Siesta Key Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016 |
The water is
teeming with life, from algae, to sand sharks, to jelly fish, stingrays,
sharks, star fish, sea gulls, pelicans, and amazing sea urchins we call sand
dollars.
A sudden wind
gust picks up a few kites and speeds sail boats gliding on the surface. Fine
white sand, skimming like a shimmering shallow river over the ground, covers
everything. A brave girl is paddling a board past the sand bars. The sea gulls are diving for fish in the
surf, resurfacing with a squiggly silver morsel.
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
An elderly
man is pushing his wife through the shallow water in a wheelchair with large
tires. The occasional wave crashes and splashes salty water onto her face; she
giggles like a little girl. That sound is the sigh of sheer joy and devoted
love.
An Indian
family has already brought their mom to the edge of the beach. Her slow gait
with the help of a cane is steadied by her daughter who settles her into a folding
chair and rolls up her pant legs so she can feel the water lapping at her feet.
The daughter brings out a large hat to shield her eyes from the sun.
Siesta Key beach
Photo: Ileana Johnson
Clear water and white sand
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
Jose Jimenez
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
People pass
him by as if he is invisible and part of the landscape. A squirrel jumps on the
table. There is a short wooden fence behind him, with heavy vegetation and
shady trees between the walkway and the beach, and the squirrel runs along the
top tier, within inches of his head, as if he is a familiar fixture of the
environment, totally unafraid of him.
I make a
point to talk to this man and to find out more about him. He is tanned and looks
healthy. His name is Jose Jimenez and has been a resident of Florida for 36
years, 20 years in Siesta Key. His English is very good and speaks with a
lovely Colombian accent. He greets me every morning with, “every day is a
holiday.” This middle-aged man has touched my heart in so many ways; it is hard
to put into words. I did not dare ask him if he was homeless by choice or by
the vicissitudes of life. He posed for a picture and smiled with his eyes and
happy heart.
Live urchins (sand dollars)
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
Siesta Key beach sunset
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
Sarasota across the bay from Siesta Key
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
Paradise on Siesta Key beach
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
Polar bear sculpture that took a man 3 1/2 hours to complete (Siesta Key beach)
Photo: Ileana Johnson
This sign appeared all over Siesta Key
Photo: Ileana Johnson 2016
A barrier
island located on the west coast of Florida in Sarasota, Siesta Key was named
the number one beach in 2011 and number one in the U.S. in 2016. “With 99
percent quartz as its sand, it truly is the finest, whitest sand in the world.
It does not heat in the summer and it feels like talcum powder on your feet.”
The Army
Corps of Engineers and the City of Sarasota have produced a dredge plan which “proposes
to remove initially almost 1 million cubic yards of sands from the protective
ebb shoal of Siesta Key located in Big Sarasota Pass.” The entire plan calls
for “the removal of almost 5 million cubic yards of sand. It is so much sand
that it could completely bury about four Empire State buildings laid on their
sides. Alternatively, imagine 27 large dump trucks removing sand, running every
day for 50 years.”
The sand
will be used to re-nourish Lido Key beaches and to build a 5’ berm of sand
along its shores, which are private beaches. According to Save our Siesta Sand, “A berm made of sand on a coastal beach and
only one side of an island will be useless and will not protect St. Armand’s
from flooding. In a little more than a year after the dredge, the North Lido
beach has almost been lost and no mitigation is planned.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdwmVatfkYc
“Consider
the planned dredge of the protective ebb shoal off Siesta Key. No one can
predict whether this same amount of erosion will occur on Siesta beach but it
certainly seems likely. Observable facts speak louder than models.”
Following
their modeling, the Army Corps is moving on with their plan, ignoring the “repeated
requests by environmental organizations and the County Commission to generate
an Environment Impact Statement before proceeding any further with their
proposal to dredge Big Pass, New Pass, and Longboat Pass. Instead, they are
issuing a FONSI (Finding of No Significant Impact) by this massive project of
navigation, the environment, and Siesta Key.” http://www.soss2.com/
To protect
the Siesta Key beaches after this massive dredging of sand, the government is
proposing the construction of “beach erosion groins,” but don’t worry, they
will be tastefully decorated to disguise their ugliness.
In the
meantime, as I enjoy the lovely Siesta Beach, I worry that in the future, our
children and grandchildren will no longer be able to see the beauty of this island,
a paradise on earth threatened by a 50-year government project of “unprecedented
scale that has had no public hearings and where the proposer cannot show any
similar projects that have met their goals. One independent review that was
held stated that they were unable to verify the claims of the proposer.”
Politics at
the beach are complicated in the best of times. For now the ordinary beach goer
and modest business and home owner on Siesta Key are afraid that they may lose their
white sand, spectacular beaches, perhaps the beach flora, and their paradise to
the Army Corps of Engineers and City of Sarasota dredge plan.
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