Following is an excellent new video, “Paradise Lost,” by Klara Fletcher of Straight Arrow Productions of Lake Butler, FL. The subtitle “Unearthing the Destruction of Florida” is quite apt and gives us a clue as to its theme. Fletcher recently was graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Digital Media Technology from Santa Fe College.
Our Santa Fe River has been involved in this struggle from the beginning. Becky Parker first contacted your historian about five years ago with questions as to how to confront the mining threat. OSFR policy director Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson immediately began weekly sessions with residents living in the vicinity of the potentially mined lands and other concerned advocates in order to organize the resistance. The group later met bi-weekly but continued for several years. The group continues today as Citizens Against Phosphate Mining.
The film features two of the strongest advocates against the mine, Carol Mosley and Dr. Paul Still, both from Bradford County, where the biggest threat remains today. Mosley has appeared countless times before the Union and Bradford county commissioners speaking against the mine. She also spends a great deal of time researching mining and the state agencies. Still has participated in various challenges against the State regarding environmental issues and is an expert in Florida mining.
Jaclyn Lopez represents Center for Biological Diversity, an organization which has strongly opposed phosphate mining in Florida. The revealing scenes of HPS II co-owner Jack Hazen are taken from an earlier documentary by Alan Toth, and contain optimistic disinformation. Hazen professes to believe that God wants him to extract the phosphate from his land and that his mining would contaminate nothing.
At this point we are awaiting a court date in Union County to settle the HPS II legal challenge to the county for alleged lost revenues due to mining restrictions recently enacted.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
https://youtu.be/rbc6VqjkfHQ
Thank you for preparing this short but very informative video. We will be sharing it as widely as possible.
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