RECOMMENDATIONS


 We strongly urge that the local government come to a

decision on the use to which the Mangrove Lagoon is to be

put. The present course of development in and around the

area increases pressures daily on this unique ecosystem.

Because of the lack of a stated objective for the area,

continuing development and shoreline alteration is destroy-

ing this area as a basic production, prime recreational and

as a research site. Its value for these purposes is being

lost by default.

 The uniqueness of this environment on the island,with

its presently healthy and varied complex of habitats,pro-

vides a site of significant natural value for which esti-

mates of the esthetic and economic worth have not yet been

constructed. Its destruction, however, can have decisive

and far-reaching effects, many of which cannot be predicted

and some of which are likely unimagined.

 In recent years detailed productivity studies and va. te

analyses have been accomplished for particular open coastal

submerged lands, mangrove swamps, and river swamps, and for

the first time a total resource worth has been described

for some of the coastal zones of the states of Florida and

Georgia. These value estimates range from $300 per acre


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