Resident enjoys guest commentary article

Apr 21, 2010 2 min read

To the editor:

This letter was sent to Nancy Douglas of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and faxed to the Beach Observer.

I was very impressed with the article “Raking the wrack wrecks coastal wildlife’s home” by Patricia Behnke, Senior editor, Florida FWC and equally impressed that the Observer printed the article. You’ll never see that article printed in the Sandpaper.

For more than 10 years, I have been trying to get the Town Councils of Fort Myers Beach to be more responsible in how to manage our beach. Unfortunately, our Council is business oriented and business based. Their answer to Fort Myers Beach is beach re-nourishment (which they always schedule after tourist season and right in the middle of turtle nesting season) and not beach conservation.

For more than 10 years, I have been preaching to them to leave the wrack and remove the tractors and other vehicles from the beach and stop the water run-off from the hotels and motels.

What the Councils fail to understand is that the only thing people come to Fort Myers Beach is for the beach. And, if they want to make sure tourism survives, they better make sure that the beach survives.

I plan to try to have the article read into the Town minutes at the next Council meeting, April 19, to make sure that each Council person gets an opportunity to hear it. I have also made copies for each in the hopes that they will read the article in case they missed it in the Observer.

As a follow-up, I will recommend that they: 1) cease raping the wrack immediately; 2) remove all tractors and vehicular traffic; 3) ban plastic straws and cups; and 4) ban dogs from the beach.

California has banned smoking from its beaches, but since the Council and the Sheriff’s Department can’t even enforce the alcohol, littering, live shelling, fireworks, loose dogs and overnight sleeping on the beach, I hold no hope for their short sightedness regarding the berm and the wildlife to be removed.

Edwina Foster

Seasonal Interpretive Ranger, NPS

Fort Myers Beach