A staff writer for a Key West newspaper recently wrote that the outlook for purchasing high-quality hammocks in the Florida Keys was dim. This same reporter also stated that there might be little support in the near future for these same hammocks threatened by developers.

I totally disagree with this half-glass empty opinion and wonder why this reporter would take such a negative view to what I see as one of the best things that has ever happened between the county of Monroe and the state of Florida.

Representatives of the Monroe Board of County Commissioners, Growth Management, County Attorney's Office, Land Authority, the Department of Environmental Protection's Division of State Lands, Florida Communities Trust, Trust for Public Lands, and The Nature Conservancy met with the committee chairmen of Natural Resources and Local Government and Veterans Affairs, along with 14 representatives of the state House, for two days in Marathon to discuss ways to provide funding for the purchase of these high-quality hammocks. These meetings called for by our local Rep. Ken Sorensen will provide near- and long-term funds to retire development rights on the remaining sections of hammock left in the Florida Keys.

The short-term solution will be that Eva Armstrong of DEP's Division of Lands will be relocating the land-acquisition team from the Golden Gates property acquisition project in Collier County to Monroe County to purchase land in Big Pine with an estimated cost to the state of $93 million.

The other short-term solution will be to transfer $2.5 million out of the Monroe County Land Authority Rate of Growth Ordinance reserve for any hammocks that are currently for sale.

The long-term solutions to buying up the remaining property will be to request reoccurring funds through the legislative process from the Florida Communities Trust and other Florida funding sources.

Groups like The Nature Conservancy will help coordinate the purchase of these lands, using local Realtors to speed up the process to lower the risk of development.

Last but not least, Colleen Castille [secretary] of the Department of Community Affairs, Teresa Tinker of the governor's office, along with other state agencies and 16 lawmakers from the Florida House of Representatives, have a first-hand knowledge of the unique problems that Monroe County faces. Each of these parties has now become an advocate for the preservation of these precious lands that exist nowhere else but the Florida Keys.

A statement from Rep. Mary Brandenburg, West Palm Beach, sums up the effects of the meeting perfectly. She said, "You have opened my eyes, and I expect we will be talking in the future more about the specific ways we are going to solve these problems."

Murray E. Nelson

Mayor Pro Tem

District 5, Key Largo