6/12/1990 - Laserfiche WebLink

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JUN 121990 BOOK 80 Ms. Gwen Burzycki, environmental specialist with FDNR, came before the Board to review the proposed plan. Commissioner Bird noted that the public basically has had access to these islands for many years, and his concern is that 31 of these islands now would be designated conservation and preclude public access. He believed some of the islands shown for active recreation are privately owned; so, he did not know how that would work. Ms. Burzycki informed the Board that there there were a few minor changes made after the draft was sent to the Board, for which she apologizes. One is under the Management category, Definition & Usage Section, and she feels it will answer a lot of the questions about privately owned property. It now reads: "For all islands surveyed that are not state owned, these assignments are staff's recommendation to the owners for best use of the island according to physical and biological information from the survey. Final decisions on island use are the prerogative of the fee title owner." She stressed that they are just telling the property owners that they have a beautiful island and this is what we hope you will do with it, but they realize that DNR has no right to impose decisions on private property owners. Commissioner Bird was just concerned that if DNR imposes their restrictions on so many islands, and the private property owners choose not to develop their islands for active recreation, he was concerned how many islands that would leave us and where they are located along the waterway. Ms. Burzycki stated that of the 44 state-owned islands surveyed, 3 are designated for active recreation and 14 for passive recreation, for a total of 17 exclusively for recreation, and 26 are for conservation. Four islands received a dual designation for education plus one of the other categories - 2 for a combination education/conservation and 2 for a combination 30