Capt. Gus'

Crabby Adventures

Gus's Crabby Adventures-Oyster Reef Designs,Inc.
3031 Manatee Ave.
Ruskin, FL 33570
ph: 813-645-6578
alt: 813-645-6063/758-1863
baychopgus@tampabay.rr.com

Uzita Conservation Area Update #7

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/jul/08/na-gus-wants-to-save-his-florida/

Top Stories
Park Being Proposed as Best Path to Preservation
By
Jun 10, 2009 - 8:07:23 PM

By Melody Jameson
mj@observernews.net

RUSKIN -- Two local leaders are taking their campaign for a Ucita Park on the road, beginning

this week.

On Thursday morning (June 11), Gus Muench and Fred Jacobsen will be making the case for

protecting a large chunk of threatened Tampa Bay shoreline south of Ruskin before the Agency

on Bay Management (ABM), an arm of the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. Muench, a

Hillsborough County native and lifelong fisherman, along with Jacobsen, current president of the Ruskin Community Development Foundation, will be looking for support of their plan to make the existing Cockroach Bay Preserve plus area around it a large county park honoring the region’s first known natives, the Ucitas.

After the ABM session, their next stops will be at the offices of county commissioners the following week. In all instances, the two strong Ruskin promoters will be laying out the case for establishing protections of the environmentally sensitive section under a single management – before the opportunity to do so is lost beyond recovery, they said this week.

In order to create a Ucita Park as part of the Hillsborough County park system, the number of agencies which control or hold portions of the property must come together on the project, Muench said. Various parcels in the potential park acreage, stretching from the river southward to the county line, are held by assorted agencies including the Southwest Florida Water Management District, the Tampa Bay Port Authority, and Hillsborough’s environmental lands acquisition program, he said.

For years, Muench, who lives on the south shore of the Little Manatee River, has called attention to the loss of sea grass habitat essential to survival of small marine life. Jacobsen, a dedicated student of local history dating from the pre-Columbian era, speaks routinely of the area’s significance in charting South Hillsborough is evolution from a hunting and gathering culture to agriculture to contemporary development.

Together, with their first hand knowledge and with the help of a power point presentation, they’re calling for the county park as the optimum remaining means of conserving a South County environmental jewel on the brink, Muench said. Both wetland and upland habitat, the Cockroach

Bay area is the second largest shore bird rookery on Tampa Bay , is the site of the 1539 landing of the Hernando Desoto expedition and was the historic home of the Ucitas. In addition, it is the last mostly untouched section of Tampa Bay shoreline, Muench pointed out. The existing Cockroach Bay Preserve along with the uplands and wetlands surrounding it represent a short-term opportunity to save something valuable as an eco-tourism destination, valuable as the site of historic activities, valuable as wildlife sanctuary, valuable as a natural environment for humans to recharge, Jacobsen asserted.

But time is limited, Muench added. A proposed shipping container project and looming dredging of Tampa Bay at the Port of Manatee jeopardizes the potential park from the south. And, development is encroaching from the north, he said. On the other hand, the Florida Department of Transportation and the state’s parks division recognize the historical significance, Jacobsen pointed out. One of the first historical marker kiosks at the southern end of the DeSoto Trail will be established in the existing preserve before the end of the year, he said, and a full-time ranger is to remain on the site.

A good model for the Ucita park might be the Weedon Island Preserve on the western shore

of Tampa Bay in Pinellas County , Muench said, where both archeological and environmental resources have been saved for the enjoyment of future generations.

Gus wants to save his Florida

By STEVE OTTO Steve Otto

sotto@tampatrib.com sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: July 8, 2009

For a while, after the completion of Interstate 75 south of Tampa, it appeared as if much of

Gus' world would remain isolated from the crush of development. Businesses dried up along U.S.

41, the old route south that cut through Gibsonton and continued on to Apollo Beach and Ruskin

(with a stop at the old Coffee Cup restaurant) and on into Bradenton and Sarasota.

Of course, it was only a temporary pause. Land - waterfront land - is a finite resource, and

gradually developers began working their way along the shoreline all the way to the Little

Manatee River and Cockroach Bay.

Gus Muench is a crabber. He gets up before dawn and heads out into the water before most of

us have tuned in to the first traffic report. He builds artificial oyster reefs. He largely was

responsible for the signs and buoys near launching docks used as guides to protect the

environment.

The man from Cockroach Bay

He is as much a part of that landscape as the mounds that mark the old Uzita Indian village. He

has been fighting a decades-long battle to preserve not just the land, but the fragile

environment as well. Among his ideas is the establishment of a park - and not just any park.

Here is a small part of a letter he sent last week:

"Born in Tampa, I moved to Cockroach Bay 39 years ago...The Uzita Indian village sat on the

banks of the Little Manatee River and those native people lived away from a world of population

expansion for hundreds of years. When Hernando de Soto sailed into Tampa Bay their lives

changed forever and they ultimately disappeared.

"In 1976 I started commercially harvesting blue crabs and gill netting mullet. And times were

good. Today there are more crab traps than blue crabs and we ask what happened.

"In 1986 I started the Little Manatee Preservation Committee and we did a survey. We

counted eight boats one day. Today that number is more than 100. What will it be like when all of

north Manatee and south Hillsborough counties are urbanized? Boaters continue to ignore rules

and destroy sea grass with outboard motors.

"A small group of us are creating 'Friends of the Uzita Heritage Park.' We're lobbying for a

new county park to replace Cockroach Bay Park. The boundaries would start at the Little

Manatee River, run to the Manatee County line and include county and state uplands, with

submerged lands out to a six-foot depth. Sea grasses would be listed as areas of critical

concern. The county's EPC Environmental Protection Commission has counted more than 30,000

prop scars. We want to create a new Uzita Heritage Park dedicated to low-impact recreation

and then create a sister cultural learning center such as the Weedon Island Preserve in Pinellas

County."

Friends of the Uzita

Muench thinks all of this can be done with land already owned by various governmental entities.

His group is planning an organizational meeting at 6 p.m. July 15 at the Ruskin Library. There are

lots of issues and pros and cons, but Gus Muench is on to something, and that something is a

piece of old Florida like you never will see again. He deserves to be listened to.

Gus's Crabby Adventures-Oyster Reef Designs,Inc.
3031 Manatee Ave.
Ruskin, FL 33570
ph: 813-645-6578
alt: 813-645-6063/758-1863
baychopgus@tampabay.rr.com