Debate rises on ’Glades bike trail
Bicyclists want safe pathway; others see the harm to nature
A proposal for a 76-mile paved bike path through the Everglades has run into trouble, with growing opposition from an unusually broad group that includes hunters, environmentalists and residents of the Miccosukee villages along the route.
The Naples Pathway Coalition, the bicycling group that proposed the project, has dropped its involvement. Instead, a separate nonprofit group has been created, called Friends of the River of Grass Greenway.
Backers of the plan are now talking of starting modestly with a free trolley from the Miami suburbs to the Shark Valley entrance to Everglades National Park, a service that may prove popular but that’s far from the ambitious Miami-to-Naples cycling route called for in the proposal.
The paved path would be 12 to 14 feet wide and run parallel to Tamiami Trail, with possible spurs to points of interest such as Everglades City. Initial plans envision trail heads every 10 or 12 miles with parking, restrooms, water, picnic shelters and vending machines.
Despite the opposition, no one is counting out the project, which has support from many cyclists eager for
safe places to ride in a state that has the highest rate of fatal bicycle accidents in the United States.
Patty Huff, an Everglades City cyclist and one of the originators of the proposal, said it remains popular with people around the state andwould allow people to safely experience and appreciate the Everglades.
“I think the benefits would be environmental education, stewardship of the land, teaching people about the Everglades,” she said. “When you get closer to nature, you appreciate more your surroundings. It would be opening up a new way of seeing the Everglades.”
Miami-Dade County, the lead agency for the initial planning, expects to complete a feasibility study and master plan by November or December, said Mark Heinicke, project manager for the county’s parks and recreation department. The plan will identify possible routes, access points, environmental issues, public benefits and public interest in the project. He is going through 485 letters and emails filed as comments on the project.
Among them is a letter in opposition organized by the Sierra Club and signed by representatives of a wide variety of organizations that often find themselves on the opposite sides of environmental debates.
The letter states the project would “destroy wetlands, disrupt watersheds, fragment critical wildlife habitat, encroach on indigenous lands, desecrate burial grounds, disturb historic battlefields, undermine Everglades restoration and result in commercial development of the Big Cypress and Greater Everglades. ... It undermines the efforts of Everglades restoration at a time when the Everglades ecosystem is already under great distress.”
Among the dozens of signers are representatives of hunting groups, such as the Everglades Coordinating Council, Safari Club International, United Waterfowlers of Florida, the Collier Sportsmen & Conservation Club, and the Florida Sportsmen’s Conservation Association. Also signing were representatives of environmental groups, including Greenpeace, the South Florida Wildlands Association, Center for Biological Diversity, Love the Everglades Movement and Everglades Trust.
But the project has many supporters, judging from the comments filed in response to the plan.
“We need these kind of trails to encourage people to exercise and do it safely,” wrote Gale Cote, of Melbourne. “Also a great resource to see and experience nature.”
“This trail is of great importance to those who enjoy biking in the state of Florida,” wrote Jeremy Ferrell, of Palm Beach. “Seems like every day another story surfaces regarding a cyclist hit by a vehicle in the roads of South Florida.
“This trail would provide a much-needed trail for bikers looking to safely travel across the state.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a study this year that found Florida’s bicycle accident fatality rate of 0.57 per 100,000 was the highest in the nation and more than double the national average.
But Frank Denninger, of Hialeah, who has hunted and fished in the Everglades for decades, said the project would compromise safety for people trying to drive or park along Tamiami Trailand would result in the destruction of cypress strands to make room for the trail.
Heinicke, the parks manager, said any steps to actually start building the trail would “take broad grass-roots support.”
In practical terms, he said the trail would be constructed over many years starting from its “bookends,” the sections closest to Naples and Miami. Built last would be the middle segment, the part running from Shark Valley to State Road 29, where he said there is the most controversy.
“I think the project team realizes that,” he said. “I think they will focus on the bookends before they do the middle.”
Jaime Doubek-Racine of the National Park Service said the next step after the completion of the plan this fall may be an early demonstration project involving a segment of the trail. Easiest to do, she said, may be a trolley service similar to one recently set up in Homestead to operate between Everglades and Biscayne national parks.
“Wewant to take an easy, doable, implementable project,” she said.