“Protecting The Ole Chipola”

Last Thursday night I attended a meeting held by the County Parks Administrator Chuck Hatcher about the Chipola River Greenway Trails. (See related article on this page). The whole plan sounded great to me and of course got me to thinking. And you know that is always dangerous.
There has been a series on PBS recently about our national parks system. The series is really interesting and documents the efforts of some of the early innovators in regards to setting aside land for preservation and public use. There are two early names that stood out, John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt. I’d heard of Roosevelt but not of Muir. They had this crazy idea to preserve areas like Yosemite Valley and Yellowstone as national parks. For those of us who have grown up with state and national parks abounding, that idea doesn’t sound crazy. But more than 100 years ago it was a radical idea and there were many who opposed such a notion. They said all land should belong to private citizens or corporations and be used as the land owners see fit.

Fortunately the folks like Muir and Roosevelt won out and thus we have the National Parks System that preserves many pristine areas of our country. From that concept came the State Parks systems that went even further to preserve our natural wonders. Just image what would have happened to these areas if left to private citizens or corporations to develop.

My good friend and Times Editor Sid Riley likes to jam the government folks for interfering too much in our daily lives. And there are plenty of times when he is “Getting It Right”. But there are times where government needs to step in and protect us and/or the environment. Private citizens and corporations are too often motivated by how much money can be made and the havoc they reek through over development can be devastating.

What’s that got to do with the Ole Chipola? Well we are fortunate that we have some folks in our city and county governments with the foresight to protect this little jewel right here in our back yard. Most folks may not realize this but in the first 10 miles or so of the Chipola, there is not a single house on the river. On the next 8 miles or so there are only two houses. That’s about 18 miles of river and just 2 houses. In this day and time that is almost unheard of. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not opposed to folks having houses on the river. In fact I wouldn’t mind one myself. But if we don’t set aside some areas of the river for preservation, our future generations will not be able to see the Ole Chipola in her true beauty. So, Simply Put, keep up the good work city and county administrators. You’re getting’ it right.



From the front porch: Uncle Bob said that he is in excellent shape…given that round is a shape.