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March 2007

FKEC Protects Tree Snails While
Pruning on 905

If you've driven up Card Sound Road lately you may have noticed the bordering trees being cut by tractor mounted trimmers. That work is not being performed by FKEC.

Florida Keys Electric Cooperative clears its electric line right-of-way along Card Sound Road (which is generally about 10 feet inside the tree line and mostly invisible to passing traffic), using "arborist cuts" to train branches to grow away from the lines.

FKEC's contract crews work under permit to clear in this area and are accompanied by FKEC's full-time Manager of Environmental Affairs Deborah Shaw, Ph.D., (pictured below) who works with the crews to recover Florida Tree Snails from cut branches. A conservation biologist, Shaw examines and records each snail before returning it to the trees. Snails recovered "sealed" in their shells are sprayed with water and kept in a damp cooler until they are ready to return to the trees. Snails found attached to branches are simply moved, branch and all. Once the clearing is complete, FKEC submits reports on the work as required by the permit.

FKEC recognizes that Florida Tree Snails are important native Key Largo residents and Dr. Shaw works with FKEC's own crews and contract crews to recover thousands of tree snails every year.

As a not-for-profit cooperative utility, FKEC's mission is to serve you, our member-owners, efficiently and effectively in an environmentally responsible manner. Relocating and protecting snails along 905 is just one of the many ways FKEC cares for our local environment and protects our fragile Florida Keys eco-system.

Scott is an active member of the Upper Keys community and is a past president, current director and president-elect of the Rotary Club of Key Largo, is a director for the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce and is co-founder and president of the Upper Keys Golf Association.

In 1994, Scott completed the three-year national electrical course for apprentice linemen to further his education in cooperative operations. He is a graduate of Leadership Monroe County Class XI and completed the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association's Management Internship Program in 2005.

Scott graduated from Arkansas State University with a degree in Agriculture Business and Economics in 1986. In 1988, he began his career in the electricity industry when he joined the Rural Electrification Administration (REA) in Washington, D.C. With the REA, he worked first as a Commercial Loan Specialist and was later promoted to Power Requirements Officer before moving to the Florida Keys to join FKEC in 1990.