Bill Belleville

As I tried to make my enjoyment of Bill’s newest book on Florida last as long as possible I saw that the jacket blurb claimed him as “our own William Bartram”. Those of us who follow his unceasing effort towards gaining recognition of the importance of our natural world, and the need to ”salvage”what is left of it, would agree. But I had a gleeful mental picture of Bill riding his bike down Sanford High Street toward Maya’s Books and the Florida locals calling ”Puc-puggee”after him, as they did to that other “Bill” in 1774.

This work, as eminently readable as all his others, offers a wide spread of differing essays about our natural word, and the threats that we ourselves pose to its beauty and sustainability. The work draws on the authors wide experience in the outdoors and reflects his love and sincere efforts to protect it by educating his readership to the dangers of development, sprawl and the downright stupidity of ecological abuses by those ‘boomers’, developers, and our ‘nature-blind’ politicos.

Bill dives the wreck of Stephen Crane’s The Open Boat ( http://www.librarything.com/work/59598) the S.S. Commodore off Ormond Beach, and recounts the adventures of earlier dives in the Galapagos Islands and the Florida Keys. But it is when he is wading through the St. Johns River wetlands, strolling the RiverWalk around Lake Monroe or kayaking the wilder reaches of our waters that he is most ‘local’ and at home. Bill has adopted the St Johns River into his own sense of place, as did Bartram, and is truly now one of the river’s Keepers.

This book attempts to salvage our own, perhaps waning, regard for this gorgeous State of Florida and tempts us to engage in the efforts to protect and appreciate what there is left of that 1774 paradise found by the original ”Puc-puggee” (Flower-hunter).… (más)

I now ‘ration’ my re-reading of this book, one of my favorites, to intervals of longer than eight months, as I am so familiar with each of the gloriously interesting chapters. After I retired and returned to boating on the great St Johns River here in central Florida, it became a regular part of our understanding of the river, traveling with us on-board a series of boats and on multiple adventures - and on my lone, pure river wanderings. My first copy (of at least four that I have purchased) became so dog-eared, annotated and water stained it had to be retired to the local Marina laundry shelves. Another was a gift for my younger son, who accompanied me on weekend cruises up to Jacksonville, or Silver Glen. A further copy went back to live on the boat and a ‘best’ copy was retained for indoor reading!

When failing health required the last boat to be sold, the on-board copy was considered by the new Skipper to be such a valuable “Navigation Aid” that it became an item in the cruiser’s inventory. My remaining indoor copy still has sorties on our walks in parks and on trails and one long weekend – coupled with Bartram’s and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' Journals - served as a touring guide from Palatka back to Sanford on Lake Monroe.

A book to be enjoyed and valued then on different levels, as a boating and river guide, an ecological briefing, a recounting of both the Bertram’s journeys and a history of the settlements, towns and peoples that populate this glorious river. Geographically it covers the entire 300 miles of the river, from the first lake to the sea. This journey allows the author to paint the ecological and historical tale of the St Johns, now one of just 14 American Heritage Rivers.

In correspondence with the author he mentions our growing need in this too-well connected life to share “a sense of place” and by his tireless efforts on behalf of the rivers and the few remaining wild areas of Florida, Bill Belleville, with his books, films, and talks has himself become part of this State’s heritage.… (más)