Help Save Blackwater State Park FL

[dionae]

Sign the petition to save this site from oil drilling-

http://www.change.org/petitions/florida-house-of-representatives-stop-hb-431-protect-blackwater-river-state-forest-from-drilling-and-mining#share

 

[Api]

Done.

 

[mylesG]

hope more people take the time to sign this

 

[BioZest]

signed! hope this gets a lot of support by people on this forum and elsewhere.

 

[Wire Man]

Signing right now.

 

[Nevermore]

ditto

 

[richjam1986]

Just signed it In the absence of time to do more research on the proposed drilling, I'll err on the side of caution.

That being said, we ALL are dependant on mined energy sources of oil, natural gas, and coal; and while we continue to work towards cleaner sources of energy, society will be dependant on mined energy sources for quite a while. Therefore, continued energy resource extraction MUST be done for the foreseeable future.

I will be the first to say that mining should be done in the most environmentally sensitive way possible, and I would be against mining specifically in carnivorous plant habitat or other sensitive habitat, but we cannot say no to ALL energy mining.

All projects of this type are required to produce an environmental impact statement, where impact to sensitive areas and sensitive species is taken into account. While these are never perfect, it is quite possible that sensitive areas, including carnivorous plant habitat, may not be impacted significantly at all by this mining project. Wetland areas are almost always of specific concern and garner a lot of attention when considering mining projects, especially on public land (private land is a whole other monster..., and much less regulated). Just something to keep in mind when these things come up. Does anyone else know more specifics about this project? Again, I wish I had the time to look up the specifics on the mining project (if available to the public online), but I have to get back to studying...

I'm studying wildlife and wildlands conservation, so this subject is right up my alley

 

[dionae]

mining should be done in the most environmentally sensitive way possible

I dont think theres an environmentally sensitive way to mine.

 

[richjam1986]

I dont think theres an environmentally sensitive way to mine.

There are varying degrees of destructiveness in different mining practices; some less destructive and invasive, some more-so, and some practices are HORRIBLE (I'm not going into detail here...). Picking the right location to do it can make a huge difference to the degree of negative impact it may have as well (i.e. NOT at the top of a watershed where it will pollute all the water in the watershed, or in an area where a rare plant is known to exist, etc.) In this sense, there are methods that are much MORE environmentally sensitive than others. I get your point, but not everything is pure black and white.

I spent several weeks this last summer surveying govornment land for a threatened plant species in Utah to ensure an oil company wouldn't clear habitat containing this species for their oil pads. Now they can drill for oil, and it won't affect this species. Surely that is more 'environmentally sensitive' than letting them build and drill wherever they want, and potentially destroying that species' habitat. The point is, until we perfect cleaner energy technologies we will need to drill for oil (you need to drive your car, right?), but we can try to do it in the most responsible and respectful way possible.

I am NOT in the oil buisness, but I am a realist. We need to drill for oil for the foreseeable future to maintain our society. But that doesn't mean we need to drill everywhere. I'm all for protecting the ecology of Blackwater State Park, so jump on the bandwagon people! I guess I just think it's important to get a balanced view of an issue, thus all the rhetoric...

I'm going to bed. lol

Edit: Just an added thought. For all I know (or any of us, I think), they won't even be drilling within five miles of any carnivorous plant or rare/fragile habitat, even though they may be in the same state park. Ideally, I think that kind of information should be provided by the person starting the petition. But I'm not willing to take that chance; therefore, I signed the petition...

 

[richjam1986]

Seriously only six people have responded to this post? Lets show some support to preserve some CP habitat people!
After all my ranting about the ambiguity of the issue at hand, I still think it's a good cause to support!

 

[hazedshaman]

I did not feel I needed to also respond to the post as well. I apoligize... I feel that it being state land the state, florida, will end up doing what it wants in the end.. I hve passed this petition onto my father who is a luetenat in the nys dec as well as forwarding it to my fathers good friend senator douglas barkley, who live here in my hometown. I will try to push this around some very influential people here in ny to see if we can get something stirred up. Also I feel that someone with good writing skills should send something into a newspaper to see if that could stir something up

 

[BioZest]

I hope this proposed mining is knocked down like SOPA was by like, the entire Internet. XP

 

[East_to_west]

I just saw this and signed. It took me a while to find this section but I'm fairly new to this site. It's really shocking to me than not close everyone who frequents this forum have signed this petition. I'll do my best to spread the word. I hope this is still ongoing...