UCF’s Request for the Release of Protected Land Sparks Heated Opposition
Housing, News, Politics, UCF Administration — By Samantha Krop on January 21, 2011 at 12:59 pmThe University of Central Florida prides itself in a decided shift towards environmental consciousness with newly implemented “green” projects. However, the integrity of UCF’s eco friendly program has been challenged by students and alumni due to the university’s recent request for the removal of protected status on land set aside as part of a plan for conservation.
The 7.8 acres of land UCF requested lose its protected status are part of the UCF Arboretum and are located near the University’s Organic Community Garden. In order to ensure the proposal meets the requirements outlined by St. Johns Water Management District, UCF offered a “swap” to protect an area of wetland on the outskirts of campus in exchange for the release of the 7.8 acres in dispute.
The Arboretum is prohibited land, according to the interactive map on arboretum.ucf.edu.
“The proposed swap area currently is in much better ecological condition than the area being released, and it serves as a buffer between campus and the Little Econ River,” UCF’s spokesman, Grant Heston, said in a statement.
Heston’s statement did not mention the reasons for the poor ecological condition of the area being sought after. But Emily Ruff, director of the Florida School of Holistic Living and UCF Alumna, gave KnightNews.com a history lesson about how she says UCF is responsible for the deterioration of the section of land, which under an easement guaranteeing protection from St John’s Water District since 2002, used to be a pristine ecosystem of native Florida plants.
Ruff, who has been working with organizations such as UCF’s Student Sustainability Alliance (SSA) to organize efforts to protect the Arboretum land, pointed out how a hurricane in 2004 caused the area to endure “moderate treefall.” Soon after, Ruff said UCF damaged the natural habitat and violated easement regulations by bulldozing, mulching and remodeling the natural land into what the UCF Board of Trustees called a “world garden,” replacing the natural Florida ecosystem with non native plants.
UCF Alumna Emily Ruff Shares Arboretum’s History
Found in violation of district policy, UCF was then issued a fine and ordered to remove the “world garden” and restore the area back to the state it was in before being subject to construction. UCF did remove the garden but failed to restore the area to the condition that it once was, Ruff said, although they already spent nearly twenty thousand dollars on seeds, trees and other materials that would be needed for restoration.
If the plea for repeal of the easement is approved, UCF will no longer have to pay the fine or restore the damaged land to the natural ecosystem it once was. In addition, new information has surfaced suggesting the wetlands proposed for protection in the swap appear to already be under protection by the 1984 Henderson Wetlands Protection Act requiring the Department of Environmental Protection to approve of mitigation plans prior to approving the development of wetland areas. If that’s the case, then before wetlands are developed, in order for there to be no net loss, the developer must have a working plan to either restore or create a new wetland area. Hence, critics argue, the proposed swap is more of an attempt to placate opposition than a fair deal.
Ruff pointed out that many of the students on UCF campus aren’t really aware of what’s going on.
“The construction happened years ago,” she said. “What most students today identify with that part of campus is the community garden, not the extremely biodiverse ecosystem that was destroyed beforehand.”
The garden is not within the easement area, or the Arboretum for that matter. However, it is in a “buffer zone” which is required for land surrounding the easement. So if there is no easement, there is no buffer zone, leading to an apparent “slippery slope.”
Critics say that there has been a definite lack of information about UCF’s plans for expansion concerning the Arboretum and other protected areas. After a great deal of pressuring from those opposed to UCF’s plans, the university offered one opportunity for students and faculty to take part in an open debate with members of administration.
However, notification was given three days before the scheduled date of the conference, during the week of the Thanksgiving holiday when few students remained on campus to hear the news. To date, Ruff says, this has been the only instance the university has humored its students in objection to repealing the protection of arboretum lands.
In order for UCF to begin executing plans for the disputed land, Governor Rick Scott must authorize the release of the protected area. Efforts are currently being made by various environmental organizations to gain support for the land under protected easement. Supporters of the cause can help by signing a petition at the Florida School of Holistic Living website.
Ruff says, “Directly contacting St. Johns Water District as well as Governor Rick Scott is as powerful as a thousand signatures on a petition.”
Although the proposed switch of protected land may appear environmentally sound, or “green” at a glance, Ruff believes a closer look at the facts will reveal a quite different story.
Heston says, “There are no definitive plans for the site at this point, but it will support research and academic facilities.”
Director of the Arboretum, Dr. Patrick Bohlen, explicitly notes that, “The University is pursuing release of the easement so that the area can be used for Academics and Research facilities…”
One can only speculate at what UCF administration may be planning to do with the Arboretum section in dispute, but given that the request is to repeal legislation protecting a piece of land, critics, like Ruff, are convinced it is quite clear that future plans don’t have the health of the natural habitat in mind.
Check back to KnightNews.com for our continuing coverage of UCF’s Arboretum Under Attack.
Tweet This
Digg This
Share on Facebook
Stumble it
24 Comments
People are saying UCF is getting too crowded so they should build more. How about lowering the number of admissions? Other universities have figured it out. Its a complete mess.
“There will be plenty of trees to go around.” Yeah, until people like you decide that a stupid building that’s used just to reep in more tuition money is more worthy of the space than the very things that give you oxygen. Let’s just keep going and going and going and going until there’s nothing left. Are you seriously so blind that you can’t see what’s happening to this planet? It’s not just about 8 acres. It’s about how some self serving people are too ignorant to stop while they’re ahead. How about UCF just limit the amount of students it brings in and have beautiful entrance requirements like UF? Like I said, it’s all about the tuition money.
Building more buildings does not make classes smaller. Hiring more professors would, but its a different budget. In the time I have been here UCF has opened Engineering 3, Psychology, Physical Sciences, and my classes have been the same size.
The reason UCF has a hardon to build is it is cheaper to justify a building in the long run than the cost of hiring a professor and guaranteeing them tenure pay until retirement, what a shame.
And the reason Arboretum looks like crap is because UCF has worked on making it look like crap so they can justify removing it. This happened in Southwest Florida a decade ago. The city was banned from building on protected mangrove forests. So, the developers poisoned the trees so that they would die and people were okay with the demolition.
there is so much wildlife in that area, building would destroy all their homes! plus stop complaining about parking, if it’s such a big deal build up on parking garages instead of tearing down more land!
UCF should be proud of the articulate young Ms. Emily Ruff. As a recent UCF alumna she has presented the case well.
In a recent letter to the SJRWMD I also commented commented:
“The fact is that the University will always be looking for more developable land upon which to expand facilities. Nevertheless, in these unending quests for bricks and mortar development, the University must strive to hold onto original Central Florida landscape remnants within their own boundaries to forever serve natural classroom facilities. It is exactly the incremental loss of such areas (locally and regionally) that has lessened the opportunity for the coming generations of students to see and understand firsthand the nuanced and special natural features of the Central Florida landscape. In addition, the proposed tradeoff area is primarily within the 100 year floodplain and wetlands that are essentially already protected under the existing regulatory regime. Further, the proposed tradeoff area is not as well integrated to existing student learning facilities as is the existing Arboretum and associated conservation easement area.”
Very interesting article post. Your article is extremely interesting. I liked this article. This article is fantastic! I have to say that after continually reading terrible as in, same old ideas, little quality content, etc. article posts on other sites, it’s nice to actually read something that has some thought put into it. It’s a pleasure to read good article posts, especially after continually seeing rehashed %$!# that writers and bloggers are throwing out nowadays. It’s always nice when I come across content that actually has value, I’ve been seeing a ton of subpar writing attempts lately. Anyways, thanks again and I’ll check back regularly to see what else you have to offer. I’ll check back in the future to see what else you have up your sleeve. Keep up the fine work! BTW, I like your site design, but your header image was only loading half way for me. P.S. Your header is messed up a bit in IE. The problem could be on my end but I thought you might want to look into that.
When universities first began, students made up the decisions of what the professor taught and how the university was ran.
Nowadays, students’ voices aren’t even being heard! Higher educational institutions exist because of students and their want to learn!
Shouldn’t we be able to take a stand…….and win?
You may be right on how UCF isn’t a democracy…. but don’t they have a responsibility to follow the legal mandates and regulations by state agencies… such as the St. Johns?
I’m pretty sure no one is disputing their blatant violations.
1. UCF is not a democracy and is not run by “majority rules” votes. This is why the students dont get a “say”.
2. UCF has a primary mission of education and research and needs to space for such. Which would be more beneficial to the environment, 8 acers of trees or an environmental lab that researches solutions to chronic global issues such as global warming or clean energy?
Some people cant see the forest for the trees…
The story on Local 6 had a quote from Ruff that caught my eye.
“UCF’s growth philosophy mimics that of cancer – growth for the sake of growth,” Ruff said. “They have continuously shown disregard for the environmental resources for which they are responsible, and even more for public input over decisions regarding the ecological resources they are supposed to steward.”
http://www.clickorlando.com/news/26552017/detail.html
In addition to “protected,” Arboretum lands being destroyed (once again), there is another serious issue going on here. Regardless of whether you are for or against development, there is a problem with the fact that UCF has shown absolutely no regard for what student have to say about this matter. The single meeting giving students an opportunity to speak out was more of an attempt to placate opposition than to earnestly listen to what the university’s paying students have to say. How many people heard of the plans for this chunk of land before this article? The student body was never directly informed by administration because when it comes to plans for expansion, infinitesmal growth is seen as inevitable. Either way, its pretty clear that we should have a say in what goes on at our university.
Build around the Arboretum???? How about stop building. Period. You cannot build forever. To think so is delusional.
Ask yourself, “Why keep building?” and after you answer this, ask “Why” again. Get to the “ends” of what all of this “development” is “for.” If the best you can come up with is some vague notion of “success” or to be “rich” you have not pushed your questioning far enough, though if you think you have, explain why. If you cannot provide justification, then the next logical step would be to give up these irrational ideas.
Additionally, any appeal to the “good of UCF” or the undefined “success” of the university, is insufficient and, at best, a watered-down nationalism (if you suppose otherwise, take note of the frenzied herds at football games…so much passion and heart over a game while, in the meantime, the world is being systematically destroyed…i mean “developed.”
The land around the student union should stay due to the fact that nothing worth building would fit in that space. But the other plots of land near gemini and by the softball field can go. It’s pointless to let land sit there unused when expansion is necessary. There will still be plenty o’ trees to go around.
I would say the Union boardwalk is pretty sacred… so is Memory Mall… so is Lake Claire… so is the rest of the Arboretum.
These are eight acres we’re talking about! There are still hundreds more under conservation. Plus, I’ve walked by that chunk behind Engineering 3 for years and nothing’s been done there. It’s a waste of space. Who would want a retreat right next to three large research buildings and a four-lane road? I say do the swap. At least by swapping the areas you don’t lose conservation land.
You bring up a really good point. NYC is the biggest city in the USA but they still have green space there… and it’s SACRED. UCF needs some sacred space of its own right in the heart of campus. To destroy it would be EXACTLY like destroying central park.
BUILD AROUND THE ARBORETUM BUT DONT PAVE OVER IT!
When is “enough” actually going to be enough? It literally makes no sense to continue development with no plans to stop (there is, in fact, no “cap” on growth mentioned in UCF’s master plan). The paradigm of, theoretically, infinite expansion is just bad-math when situated on a finite planet.
Calls to “mow it down and build” are senseless and shortsighted. This sort of thinking is precisely what is causing extinction rates to soar 3000 times the background rate (Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson) constituting what is now the sixth mass extinction in the history of the world. Go ahead, undercut your means to living, but don’t expect those who understand the paradigm of infinite expansion to threaten their and other’s existence to go down without a fight.
The arboretum can go, but the area around the student union should stay. The arboretum has kind of sucked for years.
I’m very torn on this topic. I want to see lands protected at UCF since it’s one of the things that makes our campus so beautiful. At the same time, I want to see our university succeed. The expansion of academic and research facilities along with academic programs can only help our national prominence and stature. At least with the “swap” the same amount of land is being retained, despite it being in a less desirable condition.
I am all for protecting Florida’s overall natural resources, but doing so right next to a major University is just poor planning from the start and people being closed minded. Our community needs to be able to develop the land near UCF. We need space to train Florida’s students, conduct major research and more. The ideal compromise is to find more land that is not developed elsewhere and apply the protected status. UCF could also use a lot more trees around campus as well.
The arboretum is “UCF’s Central Park” ? LMAO .. what?!
Pretty sure Central Park has thousands and thousands of visitors each day. The arboretum is a swamp that only a hand full of people venture off into a day. There WILL be trees planted next to the new buildings.. get over it.
Want smaller class sizes? We need more buildings! That is where the proposed Classroom II is going to be built. Mow it down and build!
The Arboretum is UCF’s Central Park!
New Yorkers would stop Central Park from being developed, why shouldn’t we stand up to fight for the arboretum.
where is Kilbride on this? Why didn’t the reporter ask him his stance… he’s the voice of the students.
I am all for the environment as well as saving and giving back to nature, but UCF is maxing out its available resources. We have traffic and parking issues as well as overcrowded classrooms. In order to maintain prominence in the state and the country in route to continual growth as well as adding more facilities that can bring in more research and sports funding I think this is just the next step. Unfortunate, but necessary.
I would personally like to see some more development at UCF. We should widen the road and make some more parking. I’m for anything that makes the traffic move faster.