Protect the Girl Scout Little House Pine Rockland Forest
The Girl Scout Little House, located at 6609 SW 59 Street, is a property owned by the City of South Miami under a 99 year lease to the Girl Scouts of Tropical Florida. Girl Scouts have been stewards of this pine rockland natural forest community for the past 60 years and take pride in protecting and educating our girls about this unique forest fragment habitat and wildlife.
The City of South Miami Parks & Recreation Department, tasked with identifying additional "green spaces" for its residents, is proposing that this leased land be opened up to the community as a passive park. We believe that this would be detrimental to the forest community in several ways:
1. It would encourage more foot traffic along the trails and a negative impact to the habitat as a result
2. Splitting the property into half or even thirds would greatly reduce the habitat of the wildlife currently living within the forest (most notably a family of red foxes that have lived there for over 35+ years)
3. Open access to the public would also mean it would become vulnerable to vandalism, trash, etc. that it is currently protected from.
We propose that the City of South Miami honor their current lease agreement with the Girl Scouts. We would also encourage the City of South Miami to instead restore the 60 feet of city-owned property to the west of the Girl Scout leased property (from Ludlam Rd. to the fence line between 59 & 60 Streets) to its natural pine rockland forest state. Rather than taking away from the scouts, the creation of a new park from this existing empty lot would encourage community involvement, stimulate awareness of pine rockland habitats, create a sound barrier from traffic on Ludlam Road, eliminate the current trash/empty lot eyesore and be a more accessible park for all residents to enjoy.
Please sign this petition of you support protecting the existing Girl Scout Little House property and like the idea of creating a NEW park on the adjacent empty lot.
