bay, you’ve been in National Park territory.)

Biscayne Bay’s shallow, clear waters make it a haven for nature lovers who can peer over the edge of the vessels to see all manner of critters that make their home in the soft sediments of mud or sand or among the seagrasses, including Johnson’s seagrass, a threatened species found only in southeast Florida.

And then there’s the wildlife swimming alongside, on the edges or flying above.

The fact there’s a major metropolis just over the horizon makes the experience even more thrilling and startling:

Siobhan Morrissey, who rows in the early mornings in the Marine Stadium lagoon, paints the picture:

“Perhaps the best place to see the moon over Miami is from a boat that sits a mere six inches off the water and glides silently along with a cityscape for a backdrop.

We also see dolphins breaching above the water. Occasionally a manatee may become intrigued enough to investigate us as our oars silently slip into the water and propel us along.

The lagoon by the rowing club provides a refuge for other animals, as well. On any given day we see blue herons wading at the shoreline, pelicans in formation, pods of leopard rays and an occasional shark or crocodile.
It’s amazing to see such wildlife in the midst of Miami.

TRIP! Experience this watery world of Virginia Key on a kayaking trip sponsored by the Tropical Audubon Society Sat., Feb. 20 that combines adventure with nature photography. Bring your own kayak ($10) or rent one for $35. Reservations and information can be made by calling or emailing Tropical Audubon: 786-543-1926 or tropicalaudubon@gmail.com

More info:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/biscayne/
http://www.tropicalaudubon.com


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On Facebook: Friends of Virginia Key

Virginia Key National Monument

(Artist rendering)

Virginia Key National Monument - why not?
That Virginia Key should be part of the National Park system is a matter of not if, but when. And how?

Lloyd Miller, one of the intrepid community activists who saved Biscayne Bay and its islands from the specter of an oil refinery, massive development and overseas causeways in the 1960's, might have asked himself the same questions. But he and others persevered. Today, residents enjoy the beautiful waters of lower Biscayne Bay and the necklace of emerald islands that is known as Biscayne National Park.

Details of the struggles are documented in his book, "Biscayne National Park: It Almost Wasn't," (LEMDOT Publishing). Miller includes this passage from President Lyndon B. Johnson's remarks at the signing of the Biscayne Monument Bill:

..."Biscayne National Park... is a unique treasure. On these islands grow trees that are unknown anywhere else...These are the last remnants of a vast forest which once covered much of Florida. In these waters are rare tropical animals which now will be assured a haven from destruction.

"The Biscayne National Monument...lies immediately south of the city of Miami, and it is within easy reach of millions of the families who live and visit in that area of the world. As our population expands and as our urban areas grow, it is not easy to preserve these untouched areas or to bring them into the public domain--- such as the islands of Biscayne Bay. First of all it take great courage. It takes great vision and it takes great effort and it takes a lot of toughness and a great deal of ability and a knowledge of the public interest and a dedication to it."

Lloyd Miller, Juanita Greene, James Redford and countless others had that dedication. And they succeeded. Will we?

National Park Service Organic Act

“…the fundemental purpose of said parks, monuments, and reservations, which purpose is to convey the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such a manner and by such means will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.” August 25, 1916