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Safari Wild Will Benefit Community, Environment

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By C. LEX SALISBURY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 4, 2008

After reading recent media coverage of Safari Wild, and largely being unavailable for personal comment due to many pressing matters, I would like to offer the following explanation:

I have lived in the Tampa Bay area for 21 years and have had a vision of a pristine game farm in Florida for much of my time here.

In my trips to Africa over the years, I have seen many cattle ranches converted to game farms and their development over time has been an inspiration. Their conversion was good for animals, habitat and human communities.

I was able to find a like-minded friend, partner and investor in Steve Waehrmann, DVM, and together we decided to embark on what we had both seen work so well in Africa. The vision is not a theme park or zoo-type development, but a green project using alternative livestock and minimal development (fences and animal support buildings).

A small number of wildlife enthusiasts could then experience a working game ranch behind the scenes, being toured on electric vehicles led by trained safari guides. Guests would see how a sustainable game ranch works (with solar and wind elements) and gain a better understanding of man's relationship to animals. The animals have huge spaces in which to roam and form social associations.
Game farms are easier on the land than many kinds of conventional agriculture. Game animals are hardier than domestic livestock and need less human care and medical intervention. In fact, many species that were formerly regulated by fish and game authorities are now regulated by agriculture (including deer, buffalo, camels, zebra and ostrich, to name a few). This new approach is called agritourism and has proven to be one of the highest and best uses of expansive land, especially land that is marginal for agriculture.

It utilizes livestock to graze, as do conventional beef cattle operations, and is easy on the land and the environment. It creates high-value employment for locals and provides for low-volume, high-value ecotourism resulting in more tax money and economic impact for rural communities that are hurting all over America in the wake of NAFTA and the decline of the family farm.

In the 2007 Florida legislative session, an agritourism bill (CS/HB 1427) was passed. The bill encourages farms to participate in agritourism and specifies that agritourism does not remove or limit the land's agricultural tax assessment. Safari Wild fits this definition of agritourism well.

The mission of Safari Wild is to bring people closer to animals. It follows that preserving the natural landscape where these animals reside is crucial to their preservation. It also provides a means for maintaining the natural landscape of the Green Swamp.

Safari Wild is specifically located in Polk County because it is one of the largest agricultural counties in the state.

Many residents of the area make a living from the animals and the land and they have a close relationship with nature because of these pursuits. We wanted to build upon that animal husbandry tradition.

Recently much attention, speculation and rumor has been circulating about the project. I would like to present the facts.

Safari Wild was presented to Polk County as an agritourism activity. It is not a huge commercial enterprise, but the aspiration of two people with combined animal experience of over 60 years. The county process included community notification, a definition of all proposed activities and notification of the Department of Community Affairs. Our records show all of this was done. The process was led and the project championed by county planning staff.

Notification for public comment, prepared by Polk County staff, was printed in the Lakeland Ledger for several days. The county then presented Safari Wild with an administrative determination that the proposed animal park would be recreational and low intensity as defined by Polk County Land Development Code. This was agreed upon before we committed to buy and develop the property.

Despite comments printed in local newspapers, our records also show that the DCA was indeed contacted and did not respond to the Polk County administrative determination within 30 days and therefore tacitly approved the determination.

Safari Wild owners, Polk County planners and attorneys had a two-hour conference call with DCA attorneys and regulators in Tallahassee about the project and to discuss concerns that it was a theme-park type endeavor. We discussed how the project is a simple agritourism project, consuming very limited water and that the total impervious area is only 3 percent of what is actually allowed. Safari Wild animals produce the same manure as cattle, which are allowed. In fact, Safari Wild has much less impact on the environment than almost any other permitted use in the Green Swamp.

It is unfortunate that this information has not been published. We also recognize not everyone welcomes change or immediately understands the benefits of this new idea. We are hoping the community and the county recognize that Safari Wild is committed to providing the highest quality nature experience possible. It is imperative that the natural landscape be preserved for both the animals as well as for the visitors coming to Safari Wild. We also recognize the need for sustainability.

Safari Wild wants to be a good neighbor and will be reaching out to extend good will to our neighbors. We hope the community will feel better about the project once they've seen it. We also welcome county building department officials to come see what we're doing at any time.

In my 30 years of working with animals, I have found them fascinating, challenging and, most recently, humiliating. Although I have seen patas monkeys on island exhibits all over the world (the closest one being in Naples), I underestimated their physical capabilities.

The Safari Wild team remains committed to catching all the monkeys, who in spite of being scattered in fear of helicopters, have been sighted within a mile or two of Safari Wild on private property. They are no threat to humans or the environment. We have caught two and are cautiously optimistic that we will catch them all.

The fear of patas colonizing all of Florida is exaggerated. No monkeys have ever naturalized in Florida, regardless of hundreds of accidental introductions. The localized colonies of rhesus macaques in Silver Springs and some others are protected from trappers by municipalities. They could all be caught if trapping was allowed.

We look forward to an expeditious resolution with Polk County and hope for their reinstated support. We firmly believe that Safari Wild is a project that will prove to be great asset for the county and its citizens in the years to come.

C. Lex Salisbury is president and CEO of Safari Wild LLC and also president-CEO of Lowry Park Zoo.

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