Save Split Oak and Save Spruce Creek Fundraiser

504 Pullman Road,Edgewater FL 32132

25 June, 2022

Description

This fundraising event will benefit two important causes - #SaveSplitOak and #SaveSpruceCreek - hosted by Yaupon Brothers American Tea and Friends of Split Oak Forest. Light hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer, soft drinks, and tea will be served. The event will include local speakers, a plant raffle, and a silent art auction. All proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards legal fees to fight local authorities from building toll roads through Split Oak Forest and Spruce Creek. Please help us protect this ecologically valuable conservation land in the state of Florida. The Story Behind Split Oak At a public meeting held on April 20, 2022, the Florida Communities Trust board voted unanimously to approve an extension of the Osceola Parkway to be built directly through Split Oak Forest, despite hours of public comments opposed to the road. Split Oak Forest has been a public park for 28 years and protects numerous threatened and endangered plants and animals. It also provides over 21 miles of hiking trails to the rapidly growing communities around the forest. In 2020, Orange country constituents voted in a referrendum by an overwhelming majority (86%) to oppose the toll road proposed for Osceola’s portion of Split Oak Forest. Friends of Split Oak President, Valerie Anderson said the expansion of the highway “is not only detrimental to the environment by impacting wetland areas, it could constitute a violation of the Clean Water Act,” a federal law that prohibits filling and destroying wetlands. Friends of Split Oak is now organizing a legal battle to stop the construction of the toll road through Split Oak Forest, but we cannot make this happen without the public's support to cover the cost of legal fees. To donate, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/donate/394050716059481/ The Story Behind Spruce Creek Tens of millions of dollars of federal money from a stimulus bill from last year are being used to revive a once-dead, ecologically-devastating, and widely-unpopular project known as the "I-95 Interchange/Pioneer Trail "project, located in east central Florida next to New Smyrna Beach. If built, this project will directly destroy: 1) scores of wetlands directly and many more indirectly, 2) habitat for endangered species, 3) an area already designated as “A-listed” for future conservation land acquisition, and 4) a watershed (Spruce Creek) already severely impaired and over-developed, likely violating several federal laws, including scrub jay and manatee protection. It will also cut off the only animal corridor to the Spruce Creek Preserve to the northeast, as all other land connections have already been built out. Transportation experts have also said this interchange is unneeded and will not improve traffic, and the money can rightfully be used elsewhere. To donate, please visit: https://www.mightycause.com/story/Stoppioneerinterchange To learn more about both causes, please visit: https://friendsofsplitoak.org/ https://savesprucecreek.com/