Friends of Camp Helen State Park aim to save Lake Powell from Development

On October 29, 2021, the Friends of Camp Helen State Park received a letter from the owner of the 44-acre property bordering Lake Powell to the East of the park indicating a willing seller. In order for the state to move forward with the Florida Forever purchase, the Acquisition & Restoration Council (ARC) will have to rank it in a fundable position when they meet in December.

Lake Powell, a Florida Outstanding Waterway and the largest Coastal Dune Lake in the Northern Hemisphere, is known for its immense biodiversity and exceptional recreational value. Coastal Dune Lakes are rare in the world. Lake Powell dates back to the Pleistocene Era and today it retains evidence of its cultural and historical significance – Indigenous Peoples, Civil War saltworks, shipwrecks, and retreats. Due to an outfall that is open intermittently to the Gulf of Mexico, the lake is a brackish mix of fresh and saltwater with a dynamic and ever-changing landscape.

The Lake Powell community is passionately active and vocal when called upon for opportunities to preserve and conserve – as evidenced by huge attendance during the annual Lake Powell Clean-up, and overwhelming public attendance to public events held at Camp Helen.

This is the last piece of undeveloped land on Lake Powell.

The Friends of Camp Helen need the community’s help writing letters of support to the ARC.

The last line of every letter should read: Please rank this Lake Powell property in a fundable position during the December 2021 ARC meeting!

Email templates are available on Facebook in the public group, Save Lake Powell: Largest Coastal Dune Lake, and hard copies are available at the UPS Store in Inlet Beach.