Difficult to Balance Recreation, Peace on Lakes

[rick]

The Nature of Things
By Tom Palmer
tom.palmer@theledger.com

It's not the edge of the world, but you can see it from there.

I'm talking about the Lower Kissimmee Chain of Lakes, which is defined as lakes Cypress, Hatchineha and Kissimmee and the adjoining marshes.

South Florida Water Management District officials have posed an interesting question, appointed a pretty diverse committee called the Lower Kissimmee Chain of Lakes Public Use Workgroup and hired a mediator to oversee the discussion.

The basic question is this: What kind of...

...Airboat users want access to every square foot of public land because they feel it's their right. Other recreational users think they have some rights, too, and would like some airboat-free areas where they...

...Anyway, the committee's meetings are open to the public.

The draft recommendations will be presented at the June 7 meeting, and the final recommendations and discussion of implementation will occur Aug. 14.

Both meetings will be at River Ranch.

Full Story: http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070508/COLUMNISTS0503/705080364/1106/NEWS

 

[bondsman]

i guess they will think of new ways to regulate us,this burns me up.we pay the state a fee to register our boats which i believe give us an acceptable right to any lake and we should not be banned as long as we are courtios and it should only be on an indavidual basis.if youre bad no runnin for you on this particular lake ect.the state needs to make these people pay an anual due as well to even give them a say so.just as i believe you should have to pay a permit every year to even bird watch or animal watch in a game reserve.and they to should too follow a code of ethics such as no bells , horns , whisles,ect.i know that most of us know that it is a priveledge to airboat not a right. but i believe if i have to pay for i better darn shure well get to use it.

 

[SwampMatt]

South Florida Water Management District officials have posed an interesting question, appointed a pretty diverse committee called the Lower Kissimmee Chain of Lakes Public Use Workgroup and hired a mediator to oversee the discussion.

I have not yet read the whole article - right off the bat I see a problem.

Danny Brantley probably has better words & numbers for this - He's part of this committee -And he was not invited to the party - he had to crash his way in to give us a voice there.

DIVERSE? Yeah, it's diverse. It's got an airboater, kayaker,land owner, developer (I think),eco-extreem bunny hugger, etc on the committee.

Point is, there is something like 18 anti airboating or anti hunting groups on that committee.... and ONE airboater. Yeah, real diverse but the way it's "stacked" is totally against us.

Danny - if you read this - speak up - You know these facts so much better than me!!!

matt.

 

[SwampMatt]

i believe you should have to pay a permit every year to even bird watch or animal watch in a game reserve

Great idea Bondsman. We pay cash to the state - a modest registration fee.... And include waterfront home owners too. Think about it - How much money do waterfront hoomeowners cost the state complaining about nusiance gators or snakes, water quality, weed spraying, sound complaints for all kindsa vessles, etc. They should have to pay too because they are part of the expense.

Maybe we'd get better enforcement of the laws we already have on the books so no new laws are needed.

 

[Anonymous]

The battle for favorable PUBLIC OPINION on airboats is over NOISE. This is why sound reduction and related complaints they generate must be front & center from our side with MEASURABLE RESULTS. (Like it or not, if the NOISE was removed from the article, it wouldn't have been much of an article, would it?) If not, when John Q. Family encounters an airboat with it's related noise, we may not have won a friend and the writer above has gained a new believer...........

The second airboats are bad "theme" alluding to "an airboat ran over a snail kite nest" and "airboats ran off the campers" is to reduce our group to it's LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR by taking an illegal or unethical act and implying this is common among our users. (This is a often used liberal/media ploy that works well if not corrected) It's another reason our side must openly distance itself from this type of behavior and do it's part to remedy acts as this. If not, we condone this behavior or offer safe harbor to those PERCIEVED to commit these types of acts, our opponents will use to their full advantage against us.

We can argue all we want about rights, culture, history, etc. When it comes down to the 1,000+ Yankees a day moving into the state with the $$$$ they bring, the Eco-tourist $$$$ seeking a quiet encounter with nature or the $million$ the Environmental groups have to fight us, (I guarantee you they are not our friends)along with a media sympathetic to the aforementioned groups, I hope our side is doing EVERYTHING POSSIBLE to make stories as the above seem unreasonable to the average non airboater public. Unfortunately, this does appear be the case.

As with the recent two Polk County lake clean ups. The only media coverage mentioned was of a local club's participation and that participation was via airboat. The story did not cover the HUGE contributions the airboats make in keeping the environment clean, the massive amounts of trash the airboats remove or the time, effort & $$$ invested by our group. Worse, the publication only had a circulation of about 10,000 vs a circulation of about 70,000 for the Ledger article above.

Moodfood stated in another post, maybe it's time to investigate hiring a PR firm to change public opinion. I agree. Just a few years ago this was the average type of story that was written in this state concerning airboats. We had a good run of favorable press for about 5 years that has now waned. If stories of this nature again become prevalent, the public's opinion will change, the opinion of lawmakers will reflect the media's lead (just like Gay rights, Global Warming, Political Correctness, etc) making it very difficult to gain favorable voting records for our cause. I hope we have folks planning & willing to step to the plate.............

Our state is changing. It's not what is was 10 or 20 years ago and will continue to change. The question is do we learn to read the "writing on the wall" & adapt to this change as best we can by picking our battles wisely while protecting as much of our heritage as is defend able or do we deny the problem, wish the problem would go away and not adapt?

Here is what's defendable: The right to NAVIGATE our waterways and use our public lands for traditional & sustainable activities.
Here is what is not defendable: The right to produce as much NOISE as we want, harbor folks doing illegal or unethical acts.
Here is our strong points: Lake clean ups, coastal clean ups, community service, environmental protection, S&R, volunteerism.

What needs to be done: Pick DEFEDABLE POSITIONS that gain us PUBLIC support; Openly & aggressively promote we are making our boats QUIETER while stressing this is a multi year undertaking. Openly & aggressively distance ourselves from irresponsible operators and offer solutions to these problems.
Aggressively promote all the GOOD things we have going for us as mentioned above.

 

[fatboy0054]

MR PHIL ! YOU ARE ON THE MONEY ! BAD PR IS GROWING FAST ! GOOD PR IS IN BACK ! I JUST DONT UNDERSTAND WHY SOME PEOPLE NOT GOING TO CHANGE THEIR HABITS OR THE SOUND OF THEIR BOATS ! THERE IS NO WAY WE ARE GOING TO WIN AT THIS THE WAY WE ARE GOING ! JUST FACT !

 

[Hawk]

I'll throw this out there for SAers assistance.

We plan to run articles in each issue on Lake, Waterway, Shoreline cleanups and we have copied them to go out as press releases to conservation list my wife is working on as well as sending out to newspapers to see if any get picked up for reprint.

What would be good is if someone could provide us with an article and facts on trash removal projects by all clubs over last year or two. I believe Gatorstick has that information based on a conversation we had with him a couple months back at GTO Swap Meet. I know clubs out there are also doing adopt a roadway and/or park (like the Citrus association that maintains a public park,boat launch area), etc.

This could even include Gar Gigs since Gars are a nuisance fish - if someone more educated than myself in this area can provide some insight into the Gar problem.

Help us to create that positive PR beyond this forum into a print medium. We have some unique distribution strategies to share Airboating Magazine with non-airboaters and this can help to educate others. We had the Airboater Code of Ethics in our first issue but then decided to pull it. However, I think it is worth printing from time to time.

 

[bondsman]

i agree with the p.r. big money devolopers are masters at it.they will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make people believe a certain endangerd species has to be relocated to save them and gets total support from bozo's who do not read between the lines, that they really wan't to relocate that animal because it is on a highly desired piece of property they can develop.and they win on both sides how great they are for saving that animal,and how great they are for developing this "land that is worth nothing into an economic benefit for the state" but is was the home of this endangerd species.if all these people believe that any of these wild animals were just so intalexualy smart and that we destroy the environment then why don't the animals relocate.animals have a built in instict to leave if they are threatend apparently they do not feel threatend by us at all.