"Being a lifelong native Floridian since I moved here in 1980, the dilemma posed by the speaker is particularly confusing..I mean, disturbing to me.  I remember being a budding environmentalist as a tennager in my formative years spending many a bright summer afternoon wandering around on the empty 1/4 acre lot next door to our Boca-style Di Vosta home in our planned subdivision - Valencia Lakes at Longleaf Pine Falls.

Unfortunately, I'm afraid that the citrus industry is here to staty and that we as taxpayers will not be able to replace lost plant communities cleared in favor of agriculture, or other development.

What we can do is maintain a proactive plan of action.  We must attempt to plan better in the future for the future in order to ensure that no entity retains the type of power that enables it to deforest these sensitive lands without A) having a good reason to do so, and B) without first obtaining prior approval of the Board of County Commissioners while flowing through the proper channels of progress.

In order to better understand the citrus industry's impact to the ecosystem, I'd like to commission a study.  This study should run concurrent to the study we commissioned a month ago that investigates the impact of longleaf pine stands and scrub on golf course construction costs.

While we're on the subject, I'd like to propose we re-commission our original study on fertilizer and pesticide run-off from citrus groves into the watershed. The insufficient findings of the previous study are......insufficient.

I'm convinced that if we study this situation long enough and closely enough that we'll eventually have the answers to what we are looking for."