[ft-l] Potts Preserve

>A few weeks ago (July 18th), I went walking through Potts Preserve
>(aka Potts WMA) along the western trails and found that someone had started
>to dismantle one of the bridges that span a canoe/boat access waterway into
>the preserve property.
>- Carl Strohmenger

carl, i believe that the air boaters and the water management people are
battling over the legality of the foot bridges.  if you want facts, email
ftarich@aol.com    rich armstrong is a trail master in potts and helped
build the bridges.

i might add that rich led my paddle club up gum slough a couple of weeks
ago.  gum slough is in the potts area, but across the  withlacoochee and
it's about a seven-mile spring run mostly owned by the nature conservancy &
water management (don't quote me on this.  or  EVER...about ANYTHING).
anyway, we paddled kayaks and canoes up this pristeen wilderness.......
crystal clear  water only 6" deep in spots, narrownig down to barely a
canoe width in places, to the headspring. we stopped to picnic & swim along
the way, careful, as always, to leave no trace.  on the way out, we began
hearing the noise of an angry, laboring motor.  about two miles in from the
river we met a man in an air boat ramming his way upstream through the
vegetation and over the lovely shallow river bottom.  he had chainsawed off
pilings that were wide enough to allow canoes but too close together for
his air boat.  as a result of his project, the spring run had been turned
to opaque brown mud.  we constantly bumped and scraped our boats those last
two miles back out to the river because we could not see obstacles in the
shallow muddy water.

Never knock on Death's door.
 Ring the doorbell and run.
 ( He hates that ! )
Later....Sandy


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