Postcards for Parks:

In the 1960’s an eclectic group sat around a table in an Italian Restaurant to make plans to save a couple islands, a mangrove estuary, and a big body of water.(1) The task before them must have seemed daunting. I’m daunted thinking about it.

They were up against huge, powerful, and rich opponents. SEADADE was planned to be one of the largest industrial oil refineries ever built. Islandia development would have extended the profitable real estate of Miami Beach along all the islands south to Key Largo. There were even discussions about a bridge across the bay.

The people planning to stand up for Biscayne were capable, to be sure. Philip Wiley, author. Polly Redford, writer, her husband Jim, and several others. A pilot for Pan Am had organized them, a man named Lloyd Miller. Members of the boating clubs and the Audubon Society, and more. But the task ahead must have seemed like a monumental challenge: halt the temporary progress of development for the long-term preservation of an area important to them all. (2)

How could people gathered in a small Italian Restaurant stop the plans supported by developers, investors, and the city, county, and state government? Momentum was not in their favor, the projects were already being publicized and planned.

It seemed like David vs. Goliath. Like a small group in the Florida flatlands staring at a near insurmountable mountain.

Except, it wasn’t.

Often time history mythologizes movements into one large or clever piece of action, and we get tricked into thinking that the only way to climb those mountains is by taking one big, near-impossible step. But that wasn’t the truth of that moment, nor is it the truth of most. Instead, the strength in that room was that they were there together. The first step had been taken to develop that small group, and it would only grow from there.

Each and every person would contribute to the movement which would save Biscayne. Some, like Lloyd Miller, used their connections. Some like Philip and Polly used their words.*3 Others came up with their own plans. Including women named Belle Scheffel, president of a local garden club, and her small step was simple, but effective.

She organized her club, her friends, and her connections to make and send postcards of Biscayne to everyone they could think of: government officials, people in the media, outdoors magazines and writers across the country, along with other family and friends, especially those living in the Miami-Dade area. Her goal was simple, to grow awareness of the many wonders of Biscayne, and to spread vivid pictures of the lands, vegetation, and wildlife they were all seeking to protect.

A whole book could be written about the fight to make Biscayne a National Park! *4 And Belle Scheffel would deserve a chapter. One with lots of the postcards she and her friends made. Unfortunately, that might be hard to do, because most of those postcards served their purpose, spread awareness and are now gone. It’s possible that some sat, and yellowed on refrigerator doors, but most, if not, all have been lost to time. *5

What remains are the places that those postcards represented. Because that small meeting became a movement, became Biscayne National Monument, became Biscayne National Park. Which is still there today. For now.

But the thing is, movements like that never really have an end. There is no peak. There is no time when it is ok to leave the places that we love alone. I mean. There could be. But that wasn’t the point of the National Park Service anyway. Because while Belle, Loyd, Polly, Jim, Philip, and many more wanted to save the park, they also wanted others to see it, to enjoy it as they did. They did not seek to close it off and shut it away, but to open it up and pass it on into and beyond today.

And that takes constant maintenance, constant care, and constant protection, for while those two big opponents, Islandia and SEADADE, were kept away, they were and are not the only threats to Biscayne National Park, or to parks across the country. Storms and accidents occur. Climate changes. Cities nearby build and dredge casting silt across the bay. Plans were drafted, at one point, for a Jetport which would have enclosed upon the small park. Lloyd had to fight for his park again.

And Biscayne, like other parks across the country, need people to fight for their parks now.

Parks are popular. More popular than they ever have been. 334 million people last year. (4)

Parks are more profitable than they ever have been before. 55.6 Billion dollars in 2023 (5) Numbers aren’t out for 2024 yet. (Honestly, these numbers are, probably, low since they don’t count side-effects like the support parks provide secondarily to industries. For example how Biscayne is a safe nursery for fish which the the fishing industry is reliant upon.)

It’s not really about the money they bring in, for the small cost. 3.6 Billion dollars in 2023. (6) It is a little bit about the numbers. I want as many people as possible to enjoy our national treasures.

But, our parks are under attack.(7)

When I last went to visit Biscayne, I spoke with a couple of rangers on duty. And I met one Ranger who was not a ranger anymore. They were one of the three rangers recently fired from Biscayne National Park. Two of those three, I learned, were members of Biscayne’s education team, responsible for planning, scheduling, and providing programs for our Junior Rangers, *6 school Groups, overnight camps, and plethora of other programs.

One of the Park Service’s goals is to educate, and yet, already 30 planned trips had been canceled. More would come, and most will not happen without these rangers. And this is happening across the country. Not just to National Park Rangers, but to Forest Rangers, National Marine and Wildlife Rangers, and more. Supposedly, it’s being done to cut out waste. So, maybe it is a little bit about the money. (see numbers above to realize how silly that is.*7

Potentially, it’s being done with other plans in mind. Once again, our parks are threatened by short term profit over lasting preservation. (8) But there is an important point about fighting for the things we love. We only have to take it one step at a time, and we don’t have to account for the mountain in front of us all at once. (basically, this is a story for another day.)

And even if our parks were not under imminent threat, they could always use our support.*8

Which is where I get to the call to action:

I meandered a little more than I meant to. But if you are reading this, then I hope that you love Our Parks too. And if you do, I hope that you are willing to fight for them. Now, as you read this. (ok, finish reading first)

Join the fight for our parks!

Here’s the thing. You don’t have to do it all. And you don’t have to do it alone. Actions to save our parks can be as simple as sending postcards. So that’s what I’m asking you to do. Pick out a park. Your favorite park. Make, or find, a postcard, (hopefully more than one,) and send it to people you think may need a reminder that our parks our popular, our parks are valuable, not just for the tourism revenue (although for that too) and not only for their beauty, but for the history, opportunities to experience nature, the stories we can tell about and in them, and all of the above that we can send into the future.

I’d suggest you send postcards to your senators, your congressmen, and if you have a park nearby maybe your state representatives too. Ask them to continue supporting our parks and thank them if they do. But if you want to send more postcards to others, friends and family, and invite them to join you in one of our national treasures. That’s ok too.

To this end, I will be creating a series of printable postcards about some of my favorite parks. Unfortunately, I am slow, and not the best artist. And I can’t print them for you. But there will be a growing section on this website where, with parents permission, you can download postcards of some of my favorite parks. But feel free to look elsewhere, and fight of your own to fight for.

Here’s the first one, featuring the postcards in this blog. Downloadable in Biscayne Postcards pdf or Biscayne Postcards word

Oh, and if anyone knows where I could find some of those old Belle Scheffel Postcards and let me know. That would be awesome!

Woops! went a little long again. Next time, the blog will be much simpler. A lot of people have misconceptions about our parks, so I am making a fact sheet to help clear some things up. Like: What makes a National Park? Why do I keep saying there are 433 National Parks when there are only 63? What do Rangers Do? And More!!!

Thanks and take care!

footnotes:

* (I’m not clear on if Jim Redfield was president of the Izaak Walton League Chapter yet, or if that happened later.)

** (The more I look into them, the more I feel like a future blog about the Redfields might be interesting. Polly and Jim had both watched the destruction which resulted artificial paradise of Mimai Beach, so they probably knew better than many about what would have happened to the Keys of Biscayne.)

*3 (Juanita Greene, Miami Herald’s first environmental reporter joined them later.)

*4 (A whole book could be written about the formation of every national park, and some have)

*5 (I’ve spend 5 days internet sleuthing for any examples from her postcard campaign and I haven’t found anything, although the obvious solution to this might be as simple as going back to check with the Biscayne Visitor Center and asking if they have any in their archive.)

*6 If it isn’t obvious why I especially take to heart the firing of the rangers responsible for the Junior Rangers program, then I invite you to check out the buy section of my website. ( :-P)

*7 The revenue and budget numbers I provided are only for parks managed by the National Park Service, so the amount of revenue generated by the other agencies which had their workforce cut are not included.

*8 At time of writing, a judge has ordered that many of the fired rangers should be allowed back to work, but the current head of the Department of the Interior is already planning more cuts.

References:

1. https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article245304425.html

2. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1967/06/vanishing-tidelands/660372/

3. https://www.npshistory.com/publications/bisc/hrs.pdf

4. https://www.livenowfox.com/news/national-parks-record-visits-2024-memo

5. https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2024/08/economic-output-national-parks-pegged-556-billion

6. https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/fy2023-bib-nps508.pdf

7. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/05/national-park-federal-workers-layoffs-trump

8. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2018/02/12/trump-budget-would-create-18b-fund-for-parks-but-allow-public-lands-sales-interior-dept-cuts/

Community already on the ball!

Other people are already doing this. So, we are not alone: Feel free to craft your own messages. (these are just here for refference)

facebook post of someone who got around to this before I did: