By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Most residents who have lived here for any period of time don’t think of gold, silver, and diamonds when someone mentions Levy County’s treasures. They think of the county’s springs, rivers, vast forests, millions of acres of clean water, and abundant wildlife.

            These are Levy County’s treasures.

            Longtime resident Robbie Blake wants to preserve these ecological gems by establishing a wildlife corridor in the county that would serve a dual purpose of protecting the county’s priceless watershed rather than trampling it with a toll road.

            She said cities, businesses, rural residents, farms, and wild creatures use the watershed and depend on the abundant clean water supply in Levy County for their survival. The watershed stores water for the dry times. She opposes the Northern Turnpike Extension being built in Levy County.

            She asked State Rep. Chuck Clemons and State Sen. Keith Perry, members of the Levy County Legislative Delegation, to consider establishing a wildlife corridor or water corridor in Levy County similar to what exists in the eastern part of the state. She spoke to the lawmakers at the county’s legislative delegation hearing on Jan. 20.

            “When you have no wildlife or water corridor like they do on the east side of the state – we need a western wildlife corridor that also protects the water so that in the future we’re not running awry,” said Blake, a 43-year resident of Chunky Pond south of Bronson, a natural area teeming with wildlife including panther, otters, wild turkey, and sandhill cranes that wander through her yard from time to time.

            Blake presented the two legislators with a map showing the watershed extending from the Little Waccasassa and main Waccasassa Rivers, and the massive Waccasassa wetlands area down to Chunky Pond, Devils Hammock Wildlife Management area, and further south to the Wekiva River and Withlacoochee River in southern Levy County.

            She said it would be destructive to build the Northern Turnpike Extension through these environmentally sensitive, water-rich, and wildlife-rich areas of the county when a pair of four-lane highways already exist in Levy County – U.S. 19/98 and U.S. 27A. She said one of the proposed routes for the toll road was straight up County Road 337 that passes by Chunky Pond.

            “What I want to do is thank you for hearing us today and for recognizing that our wonderful county commission as well as our city council members and city commissions opposed a toll road coming through Levy County,” she said.

            Nearly every city in the county, and the Levy County Commission, adopted no-build resolutions urging Florida Legislators to halt a study that could have led to the construction of the toll road through untouched wilderness areas of the county.

            She also thanked the two lawmakers who represent Levy County for recognizing the important treasures the county possesses in its springs and rivers including the Suwannee River. She said the county should try to keep those environmental treasures for future generations. She said one of her children attended the legislative delegation hearing with her.

            “Thank you for your support and being willing to sit here for all these hours and being willing to hear everybody. God willing, we will be able to preserve our heritage,” Blake said.

            The Northern Turnpike Extension study has ended. Fierce public opposition to the toll road being constructed in Levy County was apparently a factor in halting the study.

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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt January 20, 2023; Posted January 24, 2023