Re: A Confederancy of Arial Dunces - photos - June 15 2006
My grandparents were sharecroppers in Jackson County. My grandfather could neither read nor write. I never heard him utter an unkind word. He did cheat at poker, though.
I guess that's why my hackles go up when it's implied that locals are inbred and stupid. Obviously there's a difference between uneducated and unintelligent. And it's we locals who are primarily to blame for allowing the destruction of much of our beaches.
I must disagree about fertilizer not being the problem at Seascape. Take a look at a satellite photo of the area. Compare it to the dune lakes, karst lakes (google it) and spring-fed lakes in the area. If you have another explanation for the overgrowth of algae I'd be interested in hearing it. (I will concede it can also be caused by sewage, but I hope that's not the case.) Fortunately the Northwest Florida Water Management District has bought about 50,000 acres to protect our watershed. They plan to buy more but the money is limited. Also fortunate is that the state was able to buy the Topsail area about 20 years ago despite the opposition of the then Walton County Commissioners, who said it would affect the tax base. In reality the commissioners were mostly developers and real estate agents just as they are now. Ro Cuchens is the marine contractor/commissioner who put up most of the illegal and harmful seawalls in the Blue Mountain Beach area.
The seawalls have been discussed ad nauseum in these forums. Seawalls and beach renourishment are short term but ultimately harmful remedies for our stupidity in building too close to the shoreline.
I often criticize St. Joe, but I will give them credit for clustering and leaving approximately 50% green space with native vegetation. I'm guessing it's about 10% at Seascape. One must maximize one's profits. So what about how it affects the ecosystem. I can't seem to find any dunes at "Arial Dunes".