Just two days to go! Myakka River State Park needs you this Thursday, March 2nd! In my last email I promised to explain why we’re suggesting bringing a palm frond to the meeting. I’ll get to that in a minute. First, the basics - you are needed starting at 5:00 pm on Thursday March 2nd at the Suncoast Community Church, which is 2.5 miles east of the Interstate on Highway 72 at 8000 Hawkins Road. DEP presentation starts at 5:30. If you can’t get there at 5:00, show up any time before 7:00 pm. What difference will your presence make? Even if you don’t speak, we need a big turnout to impress on DEP that we are serious about protecting Myakka River State Park. Showing up (the numbers game) is crucial. The people planning the meeting estimated 100 or less would show up – that’s a back-handed way of saying they think less than 100 people care enough about the next ten years of Myakka River State Park to show up. Let’s prove them wrong. We’ve been warned that the meeting facilitators may split us up into small groups and attempt to “sell” us on various aspects of the plan. Let’s be clear: this brief two-hour time slot should be for them to listen to us! As I mentioned last time– you don’t need to speak if you don’t want too, but if you have something to say there will be a court reporter present to take testimony, which is even better. Sending a strong message March 2nd will help stave off comparable consumptive extraction schemes in other parks. And I will have “citizen comment forms” that will let you weigh in on some of the controversial aspects of the Unit Management Plan. If you can, plan to do two things: 1) Bring a friend—that will double our impact. And 2) Cut a small palm frond and bring it with you. Here’s why: While there may occasionally be legitimate management reasons to remove pines or stumps, there is no known management goal served by cutting green fronds from our state tree, the cabbage palm. So the inclusion of palm frond harvesting is functionally equivalent to the park selling Spanish moss, or mistletoe. Heck, they might just as well sell rights to take bromeliads or native orchids. It furthers no management goal – instead it is at the expense of depriving the public of their right to see natural Florida. So these meager harvesting schemes appear to be just a foot in the door for more ominous extractive schemes in the future. So your palm frond will symbolize their effort to make money from schemes that have no basis in sound land management. I’ll have some fronds there – so don’t let being frondless keep you away. And tomorrow I’ll send talking points in another email. And forward this email to your friends. Please come up an introduce yourself –( I’ll be wearing a shirt with cabbage palms). I look forward to meeting all supporters of Myakka River State Park. Jono Miller (feel free to email me as well: jonocampaign@gmail.com) ………………………………….. The Draft Myakka River State Park Unit Management Plan can be found at: https://goo.gl/wqX7Oz     (large pdf file) And despite some severe problems, the UMP has lots of great info about the park – habitat map, history, etc.   Here are some other proposals in the draft Unit Management Plan that may concern you include: • Allowing 6% invasive species in a globally imperiled dry prairie habitat. Page 30 • Building a new interpretative center at the Upper Myakka Lake concession area which is frequently a parking nightmare Page 121 • Proposing a new Eco-Lodge and Conference Center in the Wilderness Area with no business plan (and shown as a $4 million dollar project) Pages 125, 126 • No analysis of aesthetic standards for views from the Wild and Scenic River or the Park Drive. • No trend analysis of the last ten years (which would reveal increasing visitation and a decline in staffing levels. Proposals to widen fire lanes. Page 90 •The only proposals for increasing park revenue are from sale of the public’s natural resources. • Optimum boundaries that include lands already otherwise protected. Pages 128-130. …………………………………… More sources of updates and info: Facebook’s Florida Parks in Peril group https://goo.gl/uNycV8 FDEP Public MRSP Unit Management Plan Meeting Notice: https://goo.gl/6Ygo86 PLEASE PLAN TO MAKE THE SCENE – MYAKKA NEEDS YOU