Flagler County, FL (April 21, 2021) – Impeccable timing brought environmental expert Clay Henderson to the floor as April’s guest speaker for the Flagler Tiger Bay Club on Wednesday.
No stranger to Flagler County, Henderson has long been a champion for conservation, so speaking to club members the day before the 52nd anniversary of Earth Day, was no accident.
Sharing his COVID project, the book chronicling conservation and it’s giants, is soon to be published by UF Press, and Henderson wasted little time expressing his expert opinion on why Florida is special, how we arrived where we are, and the innovative things happening across the state.
Starting with William Bartram’s trip on the St. Johns River in 1774, John Muir’s Thousand Mile Walk, and John James Audubon, who has his own connection to Flagler County’s history in 1832 and the Bulow Plantation, it was a who’s who of big names that have made a tremendous impact on Florida’s conservation efforts including the likes of May Mann Jennings, the “CCC Boys” and Teddy Roosevelt.
“The story begins in Florida and we build upon it,” he said. “The Civilian Conservation Corps actually produced, actually built the state park system in Florida. There were over 60,000 CCC Boys in Florida working to develop these parks.”
But Florida’s long and storied history hasn’t been without it’s battles and potential problem projects like the Cross Florida Greenway and the Big Cypress National Preserve have become assets as Floridians let their voices be heard over the years.
“One of the things we’ve pioneered and done very well in Florida is our Conservation Land Acquisition Program,” he said. “Beginning in 1972, voters began to approve putting aside money to buy lands that needed to be protected.”
Programs like “Preservation 2000” and “Florida Forever” have protected about 3 million acres, and Henderson said the “Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan” is the largest single environmental restoration program on the planet.
But a hint of pessimism lingered on the periphery and Henderson says the future battles are near at hand as a result of population growth and climate change.
“We continue to grow. The state is back to 1,000 people a day,” he said.
“Climate is a real issue. Florida is the most vulnerable state in the country in terms of dealing with these issues,” highlighting stressors on the state’s water supply, intensified hurricanes, increased King Tides and loss of habitat for Florida’s wildlife as some of the immediate impacts.
“Scientists are telling us that if we continue on this route, that for about 1,200 key species in Florida that about half of them are going to lose about half of their habitat over the next 20 years,” he said.
Leading the nation in impaired waterways, Henderson acknowledged we still have a long way to go but that 2014’s Water and Land Conservation Amendment was a good start.
“Quality is a big issue. Over 2,000 of our surface waters are impaired and you know we don’t have industrial pollution in the state. It’s mostly nutrients and runoff from our lawns and agriculture, and our streets and roads,” first noticed in the Indian River Lagoon a decade ago with the loss of sea grass.
Municipalities are playing a leading role when it comes to conservation, and Flagler’s neighbors in Volusia County are among those walking the walk.
“We’ve done an outstanding job where we’re conserving the best of the state,” he said. “Essentially local governments are leading the way on so many of these things.”
Fielding questions about the state’s two million septic tanks and the current situation at Piney Point, to battling the big bottlers, water rights and single use plastics, it was a message looking forward while encouraging action today.
“Today’s presentation – a tour de force on the state of environmental issues – was in keeping with Flagler Tiger Bay Club’s mission to bring top notch regional, state and national speakers to our members,” said event moderator and vice president of the Flagler Tiger Bay Club Don Madden.
“Given that the 22nd is world earth day, the timing of the presentation couldn’t have been better.”
