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Hernando Today

Audubon Society Marks Five Decades, Naturally

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By TONY MARRERO

Hernando Today

Published: February 27, 2009

BROOKSVILLE - It reads like something written yesterday.

"Development or progress, so called, is destroying much of the habitat of all our wildlife at an alarming rate," reads the column that appeared in a local newspaper. "(T)he decrease in numbers of many of our most interesting members of the bird world is a sad thing to contemplate."

"The Florida Audubon Society is working to preserve and protect our birds and wildlife and their environment," the column proclaimed. "We are also interested in saving something of the Florida that used to be. We can't go on stripping the forests, draining the marshes, filling the bays, and have much of the old Florida left."

A man named Wellman Tucker wrote the piece that appeared in the Brooksville Sun-Journal in July 1958. Tucker, of Brooksville, was working with a few others to co-found a local chapter and sought to grow the group.

Fifty years later, the Hernando Audubon's membership has surpassed 400, but the mission remains the same, current members say.

Members gathered Thursday at the Community Activity Center in Brooksville for a celebration that featured a talk by Harley Means of the Florida Geological Survey on Florida's springs.

It was an appropriate topic for the anniversary, said Joe Murphy, the local chapter's conservation chairman.

The preservation of the spring-fed Weekiwachee River and the county's other hydrological resources is one of the group's main goals, Murphy said.

"(Means) really speaks to an issue that we see as part of the future of our work," he said. "Water issues will be a major area of focus for us going forward."

It started, though, with a love for birds. George Bird Grinnell, editor of Forest and Stream, founded Audubon in 1886. Grinnell asked his readership to unite for bird preservation and protection. Audubon of Florida was founded in 1900.

The fledgling Hernando group came 58 years later and got a boost from another early member, Steve Fickett. Fickett worked as a biologist for what is now the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and was among the most active of Hernando's early naturalist scene. A past president of the Hernando Audubon, Fickett led the annual Christmas Bird Count here for many years. He died in 2006 at the age of 84.

"He saw the tremendous value in nature and acted to protect it in Hernando," said Mary Dowdell, the chapter's current president. "That boldness is what we're trying to continue."

'Stepped up'

The progress on that front is clear, said Jacqui Sulek, chapter coordinator for Audubon of Florida.

"They have just stepped up their efforts big time in the last two or three years," Sulek said. "They've gone from more of a bird watching club to a very active, solid conservation organization."

That's especially important on the Nature Coast to help avoid the mistakes made in overdeveloped places like Pinellas County, Sulek said.

There could not be a more critical time for Hernando Audubon, said Joe Murphy, the Hernando Audubon's conservation chairman.

The county is at a "crossroads" when it comes to smart growth and preserving its natural resources, Murphy said. To prepare for that, the group in recent years has reached out to form coalitions with other environmental groups in the region, such as the Sierra Club and the Gulf Restoration Network and Gulf Coast Conservancy, to speak in one voice in favor of conservation and to oppose projects viewed as a threat to the environment, Murphy said.

"That's where Hernando Audubon is at the 50-year mark," Murphy said. "Building more power, reaching out to more people and fighting the conservation battles of the next five to 10 years."

The group has taken stances on issues such as the massive (and ultimately approved) Hickory Hill golf community in Spring Lake; the pending land swap between the Southwest Florida Water Management District and a developer that could impact black bear habitat in the Weeki Wachee Preserve; and the landfill proposed (and ultimately defeated) in eastern Pasco County that environmentalists worried could threaten the Green Swamp and the Withlacoochee River.

Hernando Audubon also took a main role in creating the Withlacoochee River Alliance to help preserve water flows and quality.

The stakes extend beyond the county's borders, Murphy said.

"If we can get it right in Hernando County and show you can have a balance between people and wildlife, hopefully that becomes a trend that influences things all the way up the coast to the Panhandle," Murphy said.

The sometimes ugly battles haven't supplanted the more basic and genteel ways the group has sought to send a conservation message, said Mike Liberton, a past president.

The chapter awards an annual scholarship to a local senior interested in studying natural sciences and supplies local elementary school classes with material such as Audubon Adventures, a publication for children.

The group also helps fund the Chinsegut Nature Center. Founding chapter member Lisa von Borowsky urged the creation of the center north of Brooksville and donated $30,000 to the effort. Von Borowsky died in 2001 at the age of 97.

Nature outings have always been part of the Audubon experience and will continue to be to help convince people to pay $20 in annual dues and be part of the fight, Murphy said.

"When you have been to the Withlacoochee Forest and seen a red cockaded woodpecker or been to the coast and seen a swallowtail kite, you have a connection with that resource," Murphy said. "Its' a real place that lives and breathes inside you after that, and the transition from appreciating it to wanting to protect it is what Audubon is all about."

Reporter Tony Marrero can be reached at 352-544-5286 or lmarrero@hernandotoday.com.

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