Ernst: Fireworks threatened by an unlikely source

LOCATION: Englewood, USA

DATE: Friday, March 12, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.

BY: Eric Ernst

 

DETAILS: Englewood's Fourth of July fireworks show is in jeopardy. Yes, you've heard that before.Not enough money, right? Wrong.

There's a new reason: gopher tortoises. Although fireworks have been staged for 20 years from Blind Pass Beach Park on Manasota Key, Sarasota County Parks and Recreation managers have withheld a permit this year because they fear the pyrotechnics will threaten nearby gopher tortoise burrows.

Now you may wonder how fireworks could possibly endanger a shell-encased animal that lives underground in what amounts to a natural bomb shelter and comes out only during the day.

As the news spread through town, Sunrise Rotary President John Mead probably summed up the reaction: "This is crazy. We can't celebrate the Fourth of July because of some turtles?"

First, a little history. Last year, Englewood had no July Fourth fireworks because the Jaycees, who had sponsored the event for years, couldn't raise $10,000. A lot of people were disappointed.

This year, Sunrise Rotary took over. A larger, more affluent club, it has promised a $30,000 show, the best Englewood has ever seen. Volunteers, such as Michael Looney and Ray LaBadie, have solicited sponsors, planned fundraising events and started making four-foot PVC rocket models to display in businesses to collect donations.

Momentum had started to build. And then this.

The problem started when county workers cleared Brazilian peppers and other exotics from the Lemon Bay side of the park.

They found gopher tortoise burrows, maybe 20 to 30 active ones. "We knew we had gopher tortoises, but we didn't know we had so many," says George Tatge, beaches, parks and trails manager.

Now that they know, they're obliged to protect them, which boils down to prohibiting harmful activities within 25 feet of a burrow.

But here's where things began to break down.

Instead of meeting with Rotary members at the location, county staff started marking data points on aerial maps and conjuring worst-case scenarios such as "what would happen if an endangered species showed up the morning of the fireworks display?"

A trip to the site shows that there's plenty of open space. Only six to eight people man the staging area, and onlookers will be at least 500 feet away, in the parking lot or on the Gulf side of the park.

Many spectators, including big sponsors in the VIP pavilion, will watch the fireworks from Lemon Bay Park across the bay.

The proximity of wildlife to fireworks is hardly ideal, but in this case it appears manageable. Fireworks last 45 minutes on one day a year. Obviously the gopher tortoise population has prospered through 20 years of fireworks. Park staff probably caused greater disruption by removing the vegetation that sheltered the burrows.

As for alternatives, each seems to have a problem. Indian Mound and Cherokee parks are too close to houses. The Englewood Sports Complex is too far from the bay, where boaters line up to watch the show. And, a barge costs money, an extra $5,000 to $10,000.

County commissioners shouldn't have to get involved in things like this, but Shannon Staub did at the request of the Rotarians. Within hours, the e-mails were flying, setting up a meeting Monday afternoon at Blind Pass.

"We're not trying to deny this for no reason," Tatge says. "We're just trying to do the right thing."

Fair enough. Then do it.