26-January-2004

Groups challenge feds' allowing development in panther areas
By CHAD GILLIS
© Naples Daily News
Environmental groups monitoring the destruction of Florida panther habitat in Lee, Collier and Hendry counties released a report this week that suggests federal permitting agencies used faulty science for more than a decade to allow development in areas that were critical to the survival of one of the world's rarest and most endangered mammals. The National Wildlife Federation, along with the Florida Panther Society and other groups, released a report titled Discrediting a Decade of Panther Science this week. Based on a government-funded peer review of panther literature released in December, the report says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers knowingly used bad panther science to appease development interests in Southwest Florida. Now the Wildlife Federation and other groups want those agencies to immediately stop using several panther studies, most of which were written by Dave Maehr at the University of Kentucky. Maehr has long been considered the key panther authority for Florida, although he worked as a development consultant while at the same time promoting himself as an unbiased scientist. Read more

Development ... downsized Ginn proposal better fits FGCU's mission
Editorial
© Naples Daily News
What a relief. A developer who courted Florida Gulf Coast University's support for more density than allowed by Lee County law in an environmentally fragile area around campus has decided to scale back the plans. Instead of 1,400 homes on 5,000 acres, Ginn Co. of Orlando now says it will pursue 330 to 370 homes on 4,500 acres. The deal calls for Ginn to buy density from land owned by FGCU north of campus; the university would retain and sell rock-mining rights. Ginn still would make a contribution of about $5 million, which FGCU hopes other donors will match, to help launch an engineering school. That amount from Ginn is about half of the original pact. The new deal gets FGCU out of the awkward position of being an environmental flagship school lobbying for density bonuses on land that Lee law sets aside for groundwater recharge. Read more

 

25-January-04

Sierra Club exits Everglades coalition
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
MIAMI BEACH -- The Sierra Club pulled its support for the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration Saturday, charging that President Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush are turning the effort into a huge water subsidy for farmers and developers. The 750,000-member club said during a three-day Everglades conference here that Gov. Bush and his appointees are supporting development on land that should be earmarked for the restoration. They include Mecca Farms in north
Palm Beach County, the designated future home of The Scripps Research Institute. The club's Florida leaders said they still support parts of the restoration plan, but they will urge Congress not to spend money on portions that mainly expand water supply for cities and agriculture. "The federal and the state Bush administrations have both abandoned the
plan," said Frank Jackalone, a Florida representative for the club. "So why should we participate?"

Keep fighting for Glades, Graham urges
Sen. Graham criticizes state legislators for extending a deadline to reduce pollution in the Everglades and endorses environmentalists' ongoing fight to save the wetlands.
By SUSANNAH A. NESMITH
© The Miami Herald
Sen. Bob Graham addressed the Everglades Coalition's 19th annual meeting Saturday with words of encouragement, urging some of his staunchest supporters to continue the fight to save his favorite part of the state. ''The Everglades are not like the Grand Tetons,'' he said to a few hundred environmental activists gathered for the conference at the Roney Plaza in
Miami Beach. ``When you go to the Grand Tetons, you know you're in a special place. It is aggressively beautiful. The Everglades are subtly beautiful. ''The way we care about this treasure will mirror the way Floridians and Americans will think about their responsibilities,'' he added. Graham criticized state legislators who recently extended some water-quality
deadlines from 2006 to 2016, saying Congress will have a hard time coming up with money to fund Everglades restoration if the cleanup isn't a higher priority for the state. Read more

Sierra Club blasts Everglades project
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
© Key West Citizen
MIAMI -- The environmental group Sierra Club pulled its support of a massive effort to restore the Everglades, with members saying the Bush administrations in Florida and Washington have "abandoned the goals" that were set by Congress in 2000. The club will not support the entire Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, but may support parts it, Sierra Club Everglades Chair Alan Farago said Saturday. Members of the Florida chapter of the Sierra Club made the announcement at the Everglades Coalition's 19th annual conference, where
environmentalists gathered to discuss the 30-year, $8 billion restoration project. "In 2000, Sierra Club supported the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, with grave misgivings that the principal government agencies would distort the intent of Congress and turn the most ambitious restoration project in history into a water supply bonanza for urban sprawl and for
Big Sugar," said Roderick Tirell of the Broward County Sierra Club. "The events of 2003 have made it imperative to communicate with the American people that our fears have materialized."

Scientists debate impacts of Everglades cleanup
BY TIMOTHY O'HARA
© Key West Citizen
MIAMI -- An ocean denies no river. The $8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan could put that statement to the ultimate test. From fishermen to scientists, people are questioning how the project will impact Florida Bay and the reefs surrounding the Keys. Scientists debated the affects of upcoming plans at the Everglades Coalition's 19th annual conference Saturday. Three million people come to the Keys each year to dive and fish the
reefs, generating $1.2 billion for the local economy, statistics show. The project will have lasting impacts on both the environment and the economy. An estimated 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water a day winds through the Everglades and into Florida Bay. The number could increase by millions of gallons during the wet season when the project, which will change fresh water flows through the park with a series of levees and rivers, is finished. How it will affect fish, coral and plant life remains to be seen.

Sierra Club: Everglades ecology abandoned in restoration effort
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
Taking a harder stance than other discontented environmental groups, the Sierra Club on Saturday charged the Bush administrations in Tallahassee and Washington with abandoning the original vision of Everglades restoration. Sierra officials also said during an Everglades Coalition meeting in Miami Beach that they can no longer support the entire package of 60-plus steps in that $8 billion environmental public works project. The state-federal effort was designed to re-engineer Everglades water flow for wildlife's benefit while also increasing water for cities and farms in the future. Alan Farago, Everglades chairman for the Florida Sierra Club, said his group would support some pieces of the 30-year project that clearly benefited wetlands and wildlife, but not those it views as created chiefly to boost urban and agricultural water supplies.

Graham vows continued commitment to Everglades
As the retiring senator and other politicians pledge their support, further fissures emerge among environmental groups
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
© Naples Daily News
MIAMI BEACH — He's willing to consider a vice presidential slot, should the request arrive. A stint in academia sounds nice, too. But wherever outgoing Sen. Bob Graham winds up, the 67-year-old former governor and former Democratic presidential candidate will continue to carry the mantle on behalf of Everglades restoration, he said Saturday at The Everglades Coalition's annual meeting at a South Beach resort hotel. "I can assure you that wherever the winds of life may take me in the future, I will still be your comrade in this undertaking," Graham told an appreciative crowd of 400 on the final day of the coalition's 19th annual meeting. But even as Graham — who as governor two decades ago helped propel
state restoration efforts that later grew into the historic, $8.4 billion recovery plan approved by Florida and the federal government in 2000 — delivered his promise, he also released a report card that showed little progress on a set of goals he outlined a year earlier at the annual conference.

Guest commentary: Collier's interpretation of protection plan will
doom wildlife
By NANCY PAYTON, BRAD CORNELL, NICOLE RYAN, DOUG FEE, JEFFREYCARTER
© Naples Daily News
"Opportunities to relocate" is how one local developer's attorney suggests the community should view the impact of growth on bald eagles, panthers, black bears, manatees, gopher tortoises, panthers, wood storks, red-cockaded woodpeckers, and other listed species now
living in Collier County. Unfortunately, relocating to oblivion is the only choice for many. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) lists 40 endangered, threatened or species of special concern in Collier County. This list only includes imperiled animals. There are also significant numbers of listed plants in the county. In 1999 Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet, responding to Collier County's failure to protect listed species, ordered the county to develop and implement a habitat protection plan directing "incompatible uses away from wetlands and upland habitat in order to protect ... listed animal and plant species and their habitats." With great fanfare Collier County adopted a growth management plan in 2002 that aimed to do this.

 

24-January-04

Activists decry 'terrible' year for Everglades project
By ALAN SCHER ZAGIER
© Naples News
MIAMI BEACH - One by one, over morning pastries and tarragon pasta for lunch, dignitaries from Washington and Tallahassee on Friday hailed the cooperative spirit and lauded the accomplishments to date in the world's biggest environmental recovery effort. Down the hall, at a press conference convened by organizers of The Everglades Coalition's 19th annual conference, the assessment was much more dire: 2003 was an abysmal year, a step backward in the unprecedented, $8.4 billion project to save the River of Grass. "We're not minimizing some of the successes that have happened, but the direction is terrible," said Mary Munson, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association. "We need to correct the mistakes of 2003." Among the blunders outlined by Munson and other coalition leaders: - Legislative reversal of a 2006 deadline to meet phosphorous discharge limits in water flowing from agricultural areas south of Lake Okeechobee.

Activists: Poor leadership hurting Everglades restoration
By Robert P. King
© Palm Beach Post
MIAMI BEACH -- A year of bad decisions by state and federal leaders is endangering the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration, environmentalists complained Friday -- even as a phalanx of South Florida lawmakers and top officials from Washington pledged devotion to the cause. "We want to see leadership," said Mary Munson, co-chairwoman of the Everglades Coalition, at the alliance's annual conference. Among other flubs, the coalition faulted Gov. Jeb Bush and the legislature for enacting a law that delayed the deadline for the state's Everglades
pollution cleanup from 2006 to 2016. They also accused the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers of caving in to developers and farmers by enacting rules that offer no firm guarantees that the $8.4 billion restoration will help the Everglades. And they called for more state money to clean Lake Okeechobee. Meanwhile, one of the environmentalists' allies in Congress said the activists themselves endangered the restoration last year by making over-the-top criticisms. 

Everglades park seeking funds for hiring blitz
By David Fleshler and Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
Everglades National Park, which is struggling with shortages of rangers, guides and other staff, may receive a big budget increase next year, the head of the National Park Service told a group of environmentalists in Miami Beach. Fran Mainella, the park service's director, said the Bush administration will ask Congress for an extra $789,000 for the park. The extra money, an increase of about 5.6 percent, would likely go toward hiring rangers and
wastewater treatment workers, said John Benjamin, the park's acting superintendent. The announcement came at the annual meeting of the Everglades Coalition, a group of environmental organizations that have been the driving force behind the $8 billion restoration of the vast wetland. While the announcement drew praise from groups that have pushed for more funding for parks, leaders of the coalition conducted a news conference that morning to denounce a series of recent events that they say threaten efforts to restore the Everglades.

Senator Graham offers challenges for Everglades restoration
By Coralie Carlson
© Sun-Sentinel
MIAMI BEACH -- In his final year before retiring from the U.S. Senate, Bob Graham told a room full of Everglades activists Saturday that they should follow his lead and pass the torch to a new generation of leaders to ensure the future restoration of the River of Grass. ``There's a constant need to educate those who are seeking and those who are serving in the Legislature,'' Graham said at the annual conference of the Everglades Coalition, which consists of 45 environmental groups and other organizations with a stake in the restoration plan. Graham, who proposed restoring the Everglades during his second term as governor and was a chief advocate during his three terms in the U.S. Senate, announced his retirement in the fall. ``I've been working on this for almost all of my political career,'' Graham
said. The state and federal governments have embarked on a 30-year, $8.4 billion project to restore the natural water flow through the Everglades. More than half of the original wetlands have been lost to agriculture and development, and the remaining water is tainted by urban runoff and farm pollution.

Ginn downsizes community plan
By CHAD GILLIS
© Naples Daily News
An Orlando-based development company that once planned to challenge density restraints for a section of the county set aside to control urban sprawl has again scaled back blueprints for an upscale community in rural Lee County, but environmental groups say they're concerned the Ginn community may still lay the foundation for future construction in an area meant to control growth and protect sensitive aquifer recharge lands. Ginn representatives made a presentation to the Florida Gulf Coast University Board of Trustees this week, shopping the latest plans for a 336-home upscale enclave along Corkscrew Road within a 90,000-acre surrounding the university. FGCU president Bill Merwin has pushed the development since its origins two years ago. Environmental groups and even some government planners, on the other hand, have said the Ginn project is an example of what they predicted when FGCU was first approved: growth in an area that was once off limits to large development projects. FGCU was originally billed as the state's environmental university, a school that would focus on the protection of scarce natural resources like the very land the campus was built on. That label hardly stuck, though, as the university is now planning to add real estate and engineering to it curriculum. 

Sierra Club: Bush Administrations in Tallahassee and Washington Have Abandoned Everglades Restoration
© Sierra Club
On the final day of the annual Everglades Coalition meeting, the Sierra Club charged the Bush administrations, in Tallahassee and Washington, with abandoning Everglades restoration as intended by Congress in 2000. Sierra Club will no longer support the "package" of projects known as CERP (The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan) but only support those projects that clearly enhance restoration of the natural Everglades as intended by Congress. The Sierra Club will oppose Congressional funding of projects that serve mainly to enhance urban water supply under the guise of Everglades restoration. Sierra Club believes the balance intended by Congress between economic interests and the needs of the Everglades has vanished in a web of details worked out by the Bush administration representing the interests of urban sprawl and big agriculture. The Club cites, as primary evidence, new rules passed by the US Army Corps of Engineers and endorsed by Florida that will act as the 'roadmap' for the investment in and management of dozens of separate projects that will total over $8 billion. Also, the Club cites the amendment passed by the Florida legislature, with the full support of Governor Jeb Bush that allows the sugar industry to continue polluting the Everglades for at least ten years.

23-January-04

Cleanup deadlines top priority for Everglades environmentalists
By CORALIE CARLSON
© Miami Herald
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. - Disappointed with setbacks in the state Legislature last year, a group of environmentalists said Friday that one of its top priorities is to restore a 2006 deadline to clean up pollution that enters the Everglades from sugar plantations. The 45-member Everglades Coalition also said it wants congressional authorization for two key projects: the $1 billion restoration of wetlands near the Indian River Lagoon and the restoration of land from a former real estate scam in southwest Florida, expected to cost from $300 million to
$500 million. "It's an understatement to say that the Everglades Coalition is disappointed
with the way Everglades restoration is going," co-chairwoman Mary Munson said. Read more

Water proposal may have dried up
By GREG C. BRUNO
© Gainesville Sun
 A controversial plan to revamp the way Florida manages its water resources appears dead for this year, a newspaper reported Thursday. In an interview with The St. Petersburg Times, Gov. Jeb Bush speculated that the 2004 legislative session would see few bills addressing the prickly issue of water transfers. "I don't think there will be a lot done on water," the governor told the newspaper. "There needs to be a few years of conversation. . . . I don't see the water issues being a big topic for this year." Bush's comments come more than four months after the release of a report - one the governor has called "provocative" - advocating for changes to Florida's water management structure, including measures that would make it possible to pump water across hydrologic boundaries. The proposal from the Florida Council of 100, a business group whose members include agriculture executives, sugar growers and newspaper publishers, called for the establishment of a state water commission to manage supplies and oversee Florida's five water management districts, among other measures.  Read more

 

22-January-04

Fierce outcry sidelines water distribution plan
Feeling the heat, the governor and legislators grow cool to the idea of allocating state water according to need.
By CRAIG PITTMAN and LUCY MORGAN
© St. Petersburg Times
TALLAHASSEE - A controversial proposal to change the way water is distributed throughout the state is dead for this year, the governor and Senate president said. Gov. Jeb Bush had once praised the proposal to consider moving water from some northern parts of the state to more needy areas to the south as "provocative" and had scolded its many critics. But Bush predicted no changes in the state's water laws this year or next. "I don't think there will be a lot done on water," Bush told the St. Petersburg Times. "There needs to be a few years of conversation. ... I don't see the water issues being a big topic for this year." State lawmakers say the proposal from the Florida Council of 100 has proven so controversial no one wants to touch it.  Read more

Environmental groups
Watchdogs still on guard
Editorial
© Naples Daily News
Environmental advocates such as the Florida Wildlife Federation and Audubon Society play important roles in Southwest Florida. With county commissions often eager to expedite rather than police development, the private-sector organizations serve as public-interest watchdogs against abuses of nature and laws that purport to protect it. Though it is heartening to see those groups and The Conservancy of Southwest Florida come to the bargaining table to broker win-win development deals, there is concern that their arm's-length
detachment may be compromised. Yet, Florida Wildlife and Audubon send a signal that they remain on the alert. They are putting developers on notice that they are unhappy with a major project that will test rules that the organizations helped draft for the rural fringe area. The project, called Feathers, abutting Picayune Strand, also takes liberties with the depth of preliminary approval indicated by Florida Wildlife and Audubon, they say.

Federal Agency Embraced Discredited Science At Expense of Florida Panther Habitat
© NEWS Release
WASHINGTON, DC -- A report released today indicts the federal government for relying on discredited science to justify destruction of the endangered Florida panther’s last remaining habitat and calls upon agency officials to make immediate adjustments. The report, entitled Discrediting a Decade of Panther Science: Implications of the Scientific Review Team Report, by the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the Florida Panther Society (FPS) and the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF), makes the following key findings: 1) In the past decade, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have consented to the destruction of thousands of acres of Florida panther habitat in southwest Florida, much of which FWS has deemed “essential” to the panther’s survival in its own scientific documents.  The agencies typically require minimal efforts by developers to offset the harm with habitat acquisition or restoration. Read more

Bonita council OKs group's annexation of 1,300 acres
By JANINE A. ZEITLIN
© Naples Daily News
Bonita Springs came closer Wednesday to drawing 1,300 acres, a potential 10,810 new residents and a gigantic development under its wing. The Bonita Springs City Council unanimously accepted an agreement from The Bonita Bay Group to annex a 1,300-acre parcel east of the city designated as a Florida panther habitat. The agreement would
free the developer from five pages of Lee County restrictions designed to preserve open space and protect wildlife. The agreement must pass two more rounds of public hearings before it could take effect. Company executives said the county restrictions will be replaced by the city's environmental codes, though The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is not so certain. Matt Bixler of The Conservancy asked the city to remain consistent with Lee County's restrictions drawn up to settle a lawsuit over development in the 1980s involving the parcel, once zoned for agricultural use. 

 

21-January-04

Developer downscales community
Upscale Ginn Co. project near FGCU now 336 homes
By DICK HOGAN
© Ft.Myers News-Press
The Ginn Co. on Monday unveiled plans to build a luxury golf course community of 336 homes on 4,355 acres near Florida Gulf Coast University — without challenging strict land-use regulations for the area. The property is in the area of east Lee County designated density reduction, groundwater resource, which limits development to one home per 10 acres of uplands and one per 20 acres of wetlands. Originally Ginn, an Orlando-based developer, announced in 2002 that it wanted to build 1,400 homes on 5,139 acres, but that would have
required a rezoning and an amendment to the county’s land-use plan. But on Monday, company president Bobby Ginn said he’ll ask for only the number of houses that can be built there without additional county commission action. He acknowledged that when the original proposal was made, “We hoped it would go easier. We were new to the community and we’ve gone very slow to be sure we don’t do something that is politically harmful to us.” 

Acting superintendent named for Glades park
From Herald Wire Services
© Miami Herald
A new acting superintendent was named Tuesday for Everglades National Park. Dan Kimball, currently chief of the National Park Service's Colorado-based water resources division, is expected to take over in February. In a release, Parks Director Fran Mainella said Kimball's experience in water resource issues and management would enhance Everglades restoration efforts. Baldwin, a 20-year parks veteran, will replace acting superintendent John Benjamin, the park's deputy superintendent who had been filling in for superintendent Maureen Finnerty. She was placed on leave last August and then reassigned to the service's Atlanta regional office after an arrest on drunken driving charges in Homestead. Read more

Belle Glade votes to join water plant plan
By Rochelle Brenner
© Palm Beach Post
BELLE GLADE -- In a confusing and emotional night marked by outbursts, delays and a threat to end the meeting, the Belle Glade City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to sign the county's agreement for a water treatment plant. There were eight different motions to get there -- including one illegal motion that would've tied a plan to annex unrelated properties to the approval of the plant. Almost every motion was debated, but the final one was simply to sign on to the Lake Region Water Treatment Plant. "Hallelujah," said City Commissioner Sherrie Dulany. "Nothing like childbirth, huh?" said County Commissioner Tony Masilotti,
who was in attendance. Masilotti blasted the city commission last week after they voted down the tri-city deal. Because of that vote, the county decided to proceed with a plant plan, but with a twist -- building separate plants for South Bay and Pahokee and leaving Belle
Glade out in the cold. 

New state budget would provide cash for the Glades, Keys water quality
© Sun-Sentinel
Gov. Bush says he wants Florida to stick to its commitment to pay for half the $8 billion Everglades restoration with a fifth installment of $100 million. "It assures the future of the River of Grass for generations to follow," he said. "There's a lot of work yet to be done but I'm proud of the work of the Army Corps, the Department of Environmental Protection, and a lot
of other interested parties, on one of the largest public works projects the world has ever known." His proposed budget for the next year seeks $3.3 million to restore Lake Okeechobee, the state's first payment on a cleanup and protection plan the South Florida Water Management District drew up to meet federal Clean Water Act requirements. "It's an important first step in cleaning up the lake," said Eric Draper, a lobbyist based in Tallahassee for Audubon of Florida. "We think they could probably do it more aggressively and spend more money, but we think it's a good first step."

Florida wetlands reveal a bird's-eye view of birds
Bird season is reaching its peak in the Everglades and other wetlands from Naples to Lake Okeechobee.
BY CURTIS MORGAN
© Miami Herald
Find some water in the Everglades, particularly shallow water, and you'll probably find birds. Lots of birds. Bird season is just hitting its peak in the Everglades and wetlands from
Naples to Lake Okeechobee. So is the chance for easy viewing. The dry season's slowly receding water levels concentrate fish and other food in pools, providing feeding stations for birds and alligators alike -- not to mention fine photo ops for big wading varieties like great
blue heron and wood stork. ''It's easy pickings,'' said Sandy Dayhoff, Everglades National Park's education coordinator. ``It's like going to a fast-food restaurant for the birds.'' It's also prime time for bird-watchers, who flock to South Florida from around the world to stalk their feathered quarries. ''January, February and March are spectacular months to get out and see
birds,'' said Joe Barros, president of the Tropical Audubon Society in Miami-Dade County. Read more

 

20-January-04

 
Effort to protect agriculture at a standstill
After 2 ½ years and more than $500,000, the latest county effort to study the future of agriculture in South Miami-Dade fails to produce results.
BY REBECCA DELLAGLORIA
© The Miami Herald
For the past 20 years, Miami-Dade County officials have been trying to figure out how best to save the struggling agricultural base that has, for the greater part of a century, been the heart and soul of South Miami-Dade. The latest effort -- a 30-month study by a group of consultants and citizens that cost more than half a million county dollars -- ended recently and the picture is no more clear than two decades ago. It seems no one can agree on how to promote and protect thousands of acres of agricultural land south of Tamiami Trail, primarily west of U.S. 1, but also including some land east of the highway. The biggest chunk of
farmland is down in the Redland. Not the environmentalists who champion the need for a buffer between the Everglades and the suburban sprawl that lines the county; not the
farmers who work the land; not the residents who want to preserve their rural lifestyle; and not the high-priced consultants hired to sort it all out. Read more

Environmental groups say golf course developer 'duped' them
By by ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
A golf course project that is one of the first tests of the county's rural fringe growth plan is getting low marks from environmental advocates who helped pave the way for it. In the run-up to the adoption of the growth plan by county commissioners in 2002 after years of study, Vision & Faith Inc. struck a deal with the Florida Wildlife Federation and the Collier County Audubon Society. The deal allows the developer to build in rural wetlands slated for preservation as a way of saving higher quality wetlands on the urban side of an imaginary line that cuts through 1,857 acres owned by Vision & Faith on the edge of the Picayune Strand State Forest. Plans call for preservation of 52 percent of the site and for wetland impacts of more than 594 acres, according to a permit application filed in October 2003 with the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. 

 

18-January-04

Outdoors: What Rules Are Needed to Keep the Wilderness Wild?
By PETE BODO
© New York Times
A few years ago, while waiting with a friend for a canoe to ferry us across the Upsalquitch River in the Canadian big woods near Campbellton, New Brunswick, I stood stupefied on a primitive landing as a pair of Jet Skis - loud, sleek and festooned with the obligatory fluorescent graphics - came blasting out of the stillness. It wasn't that I particularly disliked Jet Skis. I just couldn't imagine why anyone would want to ride one up 25 miles of rocky, swift, transparent salmon river that has always symbolized natural beauty and rustic solitude. Nor could I think of many machines more out of place on the Upsalquitch than these aquatic versions of motocross bikes. But there they were, alien as hallucinations and symbolic of a motorized recreation trend that is coming into increasing conflict with other forms of forest use, as well as some fundamental values associated with wild places. Read more

 

15-January-04

Court hears Glades dispute
The Supreme Court will decide if South Florida water managers need a federal permit to transfer polluted water into the Everglades.
BY FRANK DAVIES
© The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with environmental law and federal-state conflicts over water pollution in an Everglades dispute between the Miccosukee Tribe and South Florida water managers. During oral arguments in the case, justices indicated they were aware their decision could have a far-reaching impact on how the transfer of water is regulated throughout the nation. The court must decide whether the South Florida Water Management District needs a federal permit for pumping polluted water in western Broward County into a water conservation area of the Everglades. Thousands of Broward homes would be flooded if the water were not pumped from the C-11 canal. But getting a Clean Water Act permit would force the district to cut pollution from fertilizer, pesticides and other sources. The district argues that such a process for each of its pumping stations
and other structures would be burdensome, expensive and misdirected -- since it's transferring water polluted by other sources.  Read more

Tribe battles water district over West Broward pollution pumped into Everglades
By William E. Gibson
© Sun-Sentinel
WASHINGTON · A dispute over water pollution in the Everglades spilled into the sedate chamber of the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday, where the Miccosukee Tribe accused Florida officials of trying to evade water quality standards at a pumping station in west Broward County. South Florida water management officials, backed by President Bush's
administration, told the high court that a federal permit was not required under the law for the pumping station to continue diverting floodwaters tainted by pesticides and other pollutants into the Everglades. They also said they are moving as quickly as possible to clean up the
River of Grass. The justices appeared split on the matter, while peppering both sides with
questions that delved into a range of pollution controversies surrounding the 'Glades. Their ruling, not expected for weeks or months, could turn either way. 

Supreme Court hears Everglades pollution case
By Larry Lipman
© Palm Beach Post
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that
could affect the restoration of the Everglades as well as water management policies nationwide. At issue is whether the South Florida Water Management District needs a
federal permit to pump polluted water from a drainage canal in western Broward County into a water conservation area at the edge of the Everglades. Two lower federal courts have sided with the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida and the Friends of the Everglades in ruling that a permit is required, but attorneys for the district and the Justice Department argued that a permit is not needed because the pumping does not add pollution to the water, but only moves it.
The outcome of the case, expected by summer, is being closely watched by water management authorities and state governments with managers, who warn that a ruling for the tribe could force them to seek thousands of costly federal permits, adding undue burdens to flood-control efforts nationwide. "This is all about limited resources," South Florida Water Management District Chairman Nicolás J. Gutiérrez Jr., told reporters after the hearing. "We
cannot divert key resources that we are using to implement cutting-edge scientific cleanup technology that we are using to bring the Everglades back to the health that it needs to be... if we are forced to go out and obtain cumbersome, expensive, duplicative and nonproductive federal permits for all of the hundreds of major structures and thousands of minor structures
throughout our 16-county jurisdiction." 

Court Urged to Require EPA Role in Everglades Shift of Polluted Water
By Charles Lane
© Washington Post
A lawyer for an Everglades Indian tribe urged the Supreme Court yesterday to require South Florida's water managers to get federal approval before they shift water from the suburbs to
protected wetlands, as the justices heard oral arguments in a case that could affect state
water supply and flood-control practices across the nation. Representing the 500-member Miccosukee Tribe, Dexter W. Lehtinen told the court that, under the federal Clean Water Act, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) must seek a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency to operate a pump that sends phosphorus-contaminated runoff from the lawns and shopping malls of western Broward County back into the Everglades. Allowing the water district to continue pumping without a federally approved
pollution-control plan, Lehtinen said, "would decimate Clean Water Act protections not only for the Everglades," but also for jurisdictions around the country.  Read more

Florida black bear won't be listed as threatened species
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
Florida black bears have been found sleeping in truck beds in rural Collier County, rummaging through garbage cans and wandering through Golden Gate Estates neighborhoods. But one place they won't be found is on the federal list of threatened or endangered species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reaffirmed on Wednesday a 1998
decision to not list the Florida black bear as a threatened species. Getting a spot on the list triggers federal review of development in black bear habitat and makes it easier to get federal money for black bear research and protection measures. Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the Fund for Animals challenged the 1998 decision. In 2001, a federal judge ordered the agency to reconsider. The results were published Wednesday in the Federal Register.

State officials urge county to think bigger on Scripps
By Stacey Singer
© Palm Beach Post
Saying that Palm Beach County should have a research park rivaling the largest in the world, state leaders Wednesday urged county leaders to think bigger. The county needs to plan for a research campus three times the size of its initial drawings, something similar to Research Triangle Park in North Carolina, state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Delray Beach, said following a closed-door meeting among key players on the project that will have The Scripps Research Institute as its hub. In addition to the Mecca Farms property in northern Palm Beach County, Klein and others say, the project should include at least a portion of the adjacent Vavrus ranch. Planning such a vast development here will be complicated by the number of government and private entities hoping to control and profit from the project -- and by the land's possible role in Everglades restoration. Still, a spokesman for Gov. Jeb Bush urged the county to do everything possible to maximize the impact of the project. "We should plan for nothing short of massive success," Jacob DiPietre said. "The governor's vision of Scripps Florida is for it to be a leading, premier institute for biotech and biomedical innovation." Wednesday's meeting represented the first step toward joint planning, County Administrator Bob Weisman said. But beyond establishing a promise to communicate, those involved have differing visions of what should happen next -- differences that could hinder progress.

 

14-January-04

Everglades cleanup at stake in court case
By Warren Richey Staff 
© The Christian Science Monitor

WETLAND WILDLIFE: A great blue heron stands in the Everglades. Amid a major park-restoration effort, environmentalists say a pump station needs to get a clean-water permit for flood-runoff that contains pollutants. REBECCA SWILLER - STAFF

(EVERGLADES HOLIDAY PARK, FLA.) A four-foot alligator basks in the bright sunshine on the steep bank of a canal, as five plump cormorants leisurely digest their lunch while
perched on a string of orange floats. Aside from the steady din of a nearby flood-control pump and the man-made configuration of the waterway, the scene appears a slice of idyllic Florida. Indeed, from the east side of the S-9 pumping station at the edge of the Everglades, it is hard to imagine this as the grounds for a major environmental case before the US Supreme Court. But appearances can be deceiving. A few hundred yards over the levee on the west side of the pumping station, the picture changes. The torrent of water spewing from the backside of the pump has churned up a foot-thick blanket of yellow-brown froth. Blobs of foam drift over murky, greenish-brown water and out into what once were the pristine environs of the Florida Everglades.  Read more

Group Names 10 Most "Endangered" Parks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
© The New York Times
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A conservation group's annual list of the 10 ``most endangered'' national parks has six holdovers from last year, still considered victims of dirty air, inadequate funding and bad policy. The National Parks Conservation Association again named Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas as well as five national parks: Great Smoky Mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee; Joshua Tree in California; Shenandoah in
Virginia; Everglades in Florida; and Yellowstone in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The group said air pollution threatens many of the parks. In addition, it said there are problems with private land sales and potential oil and gas drilling in Big Thicket; development along park borders in Joshua Tree; non-native species damage in Shenandoah; management and funding questions in the Everglades; and lack of money and bison slaughters in Yellowstone. Read more

Water Pump Case Tests Federal Law
 By FELICITY BARRINGER
© The New York Times

 
The Supreme Court will decide the fate of the S-9 pumping station.
Photo by Barbara P. Hernandez for the New York Times.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Jan. 9 - For nearly half a century, a pumping station in South Florida has been pouring millions of gallons of storm runoff annually into the Everglades, keeping the farms and backyards of western Broward Country dry but filling the wetlands with water often tainted by pollutants, mainly from phosphorus-rich fertilizers. The station, known as S-9, is not a filthy factory, leaching mine or toxic dump. It is a large pump in a squat, nondescript building at the intersection of two levees. But its role in raising the level of phosphorus in the Everglades puts it at the center of a Supreme Court battle that could end up changing the reach of the Clean Water Act, the landmark 1972 law that established a federally controlled system for keeping the nation's waterways clean. Read more

Miccosukee Tribe Argues Clean Water Act Case Before U.S. Supreme Court In Struggle to Protect Everglades Homeland from Pollution
Press Release
Today at 11 A.M., the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida will argue its case for clean water (No. 02-62) before the highest court in the land. The Tribe, whose members have lived in the Everglades for centuries, began its Clean Water Act struggle over five years ago when it filed suit  along with the environmental group, Friends of the Everglades, against a government entity known as the South Florida Water Management District (District). The Tribe and Friends (whose founder Marjory Stoneman Douglas authored the book, The Everglades River of Grass) claimed that the District's S-9 pump was spewing polluted water
from urban Broward County  into the  Everglades without the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit  required by the Clean Water Act. They claimed that the water, polluted with phosphorous, was causing the native sawgrass to be overtaken by cattail and was destroying the Everglades. Tribal Chairman Billy Cypress explains: "The Everglades is our traditional homeland, and its health is vital to the culture and way of life of our Tribe. From the beginning, the Tribe has only sought to have the Clean Water Act enforced, so that the Everglades will be protected." During the waging of their "David v Goliath" battle, the small 500 member Tribe and the grassroots environmental group won favorable decisions from both the U.S. District Court and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals.  Both Courts agreed with the Tribe and Friends that the District was violating the Clean Water Act
by forcibly pumping polluted water against its natural flow  and discharging pollutants from the S-9 pump into the  Everglades without an NPDES Permit and ordered the District to get one. Rather than get the permit the Court ordered, the District decided to attempt to overturn the lower Court decisions in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Legislators complain Scripps plan protects environment too much
By Nicole Sterghos Brochu and Prashant Gopal
© Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel
Some local business leaders and two key state senators have mounting concerns about Palm Beach County's plans for developing Scripps Florida, saying early drawings of the project appear to do far more for the environment than for economic development. Such plans, they fear, could seriously dampen the project's ability to spawn a "biotech city" that state leaders have estimated could ultimately generate 50,000 jobs. "I'm concerned that they're not thinking about this to its full potential," said state Sen. Ron Klein, D-Boca
Raton. So concerned are Klein and fellow Sen. Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach -- the two sponsors of state legislation that allocated $369 million for the project -- that they are participating in a meeting today with Scripps and county officials to discuss the project's direction.

Village moves to protect hardwood hammocks
© Key West Citizen
ISLAMORADA -- The Islamorada Village Council put the public on notice Thursday that the village will consider a moratorium on development in areas where there are more than 2 acres of contiguous high quality hardwood hammocks. Vice Mayor Mark Gregg suggested the council move to protect the environmentally sensitive land, and update maps that show locations of habitats for certain protected species. As an initial measure to protect hardwood hammocks, the council moved to invoke a "zoning-in-progress," which notifies developers that regulations are being considered for revision. Councilmen instructed staff to prepare a
resolution mirroring one recently passed by the county, which imposes a moratorium on development. Environmentalists have criticized the county for setting a 2-acre minimum,
arguing that plots as small as 1 acre can provide vital habitats for animals. Read more

Supreme Court takes up air and water pollution cases
By GINA HOLLAND
© The Miami Herald
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court was told Wednesday that Southern California's smog problem calls for rules stricter than national standards for vehicles that pollute the region.
Justices seemed skeptical of claims that a Los Angeles-area clean air agency can go beyond the federal Clean Air Act to impose tougher antismog restrictions for city buses, airport shuttles and other vehicles. The court is looking at cases from opposite coasts that challenge pollution regulations, part of the court's unusually in-depth review this year of
environmental issues. In cases involving the Florida Everglades and California smog, justices
were considering whether lower courts were too protective of the environment. The Bush administration wants the high court to overturn both decisions. In the air pollution case, an attorney for oil companies and diesel engine manufacturers argued that local pollution rules conflict with the federal Clean Air Act. Washington lawyer Carter Phillips said the justices "have to consider the possibility that all 50 states or every local jurisdiction could follow
suit" if the local district gets to set its own rules.  Read more

 

13-January-04

Miccosukees, water managers take Everglades fight to high court
By CORALIE CARLSON, Associated Press
© Tampa Bay Online
MICCOSUKEE INDIAN RESERVATION — Looking out over the water and sawgrass that stretches for miles in every direction, William Buffalo Tiger recalled one of the first signs that pollution was slowly killing the Everglades: batches of dead snakes. "That's how we found out how bad it's going to be," said the 83-year-old Tiger, former chief of the Miccosukee Indians and among about 500 tribal members who live on a reservation in the Everglades.
"Everything seems to be dying." The Miccosukees say a significant source of pollution
comes a pump in southwest Broward County that forces as much as 423,000 gallons a minute of polluted runoff from suburban lawns, farms and industrial yards into the Everglades — including 189,000 acres of land the state perpetually leased to the tribe and promised to keep in its natural state for the tribe's benefit and use. On Wednesday, the tribe and the South Florida Water Management District, which operates the pump, will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court whether that pump is illegally dumping pollutants into the Everglades.

Plan resurfaces to restore water flows
A team is revisiting a plan to restore water flows across the abandoned Southern Golden Gates Estates
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
Almost a year ago, higher-ups at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told a team of environmental restoration planners to go back to the drawing board. Corps officials questioned computer models used to measure plans to restore water flows across an abandoned subdivision called Southern Golden Gate Estates in rural Collier County. They also questioned the plan's $92 million price tag. Now the team is back — pushing the same plan from last spring and hoping to get Congress to authorize the project this year. "We are way behind schedule right now," said Rick McMillen, project manager for the corps. Agencies involved in the restoration revisited the plan, dubbed Alternative 3D, during a meeting Monday in a classroom at Edison Community College. The plan would tear our 227 miles of roads, plug canals in 83 spots and install three pump stations, according to documents presented Monday. 

Decapitating Appalachia
Editorial
© New York Times
Environmental protection under the Bush administration often seems to refer to the political environment and not the stewardship of the nation's precious resources. In the latest attack on existing safeguards, the Interior Department is quietly gutting yet another legal safeguard against the wholesale pollution and burial of streams in Appalachia by the strip-mining industry. In 2002, the administration essentially repealed a longstanding provision of the Clean Water Act prohibiting the dumping of mining wastes in streams. Now, under what is
advertised as a "clarification" of the law governing surface mining, the administration is eliminating a ban dating from the Reagan era against mining activity within 100 feet of a stream. Read more

 

11-January-04

Everglades water case goes before Supreme Court
By Larry Lipman, Palm Beach Post Washington Bureau
© Palm Beach Post
WASHINGTON -- Buffalo Tiger remembers when the water was clean. When it
washed through the Everglades bringing life to the fish and the fowl and the
animals so important to the Miccosukee Tribe who live there. "It was very, very clean. You could see down into the bottom and see the wildlife. You could watch the shrimps swimming, the little turtles and snakes.... We used to lie in the canoe and the wind blew us around, it was fun," said the 83-year-old former tribal chairman. Now the water is polluted. "It's almost black, and so dark. We pulled a fish out... it's darker. We're not eating the fish out here anymore. The water seems to be getting worse. Many trees are dying, many wildlife are dying," he said. "The little islands in the 'Glades, the wildlife who used to live on it -- the water comes and they have no place to live.... The alligators have plenty to eat. It's harmful to the trees, the wildlife, even the islands are washing off." 

 

10-January-2004

Developer, Conservancy settle permit challenge
By ERIC STAATS
© Naples Daily News
A developer and an environmental group announced Friday that they have settled a permit challenge that was set for a hearing in Lee County next week. In October, The Conservancy of Southwest Florida challenged a South Florida Water Management District permit for Parker Daniels Inc., an affiliate of Jack Parker Homes, to build a new subdivision north of Daniels Parkway on the edge of the Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve in Fort Myers. The slough (pronounced slew), a wetland ecosystem that is 9 miles long and one-third of a mile wide, carries water to Estero Bay, creating sensitive habitat for wading birds and cypress trees along the way. In its challenge, the Conservancy alleged that the subdivision, up to 1,352 homes on 444 acres, would jeopardize water quality in the slough. The group also took issue with a lack of water quality monitoring. The project impacts about 50 acres of wetlands.

 

09-January-04

Political activist dies after collapse
By Jaime Hernandez
© Keys News
John Coleman, a prominent Broward County Democrat and former Hollywood commissioner, died Thursday night after he collapsed during a meeting of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Democratic Club. He was 63. Fort Lauderdale firefighters were called to the meeting, which was being held at Fort Lauderdale City Hall at 100 N. Andrews Ave., just after 7 p.m., Division Chief James Sheehan said. Mr. Coleman was campaigning for Democratic presidential candidate and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark at the monthly meeting when he collapsed, Hollywood Commissioner Sal Oliveri said. Mr. Coleman stopped breathing at the scene but was resuscitated and taken to Broward General Medical Center, where he died of cardiac arrest a short time later, Oliveri said. Broward County Commissioner Sue Gunzburger remembered Mr. Coleman as a faithful Democrat who worked tirelessly for his party.

FIERY EX-COMMISSIONER JOHN COLEMAN DIES AT 63
BY JERRY BERRIOS AND BETH REINHARD
© Miami Herald
John Coleman, 63, an ebullient family man, passionate Democrat and former Hollywood city commissioner, died Thursday night after suffering an apparent heart attack outside Fort Lauderdale City Hall. For those who knew his passion for politics, it seems fitting that he was leaving a Democratic club meeting. The news of Coleman's death shook Hollywood residents and politicos. Coleman, a Providence, R.I., native, married at age 18 and put himself through Providence College with a wife and two kids. He first visited South Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, when the U.S. Army sent him to the area to participate in strategic planning for a possible war. Twice divorced and with eight kids out of college, Coleman retired from his work as a consultant to South Florida in 1992, planning a life on the beach. He once said that he ``never had an interest in holding political office.''

 

07-January-04

Clean Water Act Case to be Heard by U.S. Supreme Court on 
January 14th
Miccosukee Tribe Continues its Struggle to Protect its Everglades Homeland
PRESS RELEASE
For more information, contact Joette Lorion (305) 281-0429

    Next week, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, whose members have lived in the Everglades  for centuries, will carry its struggle for clean water to the highest court in the land. On Wednesday January 14, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Case No. 02-62.  The small 500 member Tribe began its legal battle many years ago joined by the environmental group Friends of the Everglades, which was founded by revered pioneer conservationist and author Marjory Stoneman Douglas.  The Tribe and Friends five year David v. Goliath struggle against a government entity called the South Florida Water Management
District resulted in two lower court decisions in their favor. Both the U.S. District Court and 11th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with the Tribe and Friends that the SFWMD was violating the Clean Water Act by  backpumping polluted water from its S-9 pump into the fragile Everglades without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)Permit. They ordered the SFWMD to get an NPDES Permit for its S-9 pump.

 

06-January-04

Florida must review water management
Saunders’ senate bill a good idea
Editorial
© The News-Press
Should Florida move ahead with a statewide review of its water management structure, knowing that powerful business interests are hoping such a study will open the door to possible privatization of water in the state, and controversial interregional transfers? The answer has to be yes. Studying Florida water needs on a statewide basis makes sense.
Demand is soaring, and while the current system of regional water management districts has worked so far, it may not be adequate for the future. It would be blind to refuse to put all the issues on the table for discussion. Those include privatization and the transfer of water
from areas rich in the resource to those where demand will outstrip supply. Read more

Letter to the editor: Preliminary injunction needed to halt drawdown
Written by Kevin Stinnette, Indian Riverkeeper
© Stuart News
I appreciate Suzanne Wentley's article about the Indian Riverkeeper suit to have the Lake Tohopekaliga drawdown halted while an adequate analysis of the impacts is conducted. I regret giving the impression that I am content to have had our day in court. We are determined that this drawdown should not be done while Lake Okeechobee is in the midst of an emergency situation. We are concerned for the estuaries, of course, but also for the Kissimmee River restoration, the survival of the snail kite and the protection of wildlife areas south of Lake Okeechobee. Many of our members fish Lake Okeechobee and go birding
in Central Florida. Lake Tohopekaliga is within the Indian River Lagoon's watershed and our mission is the protection of that watershed.  Read more

 

05-January-04

Nova proposes $500 million learning center
By Thomas Monnay
© Sun-Sentinel
DAVIE - Already the 10th-largest private university in the United States, Nova Southeastern University is striving to become one of the most prestigious. Through the creation of a $500 million academic village, the university is proposing a one-stop center for research, medical practice, education and business. The proposal would also include a residential component,
Olympic-size swimming pool, conference space and a 5,000-seat basketball arena. "It's a win-win," NSU President Ray Ferrero Jr. said. "It will serve to enhance programs and our reputation and expose students to research capabilities." George L. Hanbury, NSU's executive vice president for administration, hails the concept as the "21st century" version of the "academical village" that Thomas Jefferson envisioned about 200 years ago.

 

04-January-04

Terrible idea to mix dirty water with clean
Editorial
© Palm Beach Post
A South Florida case in which water managers seek power to spread pollution goes before the U.S. Supreme Court Jan. 14. Some Western states want the same power. But the high court should side with lower courts, with the Miccosukee Indian Tribe and the environmental group Friends of the Everglades against the South Florida Water Management District. Lower courts have said that the water district must get a federal permit to pump polluted water from Broward County suburbs into the Everglades. The district argues that it should be allowed to pump dirty water, laced with pollutants such as phosphorus, into pristine water without a permit -- as long as it didn't add the pollutants. The Supreme Court decision could affect water managers in Western states, who fear that they would have to get federal permits for their reservoirs and extensive water-transfer networks. The court has received briefs from
Colorado and New Mexico and written arguments from the U.S. solicitor general's office, which first urged the court to reject the case and then sided with the water district. Former Environmental Protection Agency officials, including former EPA Administrator Carol Browner, have criticized the federal arguments in another brief, saying that they could narrow the jurisdiction of the federal Clean Water Act.  

 

03-January-04

Wastewater, nature to coexist at Green Cay
By Neil Santaniello
© Sun-Sentinel
West Delray - Along gated-complex-lined Hagen Ranch Road, another old farm has disappeared under newly turned earth. The ground is not being prepped for condos, though. This time the land west of Delray Beach is going from peppers to pickerel weed in a $15 million project. Seven years after the county struck a deal to buy 175 acres of Green Cay
Farm and build a wetland on it to filter and conserve wastewater, bulldozers and backhoes finally are shoveling and plowing the idea into reality. The machines are molding a patch of barren land, tucked between Valencia Falls and the L-30 canal, into an expanded version of the 50-acre Wakodahatchee Wetlands created by the Palm Beach County Water Utilities
Department. One million gallons a day of chemically treated county wastewater flow
into that marsh. Plants soak up some, while the rest either evaporates or seeps into the ground to resupply the aquifer. The county touts it as an environmentally friendly alternative to pumping that water -- drawn from toilets, tubs and sinks before treatment -- through deep-injection wells a few thousand feet below the ground for permanent disposal.

 

02-January-04

Panthers may be moving north
Some experts think female cats should be moved to help establish a colony in Central Florida.
By CRAIG PITTMAN
© St. Petersburg Times

Transplanting panthers: Through the mid 1990s, the Caloosahatchee River kept the remaining population of Florida panthers penned up in the state’s southwestern tip. But rampant development of that area, combined with the panthers’ own growing numbers, have pushed a handful of young male panthers to swim the Caloosahatchee and look for a new home in Central Florida. Now some panther researchers want to transplant female panthers into that area as well.

For decades, Florida's remaining panther population has hunkered down in the cypress swamps and hardwood hammocks of Southwest Florida, driven into hiding in the tip of the state's peninsula. But it's not enough. In the 1990s the panther population grew even as
development wiped out thousands of acres of panther habitat. The combination left young male panthers so little room to roam that a few left South Florida in search of new territory. One made it as far as the outskirts of Disney World. Now some panther experts are recommending that female panthers be transplanted to the north in hopes of establishing a panther colony in Central Florida. It's the only choice if this panther population is to
continue growing, explained John Kasbohm of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Read more

For eagles at Wiggins Pass, future is still uncertain
By CATHY ZOLLO 
© Naples Daily News
A pair of eagles whose fate is tied to two developments in North Naples are doing fine and are still at their nest site that overlooks Wiggins Pass Marina. But like the birds themselves, the future of their hunting grounds is still up in the air, at least whether they will hear the muted sounds of what developer EcoVenture Wiggins Pass says will be an environmentally friendly project. County commissioners will decide this month whether to let the development of Coconilla move forward. The idea of one developer, also affected by the bird's nesting tree,
to move the eagle nest to a fake tree farther from their project was shot down by officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Everglades Litigation Repository

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