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Recent Developments
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January 2002
Everglades Village News
Daytona Beach News Environment | Sun-Sentinel: Everglades Site | Commons-Everglades Discussion | Sun-Sentinel Everglades Discussion | SFWMD News ReleasesSFWMD Currents weekly e-newsletter
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Save Our Everglades
Founded in 1993 by the late George Barley (1934-1995) an Orlando developer and avid sportsman, with Paul Tudor Jones an investment advisor and noted conservationist who has been a part-time Floridian since childhood. Barley, a seventh generation Floridian, brought his no nonsense business acumen to the Everglades restoration process. Fortunately, the Organizations' vision did not perish when Mr. Barley met an untimely death in a 1995 plane crash while on his way to attend an Everglades related meeting. His mission – the restoration of the Everglades for our children, our children’s children and our nation, has been taken up by his wife, Mary, and his many friends.Mary Barley profile
http://www.saveoureverglades.org/about/about_board_mary.htmlPaul Tudor Jones, II profile
http://www.saveoureverglades.org/about/about_board_paul.htmlCopyright © 2003 Saveoureverglades All rights reserved.
Swamp Sweetener
For the past 60 years a 500,000-acre sweet spot between Florida's Everglades National Park and Lake Okeechobee has been contaminating the surrounding ecosystem. Half of the nation's sugarcane is produced here, and fertilizer runoff from the cane fields pollutes the fragile marsh. Now a new campaign spearheaded by longtime Everglades champion Mary Barley is urging consumers to "fight sugar with sugar." To this end, the Save Our Everglades Sugar campaign offers a more environmentally responsible product, grown in Texas and Louisiana. And all profits generated by the campaign's brand of organic sugar go directly to Everglades restoration programs. "If consumers are buying our sugar, then that's good," Barley says, "because it's taking money out of the pockets of people destroying the Everglades."
--Shervin Hess
Copyright © 2003 Audobon All rights reserved.31-Jan-02
Bush administration releases draft of Everglades restoration
project
A Bush administration draft of rules for a $7.8
billion restoration of the Florida Everglades maps out a broad strategy
to save water but contains no deadlines or timelines demanded by
environmental activists. The draft, recently released by the Army Corps of Engineers,
includes only the most general of plans for saving the nation's shrinking
wetlands. The blueprint specifies elimination of canals, construction of
pumps, conservation of water, and the tracking of wildlife over the next
three decades. No dates are given for completing specific goals, and
Florida officials are given latitude to determine how the project should
be completed. Advocates of stronger environmental regulation decried the
draft, especially the lack of deadlines or timelines. They feared
pressure from agricultural and other interests would make state officials
reticent to push ahead at a fast-enough pace. Stu Applebaum, chief of the restoration project for the corps,
said Congress did not request timelines when it directed the agency to
create development rules.
Copyright © 2002 US
Water News All rights reserved.
Editorial: Urban sprawl
And the answer will be, 'runaway development'
Southwest Florida and its taxpayers will be wondering that about urban sprawl and road taxes a few years from now unless two development drives are rethought. Collier County Public Schools is at the wheel of a surefire urban sprawl outbreak — the fast-track addition of four new schools, including two far east of Collier Boulevard within the next two years. One site is so remote it will require its own water and sewer services. If there is a magnet as strong as golf for residential development, it's a school. Plus, the hurry-up construction plans come before a long-range land use plan for that area has been made by the County Commission, in response to a 1999 state mandate to curtail sprawl. Rush ahead with these schools now, and when roads and utilities and police service fail to keep up with the demand, taxpayers will say, "Gee. How did that happen?" Ditto for southern Lee County, where developers of the region's biggest mall — twice the size of Naples' Coastland Center — near FGCU have seen planners once again pare their road impact fees. Starting at $37 million, the tab has slipped to $15 and now, on the eve of formal approval, to a maximum of $10 million.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Editorial
Job 1: The Everglades
Floridians must hope that expertise on Everglades issues will outweigh potential conflicts of interest among the seven members of the Environmental Regulation Commission, because survival of the state's unique natural resource depends on what the commission does. The commission will decide what amount of phosphorus will enter the Everglades, and that number is crucial to Florida's fragile "river of grass." Gov. Bush's administration has proposed a super-low limit of 10 parts per billion but has not decided how, where and how frequently to measure the phosphorus. It is a chief ingredient in fertilizer and the main pollutant in the Everglades.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Put money aside for Everglades restoration
Restoration
of the Florida Everglades is the most ambitious environmental
restoration project ever
undertaken in the world. This
project is of
vital importance to Florida and the nation, but is
especially
important for all of South Florida. The restoration project will provide
two greatly needed
benefits. First, and foremost, the
Florida Everglades is a unique and critically
important
ecosystem that has greatly suffered from the impacts of
unchecked
growth throughout South Florida. The restoration project will
restore to
the greatest extent possible this invaluable natural system.
Second, the
restoration project will result in water management policies
and
facilities that will help ensure that there are adequate drinking
water
supplies for the current and future residents of all of South
Florida.
Without successful restoration of the Everglades, the economic
vitality of
all of South Florida is in jeopardy.
Copyright
© 2002 Fort
Meyers News Press All rights reserved.
"Florida's Design for Conservation"
Here's a permanent cure for our conservation ills. It's an exciting and painless medicine that can revolutionize funding for our outdoors. Call it "Florida's Design for Conservation." To accomplish this truly amazing program, we suggest herewith that the state's movers and shakers get behind the Design by having it placed on the ballot as a proposed constitutional amendment. The amendment, very simply, would adopt a one-eighth of one cent sales tax with all of the funds constitutionally dedicated solely for protecting and enhancing the outdoors. Specific benefits would range from saving crucial habitats to building accesses for activities from hiking, birding and other nature involvement to new ramps, fish stocking, solid research and enforcement. No, the Design idea did not pop out of a dream. Instead, it adopts a time-tested and immensely successful funding method developed a quarter-century ago in Missouri. Not coincidentally, it was called Missouri's Design for Conservation. Copyright © 2002 Florida Sportsman Magazine. All rights reserved.Marine biologist warns against damage being done to sea life
PALM BEACH -- Her Deepness was in Flagler's Steakhouse munching on
Caesar salad. You'll find no fish on Sylvia Earle's plate -- partly because she has
spent more 6,000 hours among them during her explorations beneath the waves.
"I used to say I don't eat anybody I know personally," said the marine
biologist, an author and undersea pioneer whose diving career began 50
years ago when she was teenager living north of Clearwater. In time, she
lost her appetite even for marine creatures she hasn't encountered.
"I really value them so much more alive," she said, pausing to pick her
words as carefully as a crab poking around a reef. "I know I can't make
a grouper, can't make a lobster, can't make a shrimp."
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.District Rejects Request To Fund 2nd Desal Plant
BROOKSVILLE - If the region's utility wants to build a second
desalination plant, it will be without financial help from the Southwest Florida
Water Management District. Rather than pour $240 million into another desalination plant, members of the district, known as Swiftmud, want to boost the use of reclaimed
water. Swiftmud already kicked in about $85 million to defray the cost of a
desalination plant being built on Hillsborough Bay.
But when Jerry Maxwell, general manager of Tampa Bay Water, asked
Wednesday for more money from Swiftmud for a plant planned near Anclote, it became
clear desalination isn't on the district's shopping list.
Instead, the Swiftmud board wants to tap some of the 128 million gallons
of treated sewage flowing into Tampa Bay or injected deep underground each
day. That water could be used for lawn irrigation.
Copyright © 2002 Tampa Tribune All rights reserved.30-Jan-02
The Everglades' long road to recovery
One of the president's duties is to deliver an assessment of the state
of the union, which President Bush did last night. Governors make similar
presentations in a State of the State Address. In this context, now
would be an appropriate time to offer an assessment on an issue important to
both our president and governor: restoring America's Everglades.
The term depicts a national treasure, but while it is of interest to
those outside our state's boundaries, it is of vital importance to present and
future Florida. Today's leaders understand the task's enormity as well
as the prescription for a return to vitality. While the Everglades are in the early stages of a long road to recovery, their cure is closer than it was just two years ago. At least five
significant events have taken place in that time, impacting funding,
land purchases, and water quality, quantity and allocation:
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.`Federal oversight' isn't reassuring
My husband and I were traveling back from Sanibel Island over New Year's
when we stopped to walk through Big Cypress National Reserve. My
husband, a native of Virginia, expressed awe when we found tracks left by a black
bear. When I read the Jan. 15 article, "Drilling in Big Cypress gets OK," I
cried. My family has lived in Florida for four generations, and every
year I watch as the very thing that makes Florida unique is destroyed to
build roads, shopping malls and yet another housing development.
All this is done in the name of profit. Mr. Duncan, general manager of
Collier Resources, says the drilling company will work with care "with
the control of federal and state oversight." The federal government is the
one pushing for expanded oil exploration in more than one national preserve,
so Mr. Duncan's assurance is hardly soothing. Collier Resources would push
innumerable animals closer to extinction to "exercise their rights," and
make a profit. Copyright © 2002 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.Disfigured lagoon dolphins cue search for lesion source
FORT PIERCE -- Nearly one out of every three dolphins in the Indian
River Lagoon has come down with mysterious and sometimes grotesque skin
disorders. Eager to find out what's going on, alarmed scientists from Harbor Branch
and other marine institutions in recent weeks have started using
cutting- edge methods to conduct "remote biopsy sampling" of about 30 dolphins in
the lagoon, which stretches 156 miles from the Jupiter Inlet to the
Ponce de Leon Inlet in Volusia County. Researchers use a modified .22-caliber rifle equipped with a digital video camera to fire small darts at the dolphins, said Patricia Fair, head of
the living marine resources branch of the Center for Coastal Environmental
Health and Biomolecular Research in Charleston, S.C. The free-floating darts collect a 1-gram sample of a dolphin's skin and fat. The video camera allows researchers to identify each sampled animal by matching the image of its dorsal fin against a database of more than 500
dolphins catalogued in the lagoon over the years by Steve McCulloch,
head of Harbor Branch's dolphin program.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.State expresses concerns over beach rebuilding plan
BOCA RATON · The city's proposal for a $7 million beach renourishment
project needs to be reworked, according to a decision by the state
Department of Environmental Protection. State environmental officers fear the project as designed could bury or otherwise harm the underwater habitats at Red Reef Park and could
disrupt the natural flow of sand to beaches south of the city, according to a
letter sent to the city by Martin Seeling, the environmental
administrator with DEP's Office of Beaches and Coastal Systems in Tallahassee.
After a preliminary evaluation of the plans, "the project, as proposed,
cannot be recommended for approval," Seeling wrote in the letter, which
outlines the agency's concerns and gives suggestions for an alternative
plan. The DEP's alternative would have the city avoid the beaches at Red Reef
Park, as well as make other small changes to the renourishment project,
which encompasses a 2.25-mile stretch from Red Reef Park south to the
Boca Raton Inlet. Read more...
Copyright © 2002 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.2 manatees found dead off Lauderdale
Two manatees were found dead this week in Fort Lauderdale waters, and
one appeared to have been killed by a boat, according to the state wildlife
commission. A team of Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission researchers led by
biologist Penny Husted examined the two dead manatees Tuesday morning.
An adult female discovered Monday behind an office park on Southwest 42nd
Street west of the airport park-n-save lot, apparently died from an
infection under a wound caused by a boat propeller, Husted said. A young
female manatee found Tuesday near a marina in the 3000 block of State
Road 84 died of natural causes. "Manatees die for all reasons, but watercraft mortalities are up this year," Husted said. Last year, a record 81 of the endangered marine mammals were hit by
boats and died. Already this year, at least 12 of the 39 found dead were
killed by watercraft, according to the Marine Mammal Pathobiology Laboratory in
St. Petersburg. Eight manatees have died in South Florida, three of them
in Broward County.
Copyright © 2002 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.Area Growers Avoid Major Citrus Canker Outbreaks
TAMPA - While the battle against citrus canker rages from the back yards
of Miami to the halls of the Legislature, the west-central area of the
state has escaped relatively unscathed from a disease that threatens the $9
billion industry. About 7 percent of the 1.5 million citrus trees chopped down since 1995,
when the canker program began, were in Hillsborough, Polk and Manatee
counties. The three counties produce about 20 percent of the citrus in
Florida. ``It's in real good shape compared to the east coast,'' said Liz
Compton, public information director for the Florida Department of Agriculture.
Authorities recently asked federal regulators to lift the 2- year-old
quarantine placed on land near Sun City Center after inspectors found 56
instances of canker in residential trees. The quarantine restricts moving the citr.us from the Sun City area. More than 12,000 citrus trees were cut because of the findings.
Canker is a highly contagious and mobile bacteria that causes brown
blemishes and results in fruit prematurely dropping from trees.
Copyright © 2002 Tampa Tribune All rights reserved.Mickey hogging cash for tourism, legislators charge
TALLAHASSEE -- To South Florida lawmakers, Mickey Mouse is more gorilla
than a rodent. Area legislators chafed Tuesday to learn Central Florida has received
the bulk of the state cash to revive Florida tourism after Sept. 11. A $20
million bailout package, passed last month, provided money to pay part
of the cost of ads for hotels, airlines and attractions.
The head of Visit Florida, the group doling out the cash, told a Senate
panel the state has agreed to spend $9.5 million to promote tourism in
Central Florida, but only $3.6 million in South Florida and $1 million
in North Florida. "We've seen enough Mickey Mouse," quipped Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla,
R- Miami and head of the Senate Commerce and Economic Opportunities
Committee.Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca Raton, also questioned the tally.
"I don't think this is a fair number," Klein said.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.29-Jan-02
Activists plan boycott of Everglades meeting
Activist groups including the Sierra Club are boycotting a meeting today
about the Everglades restoration, saying water managers have refused to
answer their questions about the project's risks to public health.
Specifically, the groups want the South Florida Water Management
District to provide promised answers -- in writing -- to 108 questions they
submitted in September. The questions focus on the safety of the $8.4 billion restoration's most controversial part: a plan to use more than 330 wells to store billions
of gallons of water underground in the Floridan Aquifer. Among the questions:
Where exactly will the water come from? What types of contamination might it contain?
If the pumped water contains dangerous bacteria, will engineers be
able to remove them all? How exactly will the water be made safe to drink?
Water managers say answering questions like that is the purpose of
today's meeting, set for 10 a.m. at the district's headquarters in suburban West
Palm Beach.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.Groups petition EPA to halt use of pesticide against mosquitoes in
Collier, Lee
An environmental coalition is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to suspend use of a pesticide that is a favorite of mosquito
fighters in Collier and Lee counties. In a letter Monday to EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman, three environmental groups accuse the agency of violating the Endangered
Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by allowing fenthion to be
used in Florida and Louisiana. Fenthion is suspected in a dozen bird kills at Sand Dollar Island off Marco Island in 1998 and 1999 within hours after Collier Mosquito
Control District helicopters sprayed the pesticide over the area.
The letter puts the EPA on notice that it has 60 days to take corrective
action or be sued by the groups - the Defenders of Wildlife, the
American Bird Conservancy and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation.
"What we hope is that the result will be that EPA will come into
compliance and order suspension of use of fenthion and its present use
method," said Gerald Winegrad, vice president for policy at the American
Bird Conservancy in Washington, D.C.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Guest editorial: Poor marks on the environment
One of the president's assistants said recently that if Bush chose to model himself on anyone, it would be Theodore Roosevelt. As regards environmental policy, surely an important component of Roosevelt's legacy, we fail to see the comparison. Roosevelt started the national wildlife refuge system. Bush sees the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a source of oil. Roosevelt greatly expanded the national forests. Bush would shrink important protections for those forests. For conservationists, Bush's first year was a big disappointment, yielding little more than a few promises. It's possible that he may yet do good things for the national parks, despite his fixation on letting snowmobiles roam as free as the bison in Yellowstone. He has also promised full funding for the government's main land acquisition program, and promoted the redevelopment of contaminated industrial sites known as brownfields. On most major issues, however — clean air, clean water, the protection of the public lands from commercial exploitation — he has retreated or signaled retreat from the policies of his predecessor. Unless Bush himself alters course, the prospects for improvement are zero. That is because he has filled nearly all the critical posts where policy is hatched and regulations written with people who regard the environment as a resource to be exploited and who have earned their keep representing logging, mining, oil, livestock and other interests. The one faint hope in this dreary landscape is Christie Whitman, the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. But apart from a brave decision directing GE to clean up the Hudson River, Whitman has essentially been running in place. A big victory for her is upholding a rule written in the Clinton administration.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
28-Jan-02
Study takes bird’s-eye view of Cape owls
Group focusing on living conditionsAs Cape Coral has blossomed, its native burrowing owls have found less and less space to call home.
WHO'S THERE?: A young burrowing owl peers out from the safety of its hole in Cape Coral. By digging a starter burrow, property owners can entice owls to take up residence. File photoClick on image to enlarge.
With that in mind, a new study is trying to find how well the Cape’s 2,000-or-so burrowing owls are living side-by-side with the city’s 109,000-or-so human residents.
Six years have passed since the last study of burrowing owls in Cape Coral, said Susan Scott, planning technician for the city.
It’s about time for another.
“We want to know how we’re doing,” Scott said. “A lot has changed in the six years since that study. What was once 50 percent developed is now 80 or 90 percent developed.
Copyright © 2002 The News-Press. All rights reserved.Red-cockaded woodpecker slipping in state's protection plan
A bird losing habitat in Collier and Lee counties could be on the verge of losing something else: its state status as a threatened species.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission voted last week in Tallahassee to rewrite the state's protection plan for the red-cockaded woodpecker, the final step before a vote on whether to downlist the species to special concern status.
Three female red-cockaded woodpeckers were brought to the Picayune Strand State Forest in December 2000 as part of a plan to help expand the endangered species' foothold in Collier County. The state is moving closer to a vote on whether to downlist the birds from a threatened species to special concern status. Michel Fortier/StaffThat would put it on the same list as the gopher tortoise and the American alligator, one step below threatened status and two steps below endangered status. The woodpecker would remain on the federal endangered species list.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Lee targets agriculture tax issue; farm organization opposes move
Property Appraiser Ken Wilkinson says it's nothing but a scam to avoid paying property taxes. The Florida Farm Bureau says it's a needed protection for a way of life being crowded out by development-inflated land prices. Call it what you will, Lee County commissioners this week gave their attorney the go-ahead to stop it. Wilkinson says hundreds of property owners improperly take advantage of a system set up to protect legitimate farming from skyrocketing land values. The system assigns a radically lower value, for tax purposes, to land used for agriculture. It's supposed to reduce the pressure farmers feel to sell, pressure brought by high tax bills produced by increasing land values, values themselves increased by the ever-increasing pace of development.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.27-Jan-02
Lee County is maintaining its record-breaking form for boat-related
manatee deaths so far this year, tallying four such deaths through Jan.
18, or half the eight manatee deaths recorded in all of Florida.
During the same span last year, only one boat-related death had occurred
in Lee waters. Three of the manatees killed by boats in Lee this year
were recovered in the Orange River, according to Florida Marine Research
Institute records. The fourth was in the Caloosahatchee River.
Last year, the county broke its own state record for boat deaths with
23. One manatee has been killed so far in Collier County from a
watercraft collision. That incident occurred in the Port of the Islands
area. The fast start for 2002 has environmentalists calling for more speed
zones and additional law enforcement, while boaters are saying it's a
matter of simple math. More boats on local waters equal more
boat-related deaths, they say.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.Guest commentary: Solution to growth isn't attacking the developers
There is at least one area in which the Naples Daily News appears to
exhibit a continuing disregard for accuracy. That is in regard to the
issue of growth and development in Southwest Florida. In spite of the
fact that your newspaper's Sunday edition contained no less than 108
pages of paid real estate advertisements, your editorial page editor,
Jeff Lytle, published another of his uninformed diatribes against
"greedy developers," to use one of his favorite phrases. If nothing
else, I suppose this exemplifies the old adage about biting the hand
that feeds you. Unfortunately, this brand of irresponsible journalism also ignores the
very significant contributions to our community made by exemplary
corporate citizens such as the Bonita Bay Group. For years this
development company has won countless awards for its efforts to
accommodate the natural environment, enhance the lifestyle in our
community and support our local economy. The company also has led all
others in contributions to the United Way year after year. Bonita Bay is
not the only such good corporate citizen involved in land use in our
area. But Mr. Lytle has little to say about these efforts.
The solution is not to whine ineffectively about the impacts of growth.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.Commentary
Sugarcoating truth won't help taxpayers
Judy Sanchez is a mouthpiece for that publicly subsidized tumor in the
Everglades known as Big Sugar. Last week, she called me a tabloid journalist for slanting the truth. This from someone whose bosses once were warned by a prosecutor to stop
lying to the public. That happened in 1996. Corporate sugar farms were campaigning against a
constitutional amendment that would have required them to pay their own
pollution cleanup costs. They said it would give "politicians and
bureaucrats the power to raise property taxes hundreds of millions of
dollars. " This was such a whopper that Orange-Osceola State Attorney Lawson Lamar
told growers it was his "strong recommendation that no further
misleading materials be distributed to the public."
The Orlando Sentinel
http://orlandosentinel.comGliding through the Everglades
We were talking about alligators.
"As long as you don't harass them or get in their way, you won't have
any problems," said Sarah W. Davis, a ranger at the Everglades National Park
office in Everglades City, Fla. This was reassuring. I already had paid $500 for three nights and four days of kayaking and camping in the Everglades with North American Canoe
Tours, based in Everglades City. I wanted to see alligators close up -- but not
too close -- and otherwise saturate my soul with the flora and fauna of
one of the world's genuinely unique ecosystems.
The Orlando Sentinel
http://orlandosentinel.com26-Jan-02
Conservancy taps CREW official as new policy specialist
A Southwest Florida environmental group trying to shake criticism that it is adrift has hired a familiar face to expand the group's efforts to stem Southwest Florida growth-related problems. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida announced Friday it had hired CREW Land and Water Trust Executive Director Ellen Lindblad to fill a new position as senior environmental policy specialist. Lindblad is set to start her new job in early February.
The CREW Trust is a non-profit public-private partnership that coordinates land acquisition and management of the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, a 60,000-acre area that straddles the Lee-Collier county line. Since 1990, CREW has purchased almost 25,000 acres for preservation. Lindblad has been CREW's executive director since 1992. Conservancy President Kathy Prosser said Friday that Lindblad's top priority will be to focus land acquisition efforts on areas most under threat of development.
Ellen Lindblad
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.Big Cypress Basin board bucks system; seeks director's pay hike
Florida's Attorney General's Office could be called in to settle a turf battle between the Big Cypress Basin and its parent agency, the Basin's vice chairman said Friday. The six-member governing board of the Big Cypress Basin, the local arm of the South Florida Water Management District, is at odds with the district, based in West Palm Beach, over which agency controls the salary of Basin Director Clarence Tears. Basin board members contend Tears is underpaid. They say his job should be reclassified to a higher pay scale. Tears earns $84,000 a year. Squabbles over control of Basin administration have popped up on and off for the past 10 years. The topic could come up again at the Basin board's next meeting in March.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Shrimp boats seized in reserve
Two Fort Myers Beach shrimp boats were seized Tuesday morning after Coast Guard crew members boarded them inside the Tortugas Ecological Reserve. The Green Flash and the Perseverance I, owned by Erickson & Jensen Seafood Packers, are suspected of illegally fishing inside the reserve. Another shrimp boat, the Day Light II, out of Bayou La Batre, Ala., was also seized in the reserve Tuesday, and a fourth vessel, the Mayflower, out of Biloxi, Miss., was seized Thursday. A total of 10,000 pounds of shrimp were found aboard the four boats. Crew members of the Coast Guard Cutter Key Largo didn’t actually see the vessels fishing in the reserve, said Petty Officer Danielle de Marino. “We saw them in the restricted area and we boarded them,” de Marino said. “When a vessel is spotted in that area, we normally board it because there are so many restrictions there.” The 150-square-mile reserve, about 70 miles west of Key West, protects marine life spawning grounds and coral reefs.
Copyright © 2002 The News-Press. All rights reserved.
Eon's beauty a constant
The Econlockhatchee River has been used by humans for hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of years, yet it has escaped the kind of encroachment and
pollution that would bring about its demise. Through a combination of luck, good planning and the river's own natural defenses, much of this dark water stream appears unchanged from the time when native Americans hunted its shoreline. That may be about to change, however, as growth in Orange and Seminole counties continues to push east, threatening to leapfrog the delicate river.
The Orlando Sentinel
http://orlandosentinel.com25-Jan-02
A Message from the President
We have just taken a big step forward in our fight for clean water in the Everglades. We have hired a scientist to back up our positions and to testify as an expert witness in our lawsuits. He is Dr. Leslie Wedderburn, who worked for many years with the South Florida Water Management District and is an expert on the Everglades. Now we have to find the money to pay him. We are launching an extensive fund raising campaign. We ask you to help. Please send a check to...
24-Jan-02
Collier growth plan tackles agriculture regulation issues
The thorny issue of regulating
Members of Collier County's Environmental Advisory Council thumb through the county proposal to address a 1999 order from the state Cabinet to address growth and natural resource protection, on Wednesday during the plan's public unveiling at the Collier County Government Center. Michel Fortier/Staffagriculture in Collier County got an airing Wednesday during a daylong hearing on sweeping changes to the way the county guides growth.
The hearing before the county's Environmental Advisory Council served as the public's first look at the county's response to a 1999 order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet that requires the county to do a better job of protecting the environment.
A June deadline looms. The plan was prepared by county staff, the Rural Fringe Area Assessment Oversight Committee and consultant Bob Mulhere, the county's former planning director. The county's Planning Commission is set to take up the rewrites Feb. 7. County commissioners have scheduled a vote on the new growth plan for Feb. 27 during a special hearing at Max Hasse Community Park Center on Golden Gate Boulevard.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Letter
Sugar farming threatens Everglades
Some Everglades interests, notably the sugar-cane growers, are claiming that Everglades restoration is an assured success and that the water-pollution problem in the Everglades virtually has been solved. This is far from the truth, as evidenced by statements in the recently released Everglades Consolidated Report by the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The report states: ``While tremendous progress is being made, significant uncertainties remain that may prevent the District from complying with the mandate in the Everglades Forever Act to achieve compliance with all water-quality standards by Dec. 31, 2006.'' It emphasizes the need for yet undetermined advanced-treatment technologies to reduce the phosphorus pollution from cane fields and other sources to the level where it will do no harm to the Everglades, which is 10 parts per billion. In the meantime, pollution greatly in excess of that standard continues to flow into the Everglades.
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.Plan to ease rules could hurt Everglades pact, opponents say
A Republican plan to streamline state environmental regulations could backfire on Gov. Jeb Bush and his recent agreement with President Bush to protect the Everglades, opponents warned Wednesday. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-2 to approve a measure (SB-270) by Senate Majority Leader Jim King of Jacksonville that would take away the power of the governor and Cabinet to decide disputes over water management district permits. King, who has the eager backing of the Florida Home Builders Association and other industry groups, said he simply wants to speed up the regulatory process. "Time has a money value," King said. Environmental groups can challenge a permit when regulators are reviewing it and when a district board votes to approve it. After that, they can ask for an administrative hearing. If they lose, they can appeal to the governor and Cabinet. "They get four bites at the apple," King said. "That's two years that somebody is spending money defending his rights and he can't move any dirt." Environmentalists could go to court after losing the administrative hearing, but few want to risk paying their opponent's legal fees if they lose, King acknowledged.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
FEMA to Monroe County, 'There is nothing to negotiate'
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have declined a meeting with
Monroe County Commissioner Murray Nelson. The county commission last week authorized Nelson to travel to FEMA's Region 4 headquarters in Atlanta to continue negotiations over a mandate to eliminate illegal ground-level construction in unincorporated Monroe County. During the same commission meeting, the commissioners failed to ratify -- despite a staff recommendation and an ultimatum from FEMA officials to do so by Feb. 28 -- a resolution to immediately implement a flood-insurance inspection. Mary Hudak, FEMA's Region 4 public affairs officer, said Wednesday there was no room for negotiation.Copyright © 2002 Keys news All rights reserved.
First bust in Tortugas' no-take fishing zones
Three shrimp boats and 5,000 pounds of shrimp were seized by the Coast Guard
this week in the first bust in the North Tortugas no-take zone, a 120-square-nautical-mile area set aside last year by the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary for special protection. A coalition of local fishermen, environmentalists, government officials and many local citizens and business people worked together for several years to establish the North Tortugas and South Tortugas, a 60-square-mile reserve. It targets spawning grounds and isolated, deepwater coral reefs in the Dry Tortugas, which begin about 70 miles west of Key West. The Coast Guard cutter Key Largo escorted the Green Flash, Perseverance I, Day Light II and more than 5,000 pounds of shrimp to Stock Island marinas on Tuesday after the boats were caught shrimping in the no-take zone, according to Lt. j.g. Jamie Frederick.Copyright © 2002 Keys news All rights reserved.
It's the invasion of the killer potatoes
The air potato may sound like some sort of diet food, but it's actually an
exotic vine fast eating up one of the largest remnants of native forest left in Kendall.
This Saturday, Miami-Dade County's Parks Department wants to enlist an army
of volunteer ``spudbusters'' to thwart a major invasion at Kendall Indian Hammocks Park.
Without the effort, ``we could lose the entire hammock,'' county biologist Linda McDonald Demetropoulos said. Although not as widespread or well known as exotics like melaleuca or Brazilian peppers, air potatoes rank among the most notorious pest plants because they are rampantly aggressive and supremely resilient, sort of the botanical equivalent of the nasties from the Alien movies. Kill one, and a dozen more seem to pop back up.Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
23-Jan-02Darling may benefit from refuge proposal
The J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel could get a much needed financial boost if Congress approves a proposed increase in the National Wildlife Refuge System’s budget for 2003. Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Monday proposed the $56.5 million increase, which would bump the refuge system’s budget to $376.5 million. The refuge system consists of 94 million acres in 538 refuges, including Ding Darling, where a $3 million education center was built with local donations. But many refuges are having serious financial problems. More than 700,000 people visit Ding Darling’s 6,300 acres every year. The refuge has a budget of about $1 million, and five of its 19 positions are vacant — two because the refuge can’t afford to fill them, the rest because of attrition. A budget increase would take refuge management “to the next level,” said Lou Hinds, former manager of the Ding Darling Refuge and present refuge manager for Florida. “The next step is saying, ‘OK, what do we do if we had more money for refuges?” Hinds said. “At Ding Darling, people were saying we might have to close the education center if we don’t have the people and money. So a budget increase would make that whole.
Copyright © 2002 The News-Press. All rights reserved.
Editorial: Big Cypress buyout will stop drilling
It’s good to hear that Interior Secretary Gale Norton wants the federal government to buy out the Collier family’s mineral interests in the Big Cypress National Preserve, because that’s the only way to stop oil drilling there. The family retains mineral rights under more than 800,000 acres in Collier, Lee and Hendry counties, including 400,000 acres under the 729,000-acre preserve, which lies mostly in Collier County. Last week, the National Park Service had little choice but to recommend approval for Collier Resources Co.’s plan to set off thousands of underground explosions designed to detect oil or gas for possible production. Mineral rights are sometimes retained by landowners when the surface is bought for natural preservation, and it is not always a disaster. It’s sometimes possible to explore for and produce oil in wildlife refuges without destroying their value to wildlife. National wildlife refuges in southern Louisiana, for example, are heavily developed for oil and gas, and remain meccas for waterfowl. Modest oil activity has been going on quietly for years in the Big Cypress, where there are 10 producing wells.
Copyright © 2002 The News-Press. All rights reserved.
Keep Florida Forever funds intact
Collier County commissioners took at stand Tuesday against the state using Florida Forever money to pay for Everglades restoration projects. Commissioners voted 5-0 to approve a resolution supporting a bill introduced by state Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, that would return $75 million legislators diverted from the land-buying program last year. The bill also would prohibit similar transfers in the future. Environmental advocates told commissioners that keeping Florida Forever money intact is important to several ongoing land acquisition projects in Collier County and could become increasingly important as the county looks for ways to control growth around Immokalee. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida environmental policy manager Nicole Ryan said the resolution approved Tuesday is "not as combative" as one proposed by the Conservancy but still will get the job done. "It will send a good message," Ryan said.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
22-Jan-02
Peace River Basin Board to Begin Online Discussion Forum
Members of the Peace River Basin Board today will begin a pilot online discussion forum. The public will have read-only access to the discussion via the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Web site, www.WaterMatters.org, in the "Discussion Panels" section. The Web discussion will continue until 5 p.m. Feb. 12. Swiftmud officials have been considering this Web discussion for some time after former basin board member Don Ross suggested in last year. It was started on a pilot basis for the Peace River Basin Board after consulting the Attorney General's Office to make sure this would be legal under Florida law. The idea of was proposed to allow more extended discussions among board members of complex topics than the regular meetings allow.
Copyright © 2002. The Ledger. All rights reserved
21-Jan-02
Endangered Plant Garden Planned
The Bok Tower Gardens project will be dedicated on Earth Day.
By MERISSA GREEN
Bok Tower Gardens is planning for a new endangered plant garden that will give visitors a chance to learn about the rare plants that grow in Florida. The endangered plant garden will be dedicated April 20, which is Earth Day. Public access to the endangered plant collection was previously by appointment only. "We've had a tremendous response from guests who would like to see the endangered plant collection in the nursery research area," said Robert Sullivan, president of Bok Tower. The garden was constructed through a $123,232 grant from Florida's Division of Plant Industry. This is the second year that Bok Tower Gardens has been awarded the Endangered and Threatened Native Flora Conservation grant. The endangered plant garden was constructed in a circular design so visitors can view it up close. Informational panels placed along the garden's path will identify the plants and tell about their habitat and life history.
Copyright © 2002. The Ledger. All rights reserved
20-Jan-02
Growth issues no state priority
Environmentalists hope to protect and expand land-buying programs
PENSACOLA -- State land purchases to prevent rare insect-eating pitcher plants from being bulldozed into oblivion on Pensacola's outskirts also are serving a growth management function. Navy officials joined environmentalists in urging the state to buy the land, not out of fondness for the carnivorous plants, but to keep residential and commercial development out of Pensacola Naval Air Station's flight paths. Protecting state land-buying programs from budget cuts and adding a new one for the Everglades have emerged as leading legislative issues for environmentalists who believe lawmakers will do little else this year to manage the state's growth. ``Buying these environmentally sensitive lands before they get developed is a key component of any growth management,'' said Charles Pattison, executive director of 1000 Friends of Florida. A wide-ranging growth management bill that Gov. Jeb Bush made a top priority died in the waning hours of last year's session amid disagreement over granting local officials new taxing authority. With lawmakers preparing to convene their regular session Tuesday, growth management again is on Bush's wish list, albeit a scaled-down version. His
bill would be limited to making local governments consider school crowding before they permit new development, said Community Affairs Secretary Steve Seibert, Bush's point man on the growth issue.
Read summary of related legislation
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Collier to unveil new growth plan
Collier County reaches a milestone this week in its efforts to guide growth, but the road ahead could be bumpy. The county's Environmental Advisory Council is set to preside Wednesday over the unveiling of the most significant changes to the county's approach to growth since it adopted its growth plan in 1989. The EAC session is set to start at 9 a.m. in Collier County Commission chambers. Two years in the making, the new plan seeks to balance environmental protection with private property rights in a 93,000-acre area of the county dubbed the rural fringe - generally between Collier Boulevard and Golden Gate Estates. Almost nobody seems perfectly happy with the result. The new growth rules are an outgrowth of a 1999 order from Gov. Jeb Bush and the Cabinet that requires the county to do a better job protecting wetlands and wildlife. The order froze most new development in rural Collier County until new growth rules are in effect. A separate study, stemming from the same order, is underway on some 200,000 acres around Immokalee. The county is aiming to have new growth rules adopted for that land by October. After this week's EAC review, the rural fringe rules are set for a Collier County Planning Commission review Feb. 7. County commissioners are set to vote on the plan Feb. 27. The plan must pass muster with the state Department of Community Affairs, the state agency that prompted the state order in the first place. A final vote by county commissioners will follow a review by DCA officials. After that, legal challenges could tie up the plan for months if not years. An indication of the plan's potential for controversy is the at-times cantankerous meetings of the county-appointed committee created to oversee the writing of the new plan.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Legislature: Goodlette, Saunders key figures in Everglades funding debate
Two local legislators could end up knee-deep in the Everglades this legislative session - at least in debates about how to pay for its restoration. House and Senate bills to allow the state Department of Environmental Protection to issue bonds to pay for Everglades land acquisition are at the top of environmental lobbyists' list of proposed laws to push to passage, they say. The session starts Tuesday in Tallahassee. Gov. Jeb Bush has proposed a rival funding plan that does not authorize bonding, a form of borrowing money and paying it back with interest over decades. Land is a key component of the $8 billion state-federal plan to replumb the Everglades by building reservoirs, filter marshes and underground water storage wells around South Florida. The state's annual tab for Everglades land acquisition is $100 million. State Rep. Dudley Goodlette, R-Naples, a co-sponsor of the House version of the bonding proposal, said he is meeting this week with key Bush staff members to discuss the governor's plan. "I'm perfectly willing to explore advancing the governor's proposal," Goodlette said. Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida policy director, said he hopes Goodlette will not back Bush's proposal. "That would be disappointing to us if that were the case," Draper said.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Fix 'Glades, don't close it
The phone rang at 6:30 a.m. It was Buck Kendall, and he was more excited than usual. "Hey man, saw you at that Army Corps of Engineers meeting on how to get more water under Tamiami Trail last night," he said in his unmistakable drawl. I didn't see you there. And I certainly didn't hear you. "I was sitting in the back. I wanted to see if any fishermen were going to show up." There were a bunch of bass club guys. Probably about 50. I was glad to see them there. "Yeah, it's about time they got involved and let the Corps know that fishing in 'Glades canals is important. Let the Corps have its way, and it'll build a wall around the Everglades and put a lock on the gate." I don't think the Corps would go that far, but it probably wouldn't hesitate to fill in all the canals in the Everglades in the interest of restoration. "I liked when the old guy got up and said that sometimes in going back to what was there, we take away some good things. The 'Glades would be a lot better off if those canals were never built, but now that we got them and all that good fishing, there's no reason to fill them in. Take out the levees and leave the canals, and the 'Glades will flow again."
Copyright © 2002 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
19-Jan-02
Radio talk show with pro-environment bent debuts Sunday
Take a deep breath. Newly minted radio talk show host Gary Burris wants you to think about where the oxygen came from, whether its source is infinite. What about that last fill-up at the gas station? Is its source infinite? Burris' message is that neither of them is but that ways to preserve the earth's resources don't have to conflict with the American business of doing business, as Calvin Coolidge described it. What Coolidge said next in his 1925 speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors is long forgotten: "The accumulation of wealth cannot be justified as the chief end of existence." That's Burris' point exactly, and he'll make it on his radio talk show CenterPoint that debuts Sunday at 7 a.m. at 1200, 1240 or 1270 on your AM dial, depending on where you live. The show reaches from Sarasota to Marco Island - Key West on a good day. Burris says a fat wad in the bank can't make up for not being able to breathe or watching the nation's economy falter and fail because we ignored the fact that oil is a finite resource. "We're really going to be looking at our oil supply," Burris said. He and nationally respected scientists agree it will be gone someday either through depletion or by acts of war, and he wants the country to be prepared.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
17-Jan-02
Agricultural Leaders Brainstorm on Water Policy
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Facing population growth from cities and increasing droughts, farming and water management leaders brainstormed Thursday on ideas for an agricultural water policy. The goal is to come up with a policy that ensures farmers have enough water for the next 50 years. "Not long ago people were saying we're going to have plenty of water," Florida Agriculture Secretary Charles Bronson told about 40 growers, water district managers and state lawmakers who are part of the Agricultural Water Supply Summit. "Now people are saying we don't have enough." No action was taken at the meeting and at least three more will be held before officials arrive at a written policy. Thursday's meeting was a follow-up to a meeting last July in Marco Island. Greater cooperation between agriculture and residents in urban areas should be encouraged, according to a draft proposal. An increase in urban water conservation is needed, and both agriculture and urban areas should do a better job of capturing surface water, according to the draft.
Copyright © 2002 Tampa Tribune All rights reserved.
FAA to study whether cargo flights could work at Glades
The Federal Aviation Administration will have plenty of questions for the businessmen who want to build a massive air cargo facility near Pahokee, but the agency itself will answer the first and biggest question about the project: Will it fly in the proposed location? Glades Air Cargo District Inc. will be asked to provide the exact latitude and longitude of the proposed 10,000-foot landing strip, said FAA spokesman Chris White in Atlanta. What will follow is an airspace study to determine whether flights there will interfere with existing air traffic patterns from Palm Beach International Airport and the county's smaller airports, White said. Glades Air Cargo District sent a two-page proposal and a rendering of the proposed 500-acre facility to the FAA on Friday, and the agency received it Monday, White said. The airspace study could take up to two months and is "step one of a multi-step process," he said.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Everglades shows issues to Interior secretary
For a few moments Wednesday afternoon, Gale Norton cradled the Everglades' green, pulsing life in her hands. It came in the form of a tree frog, smaller than the thumb of the U.S. Interior secretary, who holds vast power over the future of the amphibian's 2.4-million-acre habitat. "Oh, you're a cute little guy," Norton cooed, standing on an airboat in the Everglades' northernmost remnant, the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Clad in green wading boots, she had just taken a tour of the Everglades' saw grass plains, inspected an abandoned alligator nest and felt the papery bark of one of the marsh's most harmful invaders, the Australian melaleuca tree. She also got a lesson from the refuge's staff about the ecological havoc that results from fertilizer-polluted runoff and nature-skewing pumps and floodgates. "This is the first time I've had a chance to go out into it and have some people around who can explain exactly what I'm seeing," she said. It was her first official trip to the Everglades, and her first visit ever to the refuge in Palm Beach County. Norton restated the federal government's support for restoring the Everglades through a four-decade, $8.4 billion overhaul of South Florida's drainage.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Interior secretary pays visit to Glades
U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton got up close and personal with the Everglades and its denizens Wednesday and pronounced herself in love. Such an assessment is all but obligatory from the chief of a federal agency that manages roughly half of the remaining River of Grass, and she did not follow it up with any new or dramatic promises of support for the shrunken system or South Florida's national parks and refuges. Norton was noncommittal, for instance, on a controversial proposal to expand oil drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve. But -- even with all the photo-op cameras packed up and gone from an airboat tour of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge -- she smiled in genuine delight when senior refuge biologist Laura Brandt placed what she called a gift into Norton's hand, a small tree frog. ``This is just great,'' Norton said as she watched in fascination, cupping one hand to safeguard the small green creature crawling along her wrist. ``You can't keep that, now,'' refuge manager Mark Musaus joked.
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Editorial
DISHARMONY IN BIG CYPRESS
WHERE OIL AND RECREATION DON'T MIX WELL
The Big Cypress National Preserve doesn't enjoy the same protections as does its cousin, Everglades National Park. The lesser-known preserve -- with its unique terrain of cypress groves, sabal palms and saw palmettos -- shelters Florida panthers and bald eagles amid the hikers, wild-orchid lovers, hunters and oil drillers found there. Such a juxtaposition of uses is rarely harmonious, so it's no surprise that a request to expand oil exploration in the preserve is giving environmentalists' headaches. Another controversy involves the use of all-terrain vehicles in the preserve by hunters and fans of the so-called swamp buggies. According with estimates, the vehicles have carved 22,000 miles of ruts in the 729,000-acre preserve. The National Park Service and the buggies' users have been negotiating an agreement to limit their use. No more. The swamp-buggy fanciers broke off the talks, with the threat of going to court.
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Foley: Everglades Agreement 'Thick As Blood'
Congressman Mark Foley (FL-16) has praised President Bush and Florida
Governor Jeb Bush for their leadership in restoring the Everglades. The
brothers signed the agreement today as required under the Comprehensive
Everglades Restoration Plan. "The agreement is binding, its enforceable, and you can almost say its as thick as blood," Foley quipped. "Today's agreement shows the Bush family is leading the way in restoring the Everglades. The agreement will result in restoring the natural flows of the Everglades and ensures taxpayers' money will be well spent."
Read More...IMPACT OF LAND-USE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN FLORIDA ON THE REGIONAL CLIMATE OF SOUTH FLORIDA AND THE EVERGLADES
By Curtis H. Marshall, Jr. and Roger A. Pielke
© American Meteorolical Society
Since the early 1900s, South Florida, and particularly the Everglades region, has undergone extensive urbanization and land cover conversion to agriculture, with associated diversion of water resources for agricultural uses, domestic water supply, and flood prevention. In this work, we present a series of mesoscale modeling experiments using the Colorado State University Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS; Pielke et al. 1992) that have been designed to investigate the sensitivity of the regional climate of South Florida to these changes in the landsurface environment of Florida and the Everglades. Building upon the work of Pielke et al. (1999), highly detailed Florida land cover classification datasets for 1900 and 1992/93 are used to produce otherwise identical seasonal integrations of the mesoscale model. Read more16-Jan-02
U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton
Environmentalists hope controversial interior official will be 'Glades ally
Interior Secretary Gale Norton tours the Everglades today, one eco-treasure that environmentalistshope she can be an ally in saving, even as they criticize her decisions on other ecological fronts. Her Interior Department has pushed for oil exploration in federally protected Alaskan wilderness and preliminarily approved drilling and blasting inside Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve. She decided to put on hold plans to eliminate snowmobiles spewing pollution and noise inside Yellowstone National Park. She gutted Clinton administration rules that could have led to more environmental safeguards for silver, gold and copper mining in the West.
Jan. 16, 2002
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-SentinelBut the White House has signaled that it intends to support the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration project, and Norton suggested Tuesday the massive reclamation may get some special treatment.
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
U.S. moves to stop oil drilling at Big Cypress by buying mineral rights
Interior Secretary Gale Norton announced Wednesday that the United States is attempting to thwart plans for more oil drilling at Big Cypress National Preserve by acquiring the mineral rights. In her first official visit to the Everglades, Norton brought good news to environmentalists who were aghast at the prospect of a major drilling project in a wilderness inhabited by panthers, black bears and many other protected species. She said the Bush administration had initiated talks to acquire the rights from the Collier family, which had retained them in the 1974 deal that created the preserve.TOURING: Interior Secretary Gale Norton gets a
blast of wind from another airboat Wednesday,
as she and Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr. take a ride
through the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee
Natural Wildlife Refuge in Palm Beach County.
(Sun-Sentinel/Scott Fisher)
Her announcement contrasted with the news earlier this week that the National Park Service, which is part of the Interior Department, had made a preliminary recommendation of approval for the first of the Colliers' 26 oil exploration plans. The plan called for an exploratory well, an access road and 14,700 small underground explosions over 41 square miles that would be gauged for seismic evidence of oil.
Copyright © 2002, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Swamp buggyists decide to sue
A bitter swamp buggy battle in the Big Cypress National Preserve is bound for federal court. A group of hunters and others who sued the preserve last year have ended negotiations with the National Park Service over a plan that sharply restricts their freedom to roam in the sprawling wilderness of the Southwest Florida refuge. Environmentalists, who complain buggies ravage the landscape and disrupt wildlife, hailed the collapse of the settlement talks. They interpreted it as a surprise sign of support from U.S. Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton. ``The department has drawn a line, and we think that's the right thing to do,'' said Scott Kovarovics, director of the Natural Trails and Waters Coalition. The move was unexpected in part because Norton has previously angered environmentalists by reaching resolutions in similar lawsuits over Clinton administration plans to ban snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Denali National Parks. Norton is scheduled to tour the Everglades today on her first official visit to Florida. But Bill Horn, a Washington attorney who represents recreational users in Yellowstone, Denali and the Big Cypress, said it wasn't Interior that drew the line after months of talks that ended Friday.Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Army Corps, Seminoles begin water restoration
BY ELENA CABRAL
The Seminoles call it Confusion Corner, a site on the Big Cypress Reservation where several man-made water sources converge. The tribe has long had a right to use the water, but no way to move it to where it was most needed. Tribal members hope that is about to change. As environmentalists and politicians wrangle over the massive Everglades restoration project, the Seminole Indians and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Tuesday broke ground on a piece of that effort. It is a piece viewed as essential both to the restoration of the River of Grass and to the people who have long established a way of life in the region and seen its landscape change as the water gradually drained away. The $50 million water conservation project is the largest joint effort by the Corps and a Native American tribe. It received a jump start as one of a relative handful of projects that were deemed critical to Everglades restoration. Construction is set to begin in February on a network of canals originating at a South Florida Water Management District pump station at Confusion Corner. The canals will redistribute water to potentially more than 15,000 of the reservation's 52,000 acres for the first time in decades, providing a source of water for cattle and farming operations and for wetlands restoration.Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Iguana bite severs teen's fingertip
BY HANNAH SAMPSON
A Hollywood teenager who bought a nearly five-foot-long iguana from friends had reason to regret it 24 hours later when the reptile bit off the tip of his right index finger. Police, summoned to the home of 14-year-old Christopher Charley at 3:14 p.m. Tuesday by his mother, zapped the iguana with a Taser gun capable of quelling a barroom brawl. The creature was not fazed. ``It will drop a man but not an iguana,'' said Matt Phillips, of Hollywood Fire Rescue. Finally, after getting permission from Christopher's parents, police shot the iguana three times. ``It was going after them,'' said Christopher's mother, Mitchelle Barnes.Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Efforts to settle lawsuit over off-road vehicle access in Big Cypress fail
By ERIC STAATS,
Outdoor sportsmen and federal officials have broken off negotiations to settle a lawsuit challenging a National Park Service plan to limit swamp buggies and airboats in Big Cypress National Preserve. Environmental groups hailed the failure of the talks Tuesday, praising the Interior Department for not walking away from the plan to keep off-road vehicles from tearing up the preserve's marshes and prairies in eastern Collier County. Sportsmen groups and preserve users sued the National Park Service over the plan in January 2001, saying it is not based on sound science and ignores less restrictive alternatives. A final push last week to settle the lawsuit fell short Friday, said a Washington, D.C., attorney for the groups. "We really tried to hammer something out but were unable to," attorney Barbara Miller said Tuesday. Written legal arguments are due in court from the sportsmen groups in early February and from the federal government and intervening environmental groups in early March. Big Cypress National Preserve Superintendent John Donahue called the failure of talks "unfortunate" and defended the plan for providing "reasonable access and sustainable management." "It's unfortunate when you can't settle a lawsuit, especially with people you usually consider your partners," he said. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the plan include the Collier Sportsmen and Conservation Club and its president, Lyle McCandless.Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Off-road vehicle negotiations break down
U.S. District Court to decide on National Park Service's rules
Settlement negotiations over off-road vehicle use in the Big Cypress National Preserve broke down this week. Now a U.S. District judge will decide whether the National Park Service's relatively new rules on off-road vehicles should be overturned. Seven organizations and individuals filed a lawsuit against the federal government last January, saying the rules were "arbitrary and capricious." The rules, known as the off-road vehicles management plan, were part of another lawsuit settlement. The Florida Biodiversity Project had sued the park service in 1995, claiming that by not having any off-road vehicle regulations it was violating the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The off-road vehicle plan limited the vehicles to 400 miles of trails and 15 access points. John Donahue, preserve superintendent, said the plan is "sustainable" and "reasonable."Copyright © 2002 Fort Meyers News Press All rights reserved.
Collier population explodes 5.2 percent to 264,475
Collier was the second-fastest growing area in the nation during the 1990s, watching its population balloon by 65 percent.
Explosive growth in Collier County is showing no signs of letting up, final figures released Tuesday by the University of Florida's Bureau of Economic and Business Research show. The study, based on permits and other data gathered between April 2000 and April 2001, showed 13,098 more people moved to Collier County, pushing the population up to 264,475 from 251,377. Collier saw its population increase 5.2 percent during the time period, the fourth-fastest percentage growth of the 67 counties in Florida. The story is similar in Lee County, where the population rose from 440,888 in the 2000 U.S. Census, to 454,918 as of April 2001. It's an increase of 14,030 people, or 3.18 percent, the report says. Lee was the 12th most rapidly growing county in the state during the year. Collier was the second-fastest growing area in the nation during the 1990s, watching its population balloon by 65 percent. If the same annual 5 percent increase documented in 2000-01 continues, Collier can expect another decade of 60 percent growth.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Seminoles hail project to improve canal system on reservation
As a boy walking home from school on the Big Cypress Reservation's dirt road, acting Seminole Tribe Chairman Mitchell Cypress had to make his way around cows that, like him, were sticking to some of the only dry land around. "There was water everywhere," said Cypress, 54. "I never thought we'd have a water problem." On Tuesday, Cypress and other tribal leaders broke ground on a water project designed to improve the canal system that stemmed chronic flooding of developed areas but left much of the Everglades drained. The largest joint initiative ever between the Army Corps of Engineers and a Native American tribe will allow the tribe's farmers and cattle ranchers to control water supply, better nourish 14,000 acres of swamp and wooded areas, and feed cleaner water into the Big Cypress National Preserve.
Copyright © 2002 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.
15-Jan-02
Oil drilling expansion sought in Big Cypress
The Big Cypress National Preserve, where nine oil rigs already suck out a steady dribble of tarlike goo, could soon see more pumping amid the swamps and cypress trees. The preserve on Monday said it was prepared to allow the Colliers, the
Naples family that owns vast mineral rights across the Southwest Florida preserve, to do seismic testing across 41 square miles, build a 7 1/2-mile road and sink one exploratory well. If, that is, Collier Resources Co. agrees to meet some 80 restrictions designed to limit the impact of the work, which includes dropping some small dynamite charges into 14,700 holes that would be dug 25 feet deep into the marsh and rock. The explosions and sound waves allow geologists to pinpoint promising spots.
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Plan for homes upsets residents
Residents in east Davie are upset about a developer's plan to put 129 homes in their neighborhood when the town's plan for the property calls for less than half that number. Poinciana Homes of Broward County wants to build two homes an acre on
about 57 acres on Southwest 58th Avenue, also known as Wilson Road. The town's plan for the area calls for 57 homes. Residents are mainly concerned about traffic and speeding on 58th Avenue, where the development's main entrance would be. On Monday evening, residents met with the developer and town officials to discuss the proposal. The item is on the Davie Town Council's Wednesday agenda. In November, the town's Local Planning Agency voted against the proposal, although town staff recommended it. Marie Kaplan, who lives on Southwest 54th Court, south of the proposed development area, said 58th Avenue can't handle the extra traffic.
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
U.S. rules eased for development of wetland tracts
`I am concerned that the voice of the scientists is being muted.' -- JAIME RAPPAPORT CLARK, National Wildlife FederationThe Bush administration on Monday relaxed more environmental rules imposed during the Clinton presidency, this time easing requirements on developers to restore or create an acre of wetlands for every acre they fill. The Army Corps of Engineers issued regulations that will allow developers to seek ``nationwide permits'' for certain wetlands, including speedy government approval if the impact on streams or marshes is considered minimal.
Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
National Park Service recommends allowing for oil search in Big Cypress
A Naples company's plan to look for more oil in Big Cypress National Preserve is taking a step forward. The National Park Service announced Monday that it is releasing an environmental assessment that recommends approving the plan with a series of requirements aimed at protecting the environment, said Don Hargrove, the preserve's minerals management specialist. The company, an arm of the real estate and agriculture empire of the county's founding family, is seeking approvals for 26 such plans for different parts of the preserve on Collier County's eastern edge, he said. The assessment applies to one application that dates to 1997. Oil has been pumped out of the preserve for a half-century. The deal that created the preserve in 1974 protected the private ownership of mineral rights beneath the preserve's wet prairies and tree islands. The Collier family still has mineral rights beneath 400,000 of the preserve's 729,000 acres. Collier company figures show preserve oil fields produce 100,000 gallons of oil a day.Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Corps waters down wetlands rules
Developers no longer will have to restore or create new wetlands for every acre they drain or fill under new regulations issued by the Bush administration Monday. The proposal by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers drew cries of alarm from some Florida environmentalists, who regard the corps as the last line of defense against development projects approved by state and local regulators. National environmental groups attacked the proposal as an abandonment of the "no net loss of wetlands" pledge that the first President Bush made more than a decade ago. "The result is going to be increased flooding, more water pollution and greater loss of wildlife habitat," said Daniel Rosenberg, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington. But corps leaders said it is proposing only minor adjustments in policies approved during 2000. The proposal will probably "have a minimal impact on Florida," said Col. Greg May, leader of the corps' Jacksonville district, which issues permits for all of Florida, plus Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The proposed rules involve "nationwide permits," which allow developers to receive streamlined permission to dig wetlands under certain circumstances. Developers who don't qualify for nationwide permits generally have to get standard corps' wetlands permits, which are harder to obtain.Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
New rule issued on filling wetlands
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued new rules Monday for granting permits to fill in wetland areas for development, sparking criticism from environmental groups but praise from a Lee County developers’ group. The final rules allow some builders to fill in streams that run for only part of the year, while maintaining prohibitions on filling in more than 300 feet of permanent streams. Under the new rule, applicants for permits are granted a waiver for the 300-foot rule if the streams aren’t permanent. John Studt, chief of the corps’ regulatory branch, noted that the new permit rules maintain the corps’ “no net loss” criteria by specifying that for every acre of wetlands lost another acre must be created or restored by developers. “The changes also reinforce and clarify the corps’ commitment to the ‘no net loss’ of wetlands goal,” Studt said. But Melissa Samet, senior director of water resources for American Rivers, an environmental group, said the rules do exactly the opposite by giving district engineers the authority to waive the acre-for-acre rule or to allow developers to plant an acre of vegetation that might not qualify as a wetland. “It’s not one-to-one if you’re replacing wetland with dry land,” Samet said.
Copyright © 2002 The News-Press. All rights reserved.
ABM hear plans for five proposed golf courses above Lee aquifers
Most members of the Estero Bay Agency on Bay Management didn't like the idea two years ago of allowing golf courses in an area of the county designated to serve as a groundwater recharge area. Opinions haven't changed much since then. On Monday, ABM members got an up-close look at plans for five courses to be built in southeastern Lee County, above the area's aquifers. Bonita Bay Group consultants and planners appeared before the agency to present plans for the Corkscrew Links Project. Corkscrew Links consists of 1,365 acres on the north side of Corkscrew Road about seven miles east of Interstate 75. Two years ago, county commissioners and the state agreed to allow up to 10 courses on 21,000 of the 100,000 acres within the groundwater area, which is formally called the Density Reduction/Groundwater Resource area. Some ABM members said they were concerned that rezoning land from agriculture to recreation uses would push farmers into lands not yet affected by growth. "You create a situation of moving agriculture to a new location," said Kim Dryden of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It doesn't clean up (agriculture). It just moves it to cheaper land."
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
Agricultural land sold to golf course community developer
Three months after settling a lawsuit over access, the owners of the southeasternmost 1,298 acres of Lee County have finalized the sale of the land to the Bonita Bay Group. Land that once sprouted tomatoes will one day see fairways and homes instead. Bonita Bay has plans for as many as 1,158 homes and a pair of 18-hole golf courses on the property, which is south of the proposed eastern extension of Bonita Beach Road. The sale was consummated Jan. 3, with just under $38.5 million changing hands. The owners were Kent Manley, Dewey Gargiulo and Michael Procacci. The land was the subject of a $41.6 million lawsuit that was settled last October. The owners of that corner of Lee County had once worked together to establish a development density through a legal battle with first the county and then the state. That battle ended in 1999 when the state Department of Community Affairs approved an agreement that set buffering and preservation standards for the land. The suit was filed when Ronto Development, which was developing 640 acres between the Bonita Bay property and the current end of Bonita Beach Road, refused to allow access. The suit claimed there'd been an agreement to work together to facilitate development of the entire area, and charged Ronto and Corkscrew Growers, the defunct farming partnership selling to Ronto, with breach of contract.
Copyright © 2002 Naples News All rights reserved.
14-Jan-02
Interior secretary: Glades plan a priority
When U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton steps aboard an airboat for a spin across the sawgrass this week, nobody is going to mistake her for the reincarnation of Marjory Stoneman Douglas. In less than one year in office, she's battled to put oil rigs into a pristine Alaskan tundra, signed off on offshore drilling near Florida's Panhandle, blocked a ban on snowmobiles in Yellowstone Park, revoked efforts to restore grizzly bears in Idaho and advocated opening vast federal wilderness, mostly in the West, to wider industrial and recreational access. Those decisions and others have made Norton, who is scheduled to pay her first official visit to South Florida on Wednesday for an Everglades task force meeting, one of the Bush administration's most controversial figures. But the full record shows she hasn't always walked the hard line, at least in Florida. In some key decisions here, she's shown a surprising side almost as green as the Glades after a good rain. One big step came last week when the Bush brothers signed an agreement pledging to deliver all the water necessary to restore the natural flow of Douglas' celebrated River of Grass. Norton's attorneys were instrumental in crafting a deal environmentalists admit proved stronger than anticipated.Copyright © 2002 Miami Herald All rights reserved.
Finding Funding For Wildlife Refuges
President Theodore Roosevelt started the National Wildlife Refuge System in 1903, when he designated four- acre Pelican Island, a prime pelican nesting site on Florida's Indian River, as the first federal refuge. The outdoors-loving president envisioned preserving wilderness throughout the nation to protect wildlife and to allow Americans to experience the ``strenuous life'' of hunting, fishing and other outdoors pursuits. Roosevelt's grand vision has been largely realized. Today the national refuge system contains more than 94 million acres in all 50 states and the U.S. territories. But the system, as the Tribune's Jan Hollingsworth reported, is sadly underfunded. A recent review of the refuges by a coalition of conservation groups that included The Wilderness Society and the National Rifle Association found them badly maintained. At refuges now, staff positions go unfilled for years, critical wildlife habitat goes unpatrolled, education programs are eliminated and facilities to accommodate visitors go unbuilt. As Rich Paul of Audubon of Florida told Hollingsworth, ``We can always draw a line around something and call it a refuge, but that's not protecting it.''
Copyright © 2002 Tampa Tribune / Associated Press All rights reserved.
Governor's approach better for Everglades
The Post's Jan. 6 editorial "Still squishy on 'Glades" mistakenly argues Everglades restoration is more secure if paid for solely by promissory notes to be signed by future elected leaders. There is broad agreement with Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, Rep. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and legislative leaders that a secure financing source is needed. Gov. Bush proposes to use existing and proven financing sources to fill the Everglades Trust Fund -- with a promise to borrow more if needed. Consider this analogy. Suppose a father has two children who wish to attend college. To the first, he promises to borrow the money when that time comes. For the second, he takes cash from his savings and places it in a secure trust fund for that child's education -- with a promise to borrow more if necessary.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
Interior's Silence on Corps Plan Questioned
Norton Never Submitted Fish and Wildlife Critique of Controversial
Proposal to Relax Wetlands Rules
In October, after the Army Corps of Engineers floated a controversial proposal that would relax a series of wetlands protection rules, the Fish and Wildlife Service drafted comments denouncing the plan as scientifically and environmentally unjustified. The service's 15-page salvo warned that the Corps proposal would "result in tremendous destruction of aquatic and terrestrial habitats," sacrificing far too many streams and swamps for houses, levees and coal mines. The plan, the comments stated, "has no scientific basis." But the Corps never received those comments. That's because Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, who oversees Fish and Wildlife, never submitted them. So today, the Corps will announce its final version of its controversial plan without formal input from Interior's key biological agency.
Copyright © 2002 Washington Post All rights reserved.
Letter
Governor's approach better for EvergladesThe Post's Jan. 6 editorial "Still squishy on 'Glades" mistakenly argues Everglades restoration is more secure if paid for solely by promissory notes to be signed by future elected leaders. There is broad agreement with Speaker Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, Rep. Paula Dockery, R-Lakeland, and legislative leaders that a secure financing source is needed.
Copyright © 2002 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.
13-Jan-02
Stewards of Dry Tortugas park face threats from accidents, pollution
DRY TORTUGAS -- Out of the corner of his eye, Park Service ranger Mike Ryan spots a brown plastic bag dancing in the wind above a moat that rings Fort Jefferson -- a desolate former military fortress that has become the crown jewel of one of the nation's most far-flung, and ecologically sensitive, national parks. ``Let me see if I can get that,'' Ryan says, running along a slippery brick wall whose adjacent coral and sponge colonies function as incubators for young marine life. As the man-made transgressor -- probably toted by a tourist to carry a meal -- skates across the water, Ryan emits a grunt. ``Normally this place doesn't look like this,'' he says apologetically. The stewards of Dry Tortugas National Park -- located 68 miles west of Key West, communicable only by radio and, on a good day, sa
