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Last Stand
celebrates 20 years
By Alyson Crean
acrean@keynoter.com
Environmental
stewards keep it green
Without a handful of concerned citizens, the Keys would be a
very different place.
Test missiles might fire every week from Cudjoe Key and be shot
down over the backcountry. Two waterfront nature preserves could
now be bristling with condos. Oil rigs might have sprouted from
the coral reef.
Twenty years ago, though, a handful of outraged citizens banded
together and called themselves Last Stand. They helped stop the
missiles, drew attention to proposed oil drilling and over the
years preserved rare green space in the Keys.
Over two decades the faces have changed, as have some of the
issues, but the fire and dedication is as strong as ever.
“There's a relentless push from the other side for development,”
Last Stand President Albert Sullivan says “The threat is always
there. It's important to educate the new people about protecting
the Keys as being different from the rest of Florida.”
Sullivan's been on the board more than three years.
Last Stand celebrated its 20th anniversary Sunday at the Nancy
Foster Eco Discovery Center, the main office of the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary at the Truman Waterfront in Key West.
Appropriate, since Last Stand was instrumental in helping
establish the sanctuary in the mid-1990s.
The nonprofit group originally came together to protect Key
West's Salt Ponds from development.
“Going back to the very beginning,” board member
Dennis Henize said, “preservation of the Salt Ponds has always
been considered a big success.”
Henize has lived in the Keys more than 30 years. He's been on
Last Stand's board for about eight.
During Sunday's celebration, he was awarded Florida's Community
Steward Award by the 1000 Friends of Florida, a nonprofit
environmental group.
“Dennis's intelligence, level-head, integrity, work ethic,
commitment and good humor have been among the most important
assets the Keys' environmental community has had over the last
30 years,” said environmental attorney Richard Grosso, who
nominated Henize.
Not every fight was a success; many resulted in mixed outcomes.
Last Stand tried vigorously to stop development of Peary Court,
a U.S. Navy-owned chunk of land between White Street and Palm
Avenue in Key West. [One board member went
so far as to threaten to blow up developers, eventually serving
prison time for his passionate opposition to the housing that
now occupies the area.] [NOTE:
This is NOT correct. The individual referred to was
a Key West City Commissioner, NOT a Last Stand board member.]
A proposed waterfront development called Watermark ended up a
mixed ending.
Last Stand opposed the expensive condos at the Key West Bight,
faulting plans that exceeded the city's own height limitations.
Last Stand won and the condos didn't go up. However, Harbor
House is now breaking ground on the same site. It is within the
height limits, so there's no impetus for Last Stand to fight it.
There's a long list of issues the 275-member organization
continues taking stands on:
- Overall habitat preservation.
When Margaret Mead said “a small group of thoughtful people
could change the world,” a plucky bunch in Monroe County
took it to heart. And indeed, they have.
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