Shifting Baselines in Wakulla Springs, FL

Chuck Hesse wrote to the Tallahassee Democrat this past weekend about shifting baselines and Wakulla Springs, FL. Here is what he wrote:

Shifting baselines erase natural beauty

Each individual has a baseline, or initial image, which is set the first time an area is seen; so your first visit to Wakulla springs, your first trip to the woods, your first fishing trip to the gulf, etc. sets your personal baseline. As time passes small changes occur. These small changes are usually accepted as the cost of progress or for the good of the community. However, when changes are accumulated over time there can be remarkable changes that remain unnoticed.

Wakulla Springs is an excellent local example of a shifting baseline. In the early 1980s water quality at Wakulla Springs allowed the glass-bottom boats to run an average of 200 days a year. Today, only 50 days is more the norm. This change in water quality occurred over decades and very little was done to address the problem. The lack of an outcry did not mean that people didn't care; instead most people who were new to the county had their baseline set after major change had taken place.

Our forests are much the same way. Many have never seen the well-burned longleaf forest described by the early explorers of the Southeast. Our baseline was set by seeing the fire-excluded forest of timber-company lands that dominate the South.

Sadly, the shifts are so gradual that changes we make today may only be noticed in our children's lifetime. We must reconsider our decision-making process! The short-term question is usually how much money we will make from the decision, but the real question is what legacy are we leaving our grandchildren.

Instead of a legacy of unspoiled/well-managed systems, we are setting disappointingly low baselines for our children where greed and quick money have motivated the decisions that they will have to live with.
CHUCK HESS
Crawfordville