ATV protest planned for Everglades event
Daily News staff
Naples Daily News -
http://www.naplesnews.com Monday, November 27, 2006
Top state environmental officials will be greeted by protesters Wednesday at an event marking a milestone in an Everglades restoration project in eastern Collier County.
A group of outdoor enthusiasts plans to protest the South Florida Water Management District's failure to meet an Oct. 1, 2005, deadline to find 640 acres of land suitable for an off-roading park. Collier County commissioners have threatened to sue the district and the state's top environmental agency unless the sides can come to an agreement soon.
"We don't want to get rowdy. We want to respect their event. But we want to let them know that we are to be reckoned with," said protest organizer Dennis Bolanos, a 37-year-old Fort Myers resident and avid all-terrain vehicle rider. He estimated that five protesters will be on hand, but there would be more if the event weren't being held during a weekday.
Dignitaries such as Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Colleen Castille and South Water Management District Executive Director Carol Ann Wehle are expected to be on hand Wednesday. The state is celebrating two years of progress on the Southern Golden Gate Estates restoration project.
The 640-acre agreement grew out of a deal in 2003 in which the county gave up control over the roads in Southern Golden Gate Estates, a 55,000-acre subdivision south of Interstate 75 and north of U.S. 41 East. A meeting is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 10 between commissioners and the water management district's governing board, which is appointed by the governor, to resolve the matter.
The failed subdivision was once a haven for off-roading even though the activity wasn't technically legal. ATVs, swamp buggies and dirt bikes have been outlawed there since the restoration project began.
Clarence Tears, director of the Big Cypress Basin, a local arm of the water management district, said the district has looked at about 20 potential ATV sites, but each has run afoul of "environmental issues."
"The district is doing everything possible to find a parcel of land that is acceptable," Tears said.
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