Our local Loxahatchee group is one of 16 groups under the umbrella of the Sierra Club’s Florida chapter, which together represent tens of thousands of environmentalists.
In the 1970s
A group of local environmentalists in 1976 petitioned the Florida chapter to start a group here. The early group—which included Ron Haines, who is still actively involved—eventually became the Loxahatchee chapter. Loxahatchee is a Native American word for a turtle slough and is part of the name of our local A.R.M. Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
In the 1980s
The Loxahatchee group represented five area counties: Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee, and Indian River. (In the late 1990s Indian River was moved to a different group.) Land conservation became a large focus, especially after two FAU biologists, Grace Iverson and Daniel Austin, inventoried native ecosystems in Palm Beach County and flagged 14 of the 38 wetlands as potentially threatened. Although a bond measure supported by the club didn’t pass, Yamato Scrub on Clint Moore Road was preserved. When Iverson moved her home from Broward to Palm Beach County, she joined the group and guided its continued efforts to preserve sensitive lands.
In the 1990s
Along with other local environmental groups, our group’s successful citizen-supported education campaign resulted in voter approval of a $100 million bond referendum to buy preservation lands. This win was so valuable for the county it garnered several national awards, including from the National Association of Counties.
Another influential woman, Elaine Usherson, for whom the group’s current environmental camp scholarship program is named, helped keep up the focus on conservation. Under the leadership of Usherson and many others, another bond referendum, this time for $150 million, was passed by voters. The money went to purchase open lands, water-resource lands, and agricultural lands in Palm Beach’s Agricultural Reserve west of Boca, Delray, and Boynton. The latter was the area under attack during the recent GL Homes proposed “land swap,” which county commissioners voted down only after a major pressure campaign by our members and other environmentalists!
In the early 2000s
The group got involved in several hands-on activities, including an effort by more than 400 volunteers to plant almost 10,000 trees to reforest cypress stands at Loxahatchee Refuge.
Crucially, the group successfully beat back an effort by the Scripps Research Institute to build a several-thousand-acre Biotech Research Park on the site of Mecca Farms’ former orange grove. Since this land was adjacent to sensitive wetlands, environmentalists feared the impact not just from the research park but from the homes and sprawl that would result. Legal challenges across the state initially failed to stop this use of the property, but when a lawsuit by our Sierra Club (through the Everglades Law Center) caused a federal judge to rule that environmental study was required, Scripps decided not to wait the years this would take. An alternative (and much better, environmentally) site in Palm Beach Gardens was selected.
Our Sierra Club group also partnered with others to convert the overgrown, neglected Galaxy Pine Preserve into a viable gopher tortoise habitat and teaching tool. This effort is ongoing. If you want to volunteer to remove invasives as part of our group outings there, check out the event schedule.
What will the 2020s bring?
Become an active member of our group and help determine our activities and these counties’ future! Join Today. Become a champion.