Page 6 - Palm City Spotlight - September '22
P. 6

Page 6, Palm City Spotlight

                                                          Good Works




      Martin Artisan’s Guild, The                                                                          engagement at House of Hope (HOH) and the collaboration
                                                                                                           between the two nonprofits has flourished ever since.
      HeART Of The Community                                                                                 The first project was supplying the Artist’s Corner, which
                                                                                                           occupies a corner in HOH’s Enrichment Center, with a
      By Jackie Holfelder                                                                                  cabinet and art supplies donated by guild members.
        When Michaelann                                                                                      Following that, member Eduardo Gomez held a two-week
      Bellerjeau joined                                                                                    workshop for HOH’s Art4Kids program. Another member,
      Martin Artisan’s                                                                                     Brenda Leigh, has designed the plans for upcoming mural
      Guild in 2021, she                                                                                   projects for the nonprofit’s community gardens, which are
      found a willing group                                                                                estimated to begin being installed this fall.
      of comrades ready                                                                                      The murals are a long-term initiative and will encompass
      to join her when                                                                                     HOH’s four gardens over a three-year period, allowing
      she became chair of                                                                                  children who show serious talent to assist with the murals in
      The Community and                                                                                    hopes of encouraging their artistic ability and fostering their
      Educational Outreach                                                                                 skills in project planning, neatness and staying committed
      Committee on the                                                                                     until something is completed.
      guild’s board.                                     Michaelann Bellerjeau, Stuart Police Chief Joseph
        A meeting was                                    Tumminelli and Mallo Bisset                       Good Works on page 7
      scheduled with Lauren
      Mustelier,  director  Eduardo Gomez with HOH art
      of  enrichment  and  students


        Treasure Coast


        Outdoors




        Redfish Harvest Banned

        By Jim Weix
          The state has banned
        harvesting redfish in the
        156-mile-long Indian
        River Lagoon that runs
        through Martin, St. Lucie,
        Indian River, Volusia, and
        Brevard counties.
          Decades of pollution,
        brown tides, discharges
        from Lake Okeechobee,
        and  algae  blooms  have
        decimated our once beautiful fishing paradise. Gone
        are the expansive seagrass beds, oyster beds, and other
        important habitats. Areas where I once caught sea trout,
        pompano, and redfish now resemble an underwater
        wasteland.
          Along with the fish, dead manatees now wash up on the
        shores. What has happened to the Indian River Lagoon,
        in my opinion, is both an ecological disaster and a crime.
          It started when the C-44 canal was built between 1916
        and 1924. This man-made canal was supposedly created to
        divert flood waters from Lake Okeechobee. In reality, the
        canal was built so that another foolish ecological disaster,
        the Herbert Hoover Dike, would allow Lake Okeechobee
        to hold more water and be a source of irrigation water for
        agricultural interests.
          A locally built dike, made of sand and muck, was
        originally built by local interests in about 1915 to divert
        water around towns that should never have existed and to
        allow more land to be farmed. The so-called towns were
        population centers for cheap farm labor. That ignorant
        plan washed away during hurricanes in 1926 and 1928.
        Over 2,500 people died as a result.
          In an overly simplistic and perfect world, the towns on
        the south end of Lake Okeechobee would be re-located,
        the C-44 canal would be filled in, and the Herbert Hoover
        Dike would be removed. You could call it the “blow it up
        and start over again” approach. But of course, that will
        not happen.
          Short of that, there are a lot of good people working to
        find less drastic solutions. Some of these will hopefully
        reduce the need for discharges. Unfortunately, it won’t
        eliminate them.
          Given some time, the Indian River Lagoon will start to
        recover. The huge amount of toxic muck won’t go away,
        but seagrass will reestablish itself in areas and there may
        be some oyster beds in some areas again. I’ve witnessed
        it several times and get quite excited.
          Then heavy rains again create the need for discharges
        and it is back to an underwater wasteland. It is a perfect
        example of insanity.
          Editor’s note: Jim Weix is an avid hunter, angler,
        conservationist, as well as an outdoor writer. Jim is
        included in the Wisconsin Waterfowl Association’s Hall of
        Fame, for his work in helping restore thousands of acres
        of wetlands. Jim is a broker associate with The Keyes
        Company. He can be reached at (772) 341-2941 or by
        email: jimweix@jimweix.com.                                                                                                 See answer in this paper.
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