Photo Credit: Ron Rosenzweig
John D. MacArthur Beach State Park is a little-known gem of a Florida state park that opened in 1989, located on a barrier island nestled between the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean. Its 438 acres are immersed in the flora and fauna of what would be described as “old Florida.” The MacArthur website (www.macarthurbeach.org) states, “It preserves the natural heritage of subtropical coastal habitat that once covered southeast Florida.” The park contains upland, coastal, and maritime habitats. This is an ideal natural environment for teaching and passing along an appreciation for nature to generations to come.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection offers opportunities for local residents to become very involved in making decisions about how each local park is managed, what events and services are offered, and how the Citizen Service Organization (CSO) is allowed to fundraise and pay for park improvements. At MacArthur Beach, the citizen volunteer board members, known as The Friends of MacArthur Beach, are an active group that is given great latitude by the park’s management in guiding the programs, education opportunities, and the facilities’ expansion and improvements.
Too Intrusive
By 2006, the park’s popularity had grown, and the indoor educational teaching spaces, research spaces, and gift shop had outgrown the original building. The Friends contacted me to work with them on sketching out some possible expansion ideas. These were to include a large, open classroom space that could also be used for various gatherings and rented out for public meetings and private events (weddings, parties), a staff lab for conducting experiments, a library containing many reference books about nature used by the staff and others, display areas to show exhibits about the local flora and fauna, and a much larger gift shop that could also serve as the kayak gear and rental center.