LTE | Illegal Dune Vegetation Removal at Madeira

It was with outrage and total disbelief, when I read Maria Lamb’s article in the current issue of the Coastal Breeze regarding the above subject. The blatant disregard of environmental laws is very disturbing and should be of great concern, especially for those, who are in charge of enforcing these laws. It must have been obvious for anyone watching the activities on the beach that the bulldozers were not there to help kids building sand castles. Where is the massive protest of concerned citizens and especially those residents, who are directly affected by the illegal removal? Hopefully the Florida DEP will live up to the responsibility in its name and force the law breakers to bring the beach back to the status quo ante, i.e. to replant all vegetation that was removed illegally. In addition it should impose significant monetary penalties – not just ridiculously low, meaningless fines – on the violators to deter future repeats.

Klaus-Peter Voss