A Glimpse Into Old Florida

Tim Glover wasn’t sure what he would find when he went to his first Friends of St. Sebastian River meeting. What he was sure of was his desire to protect the waterway that runs along his property. “I had seen a blurb in the newspaper about the program; and since I live on the river, it was something I was interested in.” Tim grins as he recalls that night 22 years ago. “When I got there, some of the members came up to me and said, ‘You need to be on the board,’ so I got on the board. I’ve been president now for over 10 years.”

It’s not surprising. Tim found kindred souls who cared as much about the St. Sebastian River and its tributaries as he did. One of the few remaining coastal waterways in east Florida that hasn’t been heavily developed, the river is home to a variety of wildlife, game fish, eagles, otters, dolphins, alligators, wading birds and endangered manatees. The group got its start 27 years ago when members of the Roseland Property Owners Association – now the Roseland Community Association – met to express concerns about what they saw happening to the river and surrounding uplands. 

Speeding boats were injuring and killing manatees, residential construction was encroaching, a dairy farm adjacent to the river was releasing bacterial runoff, and inadequately treated waste from the Barefoot Bay sewage treatment plant was leaching into the north prong of the river.