[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1770-E1771]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




JAKE STOWERS' DEDICATION TO PINELLAS COUNTY'S ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. C. W. BILL YOUNG

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 7, 2005

  Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Speaker, Pinellas County, Florida, which I 
have the privilege to represent, is Florida's most densely populated 
county. You would not know it though because our county commissioners 
have done an outstanding job over the years in preserving park lands 
and greenways for our residents and visitors to enjoy Florida's natural 
beauty.
  At the point of that effort has been Pinellas County's Assistant 
Administrator Jake Stowers, who has poured his life and soul for more 
than 30 years into giving our urban community an abundance of green 
spaces and outdoor recreational opportunities. As Jake said in a recent 
interview by the publication Bay Soundings, ``I can have you in the 
woods in 15 minutes.'' And he's right.
  The National Association of Counties and the Trust for Public Land 
recognized Pinellas County's efforts this spring by presenting it with 
the prestigious County Leadership in Conservation award at a national 
convention in our Nation's Capital.
  Following my remarks, I would like to include for my colleagues a 
profile of Jake Stowers from the spring 2005 edition of Bay Soundings. 
It includes information about Pinellas County's unique commitment, 
under Jake's leadership, to preserving our county's environment. The 
county is home to a 47-mile urban trail called the Pinellas Trail, 
4,200 acres of parkland, 14,000 acres of preserves including the 
recently completed 8,000-acre Booker Creek Preserve, and Fort DeSoto 
Park, which this year was ranked as our nation's most beautiful beach. 
Along with the members of the Pinellas County Board of County 
Commissioners, Jake has had a hand in every one of those projects.
  Mr. Speaker, Jake Stowers is a case study of what love and passion 
for your job will yield, in this case for the greater good of an entire 
community. It has been a real pleasure to work with Jake on a number of 
projects over the years and I know the people of Pinellas County will 
greatly miss him when he retires next year. However, the legacy of his 
lifelong work will live on for generations of future Pinellas County 
residents and visitors.

                      [Bay Soundings, Spring 2005]

                  Jake Stowers: Designing With Nature

                         (By Mary Kelley Hoppe)

       Jake Stowers has a passion for livable communities, places 
     you can work and call home and still be able to get away from 
     it all without leaving town.
       He found his patch of paradise in Pinellas County, where he 
     was born and raised near Safety Harbor. Home today is along 
     an intercoastal waterway in Largo, where he lives with his 
     wife, Jo, and two sons.
       Just as a wellspring of environmental consciousness in the 
     1970s was sparking a wave of landmark federal clean water and 
     air legislation, Stowers began his career with Pinellas 
     County as an urban forester. His initial plans to study law 
     were scrubbed after a wildlife biologist at the University of 
     Florida fueled his appetite for field work. After graduating 
     with a degree in forestry, he went on to receive a masters 
     degree in agriculture with a forestry focus.
       On a summer internship with the Department of the Interior 
     in Gainesville, Stowers studied ways to keep hungry migratory 
     blackbirds out of crop farms. Following a short stint as Ft. 
     Lauderdale's first urban forester, he headed back home to 
     Pinellas County and a job that allowed him to pursue what has 
     become a life-long passion, infusing a growth-hungry county 
     with green spaces and corridors for wildlife and folks 
     seeking escape from the urban jungle.
       ``I can have you in woods in 15 minutes,'' boasts Stowers, 
     an avid angler and hunter whose dad taught him to flyfish. 
     Indeed, Florida's most densely packed county harbors a 
     remarkably rich number of natural getaways accessible within 
     a quick drive. Along with a 47-mile urban trail that runs 
     north and south, Pinellas County has 4,200 acres of parkland 
     and 14,000 acres of preserves including the more than 8,000-
     acre Brooker Creek Preserve completed last year. Fort DeSoto 
     Park at the county's southernmost tip is the top ranked beach 
     in the continental U.S.
       When Stowers retires next year as assistant county 
     administrator, he'll leave an indelible mark as a catalyst 
     and champion for environmental stewardship and balanced 
     growth. While quick to credit county commissioners and 
     residents who have repeatedly supported conservation efforts 
     at the ballot box, he's lauded as the go-to person who has 
     helped steer, nudge and implement numerous environmental 
     initiatives and policies.
       For the past 30-plus years, he has worked behind the scenes 
     to facilitate conservation land purchases, establish an 
     environmental trust fund that's leveraged millions of federal 
     dollars, and craft smart growth policies--at the bidding of 
     and, simultaneously influencing, the county commissioners he 
     serves.
       ``Jake is such an incredible asset,'' says County 
     Commissioner Susan Latvala, who recently returned from 
     Washington, D.C. where Pinellas County's environmental 
     initiatives were recognized with a prestigious award for 
     County Leadership in Conservation from the Trust for Public 
     Land and the National Association of Counties (NACo). ``His 
     knowledge, love and passion for the environment are 
     contagious,'' she adds.
       Almost everyone can recall a favorite book that had a major 
     impact on their lives. For Stowers, it was ``Design with 
     Nature'' by Ian McHarg, hailed as one of America's most 
     influential landscape architects. McHarg's book, published in 
     1969, placed landscape architects at the center of an 
     emerging environmental movement. Long before words like 
     watersheds and impervious surface became important in 
     planning cities and buildings, it was the first to discuss 
     what we now call sprawl and advocate a means for sustainable 
     urban development. The message was this, says Stowers: ``Let 
     the natural systems guide you in designing where to build on 
     a property.'' McHarg's ideas made a lasting impression.
       As an urban forester starting in 1974, Stowers worked to 
     strengthen local ordinances that spelled out how sites should 
     be developed. Once the county determined the land use, ``our 
     job was figuring out `how do I build it in the best way,''' 
     he said. ``We'd literally go out and walk the woods, putting 
     stakes in the ground,'' trying to steer builders clear of the 
     wetland fringe. ``Early on it was very contentious, but 
     developers came to see it as part and parcel of developing 
     wisely.''
       A county charette completed just before Stowers came on 
     board earmarked environmentally sensitive lands for 
     preservation.

[[Page E1771]]

     The seminal document became a roadmap for county 
     commissioners in the decades to come. Their commitment 
     coupled with behind-the-scenes work by Stowers and others 
     paid off. To date, all but one of the 162 properties flagged 
     in the charette have been purchased, notes Latvala.
       Stowers rose to become assistant director of a fledgling 
     environmental management department guiding it through a 
     period of significant growth. ``I kind of inherited Jake,'' 
     said former director Steve Peacock, now with Florida Design 
     Consultants. ``It was one of the best things to happen to me 
     and the organization.''
       The two were involved in the county's aggressive land-
     buying campaign to acquire lands that would ultimately form 
     the 8,300-acre Brooker Creek Preserve, a vast wilderness area 
     located in the northeast corner of Pinellas County. The land 
     was snatched up in parcels with earliest purchases targeted 
     to protect groundwater quality and waters flowing into Lake 
     Tarpon. Adoption of the county's growth management plan in 
     1989 encouraged expansion of the conservation lands around 
     that area. A Penny for Pinellas sales tax and state 
     Preservation 2000 funds provided additional funds.
       ``Once we had the land, we needed to let people come in and 
     the concept of environmental education centers evolved,'' 
     Stowers says. ``It was the commitment of the county 
     commissioners to build these that became instrumental in 
     passing the second penny tax.''
       ``He's a rainmaker,'' says former County Commissioner 
     Sallie Parks. ``Jake was always good at understanding where 
     there were areas for compromise.''
       Most weekends find Stowers out on the water. Fort DeSoto 
     and Weedon Island are favorite boating destinations, but the 
     quiet stretches of Tampa Bay's Braden and Hillsborough rivers 
     hold special charms. ``I can take a fly rod and popping bug 
     or a spider and catch bluegill all day,'' says Stowers.
       Fishing is a family affair, exercised every chance they 
     get. Stowers recalls a trip deep into the Alaskan wilderness 
     where the family spent time with Apabaskan Indians, whose 
     poverty failed to dim their joy for the land and fishing. 
     ``We try to build those kind of cultural experiences in 
     whenever we can,'' he says.

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