bed breakfast back to nature

Bed…breakfast…back to nature: local ecology shapes tourism’s future

by Deborah Nelson
November 4, 2007

Area residents have long appreciated the wealth of natural resources that meander from local beaches, northward, through woodlands, creeks and farm country. Now, tourism officials are hoping visitors will also discover the region’s ecological assets…and by spending money here, help preserve them.

Santa Rosa tourism revenue has recovered since Hurricane Ivan, says Tourist Development Council Director Kate Wilkes.

Current efforts to draw more visitors to the region are spotlighting natural assets as a vacation alternative to other state destinations.

Tourism that emphasizes nature can help preserve those areas, Wilkes points out, by bringing money in to support their upkeep.

Arcadia Mill visitors peer into the site where the dam that powered the facility used to stand. Union or Confederate troops destroyed the dam shortly before the Civil War ended.

photos copyright: Deborah Nelson/Santa Rosa Chronicle

"Sustainable growth is imperative if we’re going to continue economic growth in Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties,” she noted during a recent tour of the Escambia/Santa Rosa’s Pensacola Bay watershed region.

The watershed comprises four river systems: the Escambia, Blackwater, East Bay and Yellow/Shoal Rivers; and five estuaries: the Pensacola, Escambia, Blackwater and East Bays, and Santa Rosa Sound. The Pensacola Bay watershed drains some 7,000 square miles of Florida and Southern Alabama waterways into the Gulf of Mexico.

Attracting tourism entails keeping river and farmland areas unspoiled and appealing.

"You don’t invite people to dinner until you clean your house,” Wilkes remarks.

Tourism, Florida’s largest industry, generated $50.8 billion in 2002. Assets like beaches have been drawing visitors for some 150 years. Now, nature-based vacations are the fastest-growing market in the industry.

‘Ecotourism’ emphasizes environment and local flavor: farm visits, bed-and-breakfast stays and activities like canoeing, camping and birdwatching – elements the Pensacola Bay watershed contains in abundance.

Area tourism officials are focusing on the region’s nature, culture and history to draw visitors seeking a slower pace of life. Ongoing efforts include cross-marketing the area’s diverse attractions to people in town for beaches and other big draws.

Mill guide Heyward Reinhart explains how the site's hydropowered gristmill operated. Arcadia averages 6 to 8 visitors per day.

"They leave their dollars,” Wilkes notes. “They don’t use our schools, they don’t use our social services. It’s really a great income source that we have right here.”

Besides beaches, area ecotourism venues span the region from north to south; encompassing wildlife habitat, parks, trails, gardens; and agricultural and historical attractions.

At some local farms, visitors learn firsthand how the agriculture business operates. Opening the industry, primarily located in the region’s north end, to tourism offers area farmers potential income alternatives to crops and livestock.

“It’s a good second income for some of them,” Wilkes points out. “A lot of people want to show kids how people lived, how they live now, and not just sit in traffic somewhere.”

Guests at Pine Ridge Farm, in Molino, can check out a Black Baldie calf breeding operation; then visit with the pint-sized miniature horses and donkeys who populate the barnyard.

In central Santa Rosa, tourism officials are revitalizing cultural assets like Historic Milton and Bagdad to draw visitors. Archeological attractions such as Milton’s Arcadia Mill site preserve key pieces of local heritage and history, and make them accessible to historic-minded sightseers.

Ecotourism includes visits to working farms, like Molino-based miniature horse and cattle breeder Pine Ridge Farm

The Arcadia complex, located on 82 percent wetlands and crisscrossed with trails, offers a glimpse into what life was like for 19th century sawmill and textile workers. Antebellum laborers toiled away at Florida’s first and largest Early American water-powered industrial complex for 38 years, before the mill burned and closed.

“I couldn’t do it, says site guide Heyward Reinhart. “That was a cruel way of life. I’d have to live off the land – fish and hunt.”

Cultural revitalization efforts in Historic Milton include the 130 year-old Mason-Allen House, currently under renovation. The site will house the Veterans Memorial Plaza office, the Main Street Milton Office, public restrooms, a conference room, and a kitchen. A colonnade at the building's rear will become the permanent site for the Riverwalk Farmers Market.

In August, The Florida Trail Association proclaimed Milton a “Florida Trail Gateway Community. The designation recognizes Milton’s entry point to the 1,400 mile Florida Trail as an “ideal heritage and nature-based destination for visitors.”

In the south end, with the beach newly renourished and walkover paths installed, officials are anticipating turnover of Navarre Beach State Park to the county. A new hotel’s in the works, and a south end visitor’s center is scheduled to open around Thanksgiving.

To bolster future ecotourism, Wilkes says the TDC is focusing on increasing available lodging in the county’s north and central areas. Agency officials are also negotiating to bring speakers in for bed-and-breakfast business workshops.

Eventually, tour industry officials hope Pensacola Bay’s watershed region, one of Florida’s few remaining unspoiled areas, will attract traffic-weary vacationers from built-up locales like Destin, and perhaps points further.

“It’s gorgeous here,” Wilkes remarks. “We’ve got so many beautiful creeks, so many beautiful trails. We’ve got the most to offer in Florida. I’m convinced of it.”

Chumuckla Farmer's Opry's annual White Sands Festival draws tourists for Bluegrass and local cuisine.