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Biodiversity on the Emerald Coast
Northwest Florida Daily News - January 8th, 2008 | view online article

Edward O. Wilson Biophilia Center at Nokuse Plantation
named after Harvard professor

By Mladen Rudman - Daily News Writer

SANTA ROSA BEACH
— There’s no greater concentration of freshwater fish species in the United States than Northwest Florida’s ponds, lakes and rivers.

Toss in crawfish and salamanders, among other organisms, and it’s clear the Panhandle is special, acclaimed biologist E. O. Wilson said Tuesday at South Walton High School.

“The Gulf (of Mexico) coastal plain is also one of America’s hot spots of biodiversity,” the Harvard University professor added.

His lecture complemented other activities along the Emerald Coast, including a ceremony dedicating a privately funded nature center bearing his name. The Edward O. Wilson Biophilia Center is part of Nokuse Plantation.

“It was so thoughtful to name it before I’m dead,” he deadpanned.

Wilson’s message that the area is rich with life resonated with Santa Rosa Beach resident Celeste Cobena, who helped organize a local environmental group called the Beach to Bay Connection.

She hopes politicians see clearly now that Walton County could be developed better than places to the east and west.

“Maybe there’s a glimmer of hope that Walton County can be different,” she said. “That Walton County will stand out as an ecological example to the rest of the nation. … Why do we need to always change the environment for profit or for convenience?”

Wilson praised Nokuse’s founder, M. C. Davis, for his entrepreneurial spirit on behalf of nature.

The two-time Pulitzer winner for non-fiction also stressed biology is just beginning to catalog Earth’s almost unimaginable biodiversity.

“How many species are there?” he asked. “Is it 10 million or is it 100 million? We don’t know.”

Wilson also touched briefly on the need for reconciliation among religious and scientific groups because what happens to the planet affects everyone.

He added that businessmen can be environmentalists, too, but it takes work.
They must be presented solid evidence that a problem exists. He didn’t specify that problem, though global warming might be an example.

Businessmen then must have the problem’s likely consequences humbly explained and be offered ways to solve it, Wilson continued.

And, “if it’s a conservative group, you have to tell them how much it’s going to cost,” he added.

The lecture suited “snowfriends” Judi and Eck Luken from Geneva, Ill.

The couple is thinking about making the Emerald Coast more of a second home than a vacation spot. The biophilia center could be one of the reasons they stay longer.

Judi Luken said their three grandchildren would love visiting the center.

Eck Luken saw the facility as a way to get to know the area more and help out.

“Things like that are definitely of interest to us,” he explained. It “could even help us get involved in the community” as volunteers.

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