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Jake Stowers: Designing with Nature
by Mary Kelley Hoppe
Jake Stowers has a passion for livable communities, places you can work and call home and still be able to get away from it all without leaving town.
He found his patch of paradise in Pinellas County, where he was born and raised near Safety Harbor. Home today is along an intercoastal waterway in Largo, where he lives with his wife, Jo, and two sons.
When Assistant Pinellas County Administrator Jake Stowers retires next year, he'll leave an indelible mark as a catalyst and champion for environmental stewardship and sustainable growth.
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Just as a wellspring of environmental consciousness in the 1970s was sparking a wave of landmark federal clean water and air legislation, Stowers began his career with Pinellas County as an urban forester. His initial plans to study law were scrubbed after a wildlife biologist at the University of Florida fueled his appetite for field work. After graduating with a degree in forestry, he went on to receive a masters degree in agriculture with a forestry focus.
On a summer internship with the Department of the Interior in Gainesville, Stowers studied ways to keep hungry migratory blackbirds out of crop farms. Following a short stint as Ft. Lauderdale's first urban forester, he headed back home to Pinellas County and a job that allowed him to pursue what has become a life-long passion, infusing a growth-hungry county with green spaces and corridors for wildlife and folks seeking escape from the urban jungle.
"I can have you in woods in 15 minutes," boasts Stowers, an avid angler and hunter whose dad taught him to flyfish. Indeed, Florida's most densely packed county harbors a remarkably rich number of natural getaways accessible within a quick drive. Along with a 47-mile urban trail that runs north and south, Pinellas County has 4,200 acres of parkland and 14,000 acres of preserves including the more than 8,000-acre Brooker Creek Preserve completed last year. Fort DeSoto Park at the county's southernmost tip is the top ranked beach in the continental U.S.
When Stowers retires next year as assistant county administrator, he'll leave an indelible mark as a catalyst and champion for environmental stewardship and balanced growth. While quick to credit county commissioners and residents who have repeatedly supported conservation efforts at the ballot box, he's lauded as the go-to person who has helped steer, nudge and implement numerous environmental initiatives and policies.
For the past 30-plus years, he has worked behind the scenes to facilitate conservation land purchases, establish an environmental trust fund that&'s leveraged millions of federal dollars, and craft smart growth policies — at the bidding of and, simultaneously influencing, the county commissioners he serves.
"Jake is such an incredible asset," says County Commissioner Susan Latvala, who recently returned from Washington, D.C. where Pinellas County&'s environmental initiatives were recognized with a prestigious award for County Leadership in Conservation from the Trust for Public Land and the National Association of Counties (NACo). "His knowledge, love and passion for the environment are contagious," she adds.
Almost everyone can recall a favorite book that had a major impact on their lives. For Stowers, it was "Design with Nature" by Ian McHarg, hailed as one of America's most influential landscape architects. McHarg's book, published in 1969, placed landscape architects at the center of an emerging environmental movement. Long before words like watersheds and impervious surface became important in planning cities and buildings, it was the first to discuss what we now call sprawl and advocate a means for sustainable urban development. The message was this, says Stowers: "Let the natural systems guide you in designing where to build on a property." McHarg's ideas made a lasting impression.
As an urban forester starting in 1974, Stowers worked to strengthen local ordinances that spelled out how sites should be developed. Once the county determined the land use, "our job was figuring out ‘how do I build it in the best way,'" he said. "We'd literally go out and walk the woods, putting stakes in the ground," trying to steer builders clear of the wetland fringe. "Early on it was very contentious, but developers came to see it as part and parcel of developing wisely."
A county charette completed just before Stowers came on board earmarked environmentally sensitive lands for preservation. The seminal document became a roadmap for county commissioners in the decades to come. Their commitment coupled with behind-the-scenes work by Stowers and others paid off. To date, all but one of the 162 properties flagged in the charette have been purchased, notes Latvala.
Stowers rose to become assistant director of a fledging environmental management department guiding it through a period of significant growth. "I kind of inherited Jake," said former director Steve Peacock, now with Florida Design Consultants. "It was one of the best things to happen to me and the organization."
Happy hour: For a tiny peninsula that holds the distinction as Florida‚s most densely populated region, escaping the urban jungle for the outdoors is easy. Happy hour for these lucky paddlers is just a few minutes from the office. Pinellas County was recently recognized with a prestigious award for County Leadership in Conservation from the Trust for Public Land and the National Association of Counties. |
The two were involved in the county's aggressive land-buying campaign to acquire lands that would ultimately form the 8,300-acre Brooker Creek Preserve, a vast wilderness area located in the northeast corner of Pinellas County. The land was snatched up in parcels with earliest purchases targeted to protect groundwater quality and waters flowing into Lake Tarpon. Adoption of the county's growth management plan in 1989 encouraged expansion of the conservation lands around that area. A Penny for Pinellas sales tax and state Preservation 2000 funds provided additional funds.
"Once we had the land, we needed to let people come in and the concept of environmental education centers evolved," Stowers says. "It was the commitment of the county commissioners to build these that became instrumental in passing the second penny tax."
"He's a rainmaker," says former County Comissioner Sallie Parks. "Jake was always good at understanding where there were areas for compromise."
Most weekends find Stowers out on the water. Fort DeSoto and Weedon Island are favorite boating destinations, but the quiet stretches of Tampa Bay&'s Braden and Hillsborough rivers hold special charms. "I can take a fly rod and popping bug or a spider and catch blue gill all day," says Stowers.
Fishing is a family affair, exercised every chance they get. Stowers recalls a trip deep into the Alaskan wilderness where the family spent time with Apabaskan Indians, whose poverty failed to dim their joy for the land and fishing. "We try to build those kind of cultural experiences in whenever we can," he says.
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