Viera Roads Closed - What can we do?

[Ira Runyan]

As many of you already know, 50% of the Viera Wetlands have been closed by Brevard County through road closures. That means that Cell 4, Cell 3, and the western & southern sections of Cell 1 cannot be seen by citizens, unless they can walk that distance. At all roads west of the central lake you will see this:

So, what can we do to get the roads open?

As a individual, little can be done, but if enough people as a group voice their concerns over this closure, I'm sure a solution could be found. I would suggest the following.......

1. Contact the Friends of the Viera Wetlands. They have a blog, but only members can post on it! So go to the Facebook page for The friends of the Viera Wetlands and post your concerns/solutions there. www.facebook.com/VieraWetlands?fref=ts

2. The department responsible for this decision to close the roads is:

Raleigh Berry, Environmental Land Manager
Brevard County Natural Resources Management Office
2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way
Viera, FL 32940
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

3. This closure should be of special concern to the Brevard County Business community and citizens of Brevard because of it's economic impact on the local community. The Viera Wetlands is known all over the United States and world wide for that matter as a must see vacation destination to watch and photograph wildlife, especially birds. The County's web site says that 60,000 vehicles (5,000/month) visit the Viera Wetlands each year, and those visitors spend a lot of money at our local businesses.

UPDATE: County officials now say that in 2012, 135,000 Vehicles visited the Viera Wetlands. That's 11,250/month.

Business owners of Motels, Restaurants, and Shops who may loose revenue because of this closure need to voice your concern.

4. For those interested in contacting the politicians about this matter, the E-mail addresses for the Brevard County Commissioners can be found at www.brevardcounty.us/CountyCommission

The county commissioner for the Viera area is Robin Fisher www.brevardcounty.us/CountyCommission/Commissioners/District1/Home

5. An unintentional result of this road closure is that the Handicapped, the Elderly, and the Medically Challenged have been denied access to the closed parts of the Viera Wetlands. Contact organizations representing these people and see if they can help in voicing the concerns of these citizens.

6. Contact everybody you can (photographers,bird watchers,environmental ordinations, newspapers, TV stations, Etc.) to spread the word. This problem will not be solved unless the people voice their concerns over this closure.

7. There is one other thing we all can do to help keep the Viera Wetlands roads open. That is to donate funds to help raise the money needed to fix and maintain the road repairs. A small donation from all that enjoy the Viera Wetlands can easily fund the needed repairs.

So how do we donate for these road repairs? As it turns out that is easy to do.... See Please Donate To The Viera Wetlands Roads Project on this forum.

[Deleted]

Looks like we will need to get some sort of carts or wagons to move our heavier kits into the closed areas.

I wonder if they will reopen the roads this week for the Spacecoast Birding & Wildlife Festival traffic.

[Ira Runyan]

Jan 20, 2013 21:15:22 GMT -5 @jimk said:

Looks like we will need to get some sort of carts or wagons to move our heavier kits into the closed areas.

I wonder if they will reopen the roads this week for the Spacecoast Birding & Wildlife Festival traffic.

Jim, It is my understanding that the roads will be opened for the birding festival, but closed again following the event.

[Deleted]

I'm glad they will open the whole wetlands during the festival.

I know if I traveled a distance, paid for a motel and rental car and then found half of wetlands closed I would not be a happy birder.

[Ira Runyan]

Progress is being made on resolving the Road Closures at the Viera Wetlands. The following was posted on the Friends of the Viera Wetlands blog site.

"When you visit us, you’ll notice that we added a new Donations box and kiosk near the parking lot. This is to support our effort to earn enough funds to complete the re-grading of the rest of the roads, so they can be open more often.

If the roads along the back parts are dry, AND rain is not predicted, AND nothing else prevents it – someone will open those back roads no later than mid-morning on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from now through April 15. (Specifically, December 15 through April 15, and each day of the Space Coast Birding Festival.)

Why the two different opening times? Because the two portions of roads are in different states of repair: A little bit of water won’t hurt the roads that were re-crowned. We didn’t really widen the roads, we simply took all the dirt, gravel, and so on that was there, ground it all up, tamped it down, and made the middle of the road the highest part. Water runs off nicely now, and (using the entire width of the existing road) there is plenty of room for even two vans to pass comfortably most of the way around.

The back roads, now – those we only had the funds to scrape, and put a tilt to the roadbed so the water could drain away. A small amount of water on the back roads, when squished by a half dozen cars, could cause significant damage in an afternoon. So, the front half and the back half will open and close separately on the days the back roads are scheduled to be open. We’ll open the roads as soon as we can, but sometimes unforeseen circumstances crop up. [Yes, we are well aware how many people want to drive the back loops. We promise, if we’re not out early, we’ll get there as SOON as the flat tire gets fixed…]"

[Ira Runyan]

Florida Today Newspaper ran a story about the closure of the Viera Wetlands Roads.

That part relating to a "Public safety a concern for road on popular wetlands" is a total crock and has nothing to do with the problem. They may however fear being sued if someone damaged their vehicle in a pothole.

The reference to the "Public Safety Concern" is attributed to Raleigh Berry, an environmental land manager who oversees the Grissom wetlands for the Brevard County Natural Resources Management Office. There is not now nor has there ever been a Public Safety Concern at the Viera Wetlands.

Of interest is this statement... "But since opening in 2000, the constructed wetlands have exploded in popularity way beyond what county officials anticipated, growing from about 60,000 visitors just four years ago to 135,000 last year." Can you imagine how much money is brought into our local economy by 135,000 visitors to the Viera Wetlands each year. That supports a large number of restaurants, motels, and other businesses in this county.


At any rate, you can read the story by Florida Today ....Birding hotspot in Melbourne faces closures