Governor commits to saving local environment

When you're stuck in an office cubicle taking a break to read some news online, you find yourself clicking on stories you might skim or skip over while eating your morning Cheerios.

Like budget stories.

But when I started reading about Gov. Charlie Crist and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp's budget priorities for the 2008-09 fiscal year, I was drawn to the write up announcing the Department of Environmental Protection's reaction to the news.

A DEP official praised the administration's strong commitment to maintaining environmental programs. I scanned the list. Nearly every mention of where the funds were targeted - the Everglades, the Caloosahatchee River, Lake Okeechobee, to name a few - gave me a moment to reflect.

Florida's great outdoors are, in a word, great.

Lake Okeechobee: It looks like a hole in the heart of Florida when you see it from a map. As a girl growing up in Oregon, I'd stare at the atlas and think about how that lake - the largest south of the Mason-Dixon line - would feel if I were on it a boat.

Fast forward to about 10 years ago. I left before sunrise with a colleague and a fishing guide. We launched at a ramp on the Rim Canal and wove through the marsh until we hit the open water. The sun emerged. It was a prickly skin experience. The bigole shallow lake felt as huge and magnificent as the Atlantic Ocean.

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTO The Caloosahatchee River is on the environmental priority list for Gov. Charlie Crist of places to protect and invest funds in during 2008-09. Its wildlife, such as brown pelicans, can be seen daily from shore and boats. Caloosahatchee River: When I came here for a job interview in November 1993, the soon-tobe bosses drove us around the beaches and such to show us the lovely side of Southwest Florida. Then on our last night of the multiday visit, an editor needed to get a pizza and headed up U.S. 41 to a North Fort Myers restaurant. Looking out the car window from the top of the Caloosahatchee Bridge, I met the river.

I loved it immediately. Its width. Its blue crab trap buoys dotting its surface. Its boats. Its downtown yacht basin. Its mangrove laced edges.

Today, it'd be hard to imagine life without this friend, the Caloosahatchee. Memories abound, from snook fishing at night near its mouth at Punta Rassa to morning rides in the fog over its glassy surface inland by Alva.

Everglades: For a place so written about, the Everglades aren't visited much by many of us who live here. Sure, international tourists and national park-lovin' road trippers go there, but what about most of us?

My first drive across the Tamiami Trail in 1994 left me thinking: No wonder. It's a place loaded with bugs, sharp blades of grass, muck that will suck your sandal off your foot in seconds, and whole lot of scary alligators that would be happy to take your foot once it got stuck.

But, of course, since then visits to canoe, hike and bird watch in the Everglades have let me see the River of Grass' better side. I love its orchids in Big Cypress. I love its vista from the top of the observation tower at Shark Valley. I love its unassuming beauty of just being a big, wet grassy place.

I'm glad it's on the Crist list, along with all the other projects.

Will politics get in the way and prevent these green places from staying green or getting the protection they need and deserve? Maybe. Will more news stories make promises to readers that may not be kept? Probably.

But in the meantime, I'll keep reading the stories. I'll keep trekking outdoors to these places. I'll keep bringing along my daughter and our houseguests to share them.

And I'll keep taking a break every now and then from my cubicle to enjoy the greatness of Florida's great outdoors even on the days when I can't get out there.

- Betsy Clayton is a freelancer based on Pine Island and also is Lee County Parks & Recreation's waterways coordinator. Contact her at boatingbybetsy@yahoo.com.

THE GOVERNOR'S 2008-09 ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITMENT

Gov. Charlie Crist and Lt. Gov. Jeff Kottkamp recently announced budget priorities, including:

>>Saving Lake Okeechobee: $50 million

>>Fixing the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers: $50 million

>>Restoring the Everglades: $100 million

>>Enhancing eco-tourism and recreation: $62 million

>>Conserving Florida's land: $300 million

>>Restoring Florida's waterways and enhancing water supply: $325 million

>>Promoting energy diversity for Florida: $200 million

More details: www.MyFlorida.com or www. dep.state.fl.us