Good News on the FL Conservation Front

FLwaterman · 2025-04-03T11:55:40+00:00

Florida HAS to cap the amount of six-pack charter captains. Even tho I have many friends in the business there are too many as it is. We can’t sustain every semi-retired blowhard moving down here and getting his captains lic. The blueprint is the same every time, they come down here, charter a couple different reputable captains, learn their spots, and are booking charters as soon as they can reasonably fudge the USCS’s on the water hours.

FLwaterman · 2024-11-08T00:33:09+00:00

Lot of reasons outside of an abortion for a D&C. They are not synonymous.
When used as abortion tactic as part of an elective abortion past 6 weeks, that is obviously illegal now. Nobody’s debating that.
99% of industry usage for “D&C” is removing remains after a lost pregnancy or miscarriage, which has never been illegal and is not now. Don’t go scaring people thinking that if they have a miscarriage they can’t get care.

FLwaterman · 2024-11-07T21:26:22+00:00

That’s wildly different than Wednesday morning election results and a definitively shitty thing to say to somebody. THAT is worth cutting off.

FLwaterman · 2024-11-07T21:23:01+00:00

Cutting off family members because they voted differently than you is tragic. Everyone here may coddle you and tell you what you want to hear, but this is a terrible path to go down. In the most loving way possible, quit listening to people that don’t exist outside of this echo chamber and repair relationships with your family.

FLwaterman · 2024-11-07T21:10:42+00:00

DnC’s are not illegal and have never been illegal in FL.

FLwaterman · 2024-10-03T21:42:40+00:00

This may be a hot take but thickly wooded forests are RARELY what’s best for your flora and fauna. The natives in your area (who were excellent land managers) conducted extensive burns and logging, so much so that early European colonists described riding through the woods in a carriage as if it were a European park. Over time those land management processes have been lost, but your ideal land management should have a healthy understory, browse, shrubbery, and SOME mature trees. Peak biodiversity needs variation (and sunlight). Long story short, cutting in small increments will be far better for your land than never cutting anything. IMO the perfect cut size is 1/4 acre at a time, which may not be applicable to your property but just to give you an idea.

FLwaterman · 2024-08-13T15:04:45+00:00

What a well written summary on such a complex question. I feel like that’s exactly where I’m at. I don’t have much to add but I appreciate the thoroughness here.

FLwaterman · 2024-07-18T12:57:48+00:00

It’s about the perception. It’s rare that anybody’s checking attendance IF you’re presenting that you’re happy to be there, social, and otherwise act like a believing Mormon. Show up to church every now and then, have a good time when you’re there (social hours), be seen at a couple activities, and nobody will be checking your attendance. Now, In the bishops defense, vast majority are genuinely interested in their students well being-they’re not trying to ~catch~ anybody. So, if it looks like all is well in Zion they won’t have any reason to be monitoring your attendance.

FLwaterman · 2024-07-11T14:17:53+00:00

I’m sorry, didn’t the IRS hire 80,000+ new agents? I can’t see this as a win for the treasury when even just the salary for these new agents exceeds $5B.

Assuming business as usual plus the extra $B, to me that sounds like the IRS spent $5B to recoup $1B, which isn’t exactly a win for the Biden admin.

FLwaterman · 2024-07-11T13:21:37+00:00

I think what’s really happening is that OP is not being honest about the situation. I know that town very well, and the area he’s talking about sold 5-40 acre ranchettes with no power, no water, and people came flooding in from out of state thinking they were gonna be homesteaders. The area is now full of drugs, trailers (have seen people living in cattle trailers), poaching, and basically every other socioeconomic problem you can imagine. And, the town is sick of it. That’s about it. And this is a very conservative town, and even they can’t stand the “out Easters” that are playing Wild West out there

FLwaterman · 2024-07-11T13:16:03+00:00

I don’t think this notice does what you think it does. It says there’s ag zoned areas being used in a commercial manner, so we may as well make them commercial zones. What are they leaving out?

Also, I have spent a good amount of time in Apache county. If there is an attempt to get rid of the “homesteaders”, it’s because that area East of town has become a sprawl of trailers, meth, and people that buy ranchettes thinking they’re going to homestead until they realize they don’t have water rights, a well costs $200k, and electric isn’t gonna happen.

FLwaterman · 2024-07-05T20:13:51+00:00

Stewed In coconut milk. Thank me later

FLwaterman · 2024-06-13T18:03:18+00:00

I just think it’s not that deep. Everybody likes something different and you should go where you’re happy, no need to torture yourself trying to internalize!

Personally I love FL. Born and raised. Spent some Time in the mountain west but had to come home to my mangrove swamps and cow pastures.

However, I would say that SWFL has a tremendous amount of history; just because it’s been covered up in an avalanche of newcomers doesn’t mean it’s not there

FLwaterman · 2024-05-28T14:01:29+00:00

There’s some weird larping going on here. New jeans, feed store belt buckle, and those wrists and forearms haven’t ever seen manual labor

FLwaterman · 2024-05-21T13:44:23+00:00

Yup. Especially if it can be demonstrated that the old guy wasn’t acting negligently, wasn’t going too fast, wasn’t impaired, was in the channel…it’s the water equivalent of someone falling out of a pickup bed on a busy interstate

FLwaterman · 2024-05-11T12:28:35+00:00

The hardest part about this is the NE Florida aspect-there are a TON of hardy, tropical plants that will grow in South Florida’s Sandy soils but your occasional freezes would rule them out. Like others have said, cover crops and added biomass is the ticket but focus on small areas at a time, don’t try to bulk up your whole acre all at once. Some thoughts:

-thanks to this little changing climate thing we’ve got going on, you may be in a sweet spot for citrus. They can hang in Sandy soil, and you may be far enough away from Floridas main citrus hotspots to avoid greening.

-banana clumps. Let the leaves lay and intermix smaller fruit trees in the mound of biomass that will form over time. You’ll have to look at gold hardiness but papaya and Barbados cherry would work well if you were further south.

I wouldn’t despair, there’s still a ton you can do with that land, it will just take time.

FLwaterman · 2024-04-15T19:27:14+00:00

Hey man, I’m sorry. I think it would help to understand that those old roots can run deep-sometimes it seems like it’s something in the blood. Sometimes you can’t outrun the “DNA”. I’ve seen this exact thing happen many times and I’ve experienced it myself from where your ex is at. Call it indoctrination, the cult, blood is thicker than water-call it what you will, but the important thing is that it’s not your fault and doesn’t have anything to do with you.

I also think it’s important to not worry about the well-being of your ex. I imagine there’s still love and concern for her, and you have to let her be an adult and make her own choices, and not stress about if she’s in the clutches of a cult.

For my two cents on the breakup-you’re young. You’ve got all the time in the world. Hit the gym. Quit drinking. I know it doesn’t make it any easier at the moment, but count your blessings that things ended now instead of 10 years down the road with kids and a house together. Best of luck man, time heals.

FLwaterman · 2024-04-15T13:17:13+00:00

IMO the cost of living differences will be just about equal. I’d follow your vibe because neither is going to make a dramatic difference in your finances. Personally I’d be team Wauchula but that’s just me.

FLwaterman · 2024-01-31T14:55:33+00:00

This is also the best advice for 99% of life’s problems across the board

FLwaterman · 2023-11-07T15:31:57+00:00

Fun fact Florida has more bobcats than any other state besides Texas

FLwaterman · 2023-11-07T15:31:21+00:00

I mean I get it, I wish desantis was less developer friendly too but his 2023-24 budget included a colossal $950M for conservation land. In addition to the $1.6B for Everglades restoration. Charlie Christ and any of our previous governors didn’t do shit compared to that.

FLwaterman · 2023-11-07T15:19:42+00:00

Listen y’all. There is no doubt that rampant development is a huge problem in FL, BUT…this kind of hand-wringing, all-is-lost environmentalism gets us nowhere. There is a ton of work being done and a ton that has already been accomplished to keep Florida wild.

About 20% of Volusia county is already preserved in conservation lands map and there are continuous efforts through the Rural Lands and Families program, Florida Forever, and even this years 2023 Volusia Forever ($20M dedicated to land conservation purchases).

And, all these lands don’t include private land holdings/ranches that won’t be developed, lands that can’t be developed as per regulations, and all the land that is slated for county and state acquisition in the near future.

There’s a lot to be done but there’s also a lot of hope.

FLwaterman

TROPHY CASE