News - January  2003   

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31-January-03

The cold reality
If you like to catch peacock bass, then you need to pray for warm weather. The string of cold fronts that hammered South Florida the past couple of weeks have not taken a toll on the region's peacock population, but there could be a problem if water temperatures don't warm up. Peacock bass, which were stocked in local canals by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in the mid-1980s, die when water temperatures fall below 60 degrees. That susceptibility to the cold is why the South American import was allowed to be stocked, because it meant that peacocks would not be able to migrate north to Lake Okeechobee, a world-class largemouth bass fishery. Paul Shafland, the head of the FWC's Non-native Fish Laboratory in Boca Raton, stocked peacocks in Miami-Dade and Broward county canals to control populations of exotic species such as spotted tilapia, which makes up 70 percent of the peacock's diet. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Polluters Spend $3.9 Billion on New Controls and Cleanup
The Environmental Protection Agency forced polluters to spend $3.9 billion on new controls and cleanups last year, a figure that was 11 percent less than in 2001 but still the second-highest amount in its history, agency officials and Congressional overseers said today.  The $4.4 billion spent on new controls and cleanups in 2001 was the highest ever.  The agency conducted 17,668 inspections in the 2002 fiscal year, which ended on Sept. 30, a 1 percent rise from the previous fiscal year, though it was below the 20,417 inspections in the last year of the Clinton presidency, agency figures show.  The data, giving a mixed picture of agency enforcement last year, were made available to The Associated Press by Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The numbers were confirmed by agency officials, who plan to release them next week. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Empty Promises
Everyone expects a certain amount of hokum in a State of the Union address. But for artful misdirection it's hard to top the three paragraphs in which President Bush promised to protect the environment while promoting energy independence. Set aside for the moment the meagerness of his menu, as well as the plain fact that he has spent the last two years rolling back laws and regulations that have long guarded the nation's air, water and public lands. The real tipoff to his intentions lies in the three proposals themselves. Whatever their long-term promise, none would do much good in the short term and some would actually do harm.  Mr. Bush asserted, for example, that his Clear Skies Initiative, which is designed to update parts of the Clean Air Act, would achieve a 70 percent cut in power plant pollution by 2018. What he did not say was that most of these cuts will come in the program's later years. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

30-January-03

Lake Worth Lagoon plan for restoration evaluated
About 200 people gathered Wednesday to recap their progress -- and discuss future goals -- in a multigovernment partnership to improve water quality and wildlife habitat in the Lake Worth Lagoon. That initiative has been fueled thus far by $9.5 million in grants from the state Legislature. The money, handed out as matching funds to local governments, has generated $34 million in projects to clean storm water pouring into the lagoon and improve the habitat for wildlife. "We felt it was time to come back and say, `This is what we accomplished,'" said Richard Walesky, Palm Beach County's environmental director, a speaker at the daylong symposium at Palm Beach Atlantic University. He reminded his audience, which included scientists, county and state environmental officials and government leaders, that their target was not environmental restoration in the purest sense of the term. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Davis to submit bill that would pave way for local toll roads

State Rep. Mike Davis, 
R-Naples

An authority that would have the power to create new toll roads in Collier and Lee counties may come about by as early as July. State Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, has drawn up a bill and plans to submit it next week for consideration at the upcoming legislative spring session that would create a new Southwest Florida Transportation Authority. Many elected officials lauded the proposal at a meeting on Wednesday of the Southwest Florida Transportation Initiative. Known as SWFTI, the lobbying organization that includes a wide range of business leaders and governmental officials urged Davis to file the bill. "It is something that SWFTI has been working on for a while," he said before the formal luncheon at The Colony Golf & Country Club. "They approached me about it." Davis, who was on the Collier County Planning Commission for eight years, said this option could be a great help to Collier County. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Property owners concerned over proposed tier system
What was designed to be a discussion of platted land maps quickly turned into a debate on what will happen to those in the system waiting for their opportunity to build a home. The meeting on the county’s proposed Smart Growth program, a new method for development, was held at the Key Largo Library Tuesday, Jan. 21 and attended by a handful of men, most of whom appeared to be builders. The maps, shaded green, tan and brown, showed how the three tiers laid out on the Upper Keys. Tier 1, shaded green, is sensitive land that is to be preserved. Tier 2 land, shaded tan, is partially developed with subdivisions that are about 50 percent built out. Tier 3 includes infill areas where development would be encouraged, should the County Commission approve the plan. But a lawsuit, called the Ambrose case and now under appeal by the county, may turn Smart Growth on its ear. Attorney Jim Mattson won a lower court verdict. 
Copyright  © 2003  Upper Keys Reporter All rights reserved.

EDITORIAL:  Local officials shouldn’t pay feds to do their jobs
Local governments should not pay the salaries of federal officers charged with regulating those governments. That is what Lee County commissioners are considering in an effort to reduce road permitting delays at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They voted 3-2 Tuesday for the move, although they said that, at this point, they are trying to preserve the option. The frustration at delays due to inadequate personnel is understandable. They have helped drive the cost of improvements to Alico Road up by $1 million, according to county estimates. But if the regulated agency pays the regulator’s salary, that regulator’s independence could be compromised. That would undermine the checks and balances one would hope for as the payback on our expensive multiple layers of government. 
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Water priorities anger Glades
Fixing the Lake Worth Lagoon is Palm Beach County's No. 1 priority as it seeks money from state lawmakers this year. Priority No. 2: Removing the cancer-causing chemicals in the water people drink from Lake Okeechobee. The priorities, presented by Palm Beach County commissioners Wednesday to state lawmakers, have prompted outrage -- but not surprise -- from Glades-area residents. For years, they have waited for a new water-treatment plant.  Last year, a request to pay for some of the $30 million water treatment project was cut from the state budget. The Lake Worth Lagoon, however, received $2.5 million, backed by the heavy political muscle of two top lawmakers: Sen. Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, and Sen. Jeff Atwater, a North Palm Beach Republican who then was a House member. The Glades' dangerous drinking water can't take second billing any longer, said the Rev. John Mericantante of St. Mary Catholic Church in Pahokee. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

29-January-03

U.S. to Seek Waiver on Weed Killer Harmful to Ozone Layer
The Bush administration is considering seeking scores of exemptions for industries that want to keep using an ozone-depleting pesticide that is to be banned by 2005 under an international treaty.  Environmental campaigners say the result, should all the exemptions be granted, would be years of further delay in undoing damage to the ozone layer from decades of emissions of the pesticide, methyl bromide, and other similar compounds.  Experts said that the exemptions from the ban would undermine the Montreal Protocol, a 15-year-old pact protecting the ozone layer and widely perceived as the most effective environmental treaty ever negotiated.  The White House is hurriedly reviewing options because it faces a Friday deadline for forwarding proposed exemptions to an international environmental body that administers the treaty. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

RURAL CLEANSING: Disabled vet's home safe for now,  Jeb Bush nixes plans to seize property
Plans by the state of Florida to seize the home of a disabled veteran through eminent domain have been put on hold, the Naples Daily News reported today. Following a hearing in Tallahassee yesterday, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and three Cabinet members voted unanimously to turn down a request by the state to begin legal proceedings against Jesse Hardy, 67, and three other property owners whose land government planners say is needed for Everglades restoration. Instead, the staff of the Department of Environmental Protection was directed to continue talks with the owners on purchasing the 3,982 acres that are in dispute.  The decision came as something of a surprise. Bush has repeatedly complained that the state too often pays inflated prices for environmentally sensitive land, but on Tuesday he did an about-face, saying the state "needs to go the extra mile" before taking a homeowner's property. 
Copyright  © 2003 WorldNet daily All rights reserved.

Cabinet defers action on S. Golden Gate Estates land
The state won't go to court yet to force the remaining property owners in Southern Golden Gate Estates to sell their holdings. By a unanimous vote, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and three other Florida Cabinet members called Tuesday on Department of Environmental Protection staff and four property owners to continue talks on purchasing 3,982 acres deemed critical for Everglades restoration. The Miccosukee Indian tribe is one of the owners. Bush, who has repeatedly said the state too often pays inflated prices for environmentally sensitive land, took an about-face Tuesday and said the state needs to go the extra mile before taking a homeowner's property. "In the eminent domain world, (forget) everything I've said about the state purchasing land," Bush said. "This is a different animal. We need to bend over backward to find ways to accommodate people who have made life decisions. It's their property." 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

County to pay for federal reviewer of road permits
The Lee County Commission on Tuesday voted to pay the salary for a federal employee who would review county road permit applications. In the 3-2 vote, Commissioners Andy Coy and Doug St. Cerny opposed the idea and said permit delays at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are the result of bad management. The two commissioners were unconvinced by nine people — all in favor of the idea — who spoke at the meeting, including Meg Judge, chairwoman of the Estero Chamber of Commerce. “We’re in an area of such high growth we have to come up with innovative ideas,” she told commissioners. Avoiding delays on road projects could save the county millions of dollars, Judge said.  Commissioners were asked to let staff work with U.S. Rep. Porter Goss’ office to extend the federal Water Resources Development Act with a provision that lets local governments pay for a permit- review staff member. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Lee considers funding federal position to handle permit review work
It's shameful that Lee County might have to pay for a federal employee, but it might be the best way to deal with a bad situation, Commissioner John Albion said Tuesday. Commissioners continue to struggle mightily with the issue of whether the county should pay for a new permit application review position for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Commissioners invoke the specter of recent public works projects that took years to get permitted, saying a $135,000 contribution to have a dedicated reviewer riding herd over Lee County projects could save years of delays and millions of dollars.  On the other hand, the county continues to battle with the Corps over manatee regulations and other permitting issues, and commissioners are hesitant to arm the agency some of them see as the enemy. "If it's out there and it can potentially help us save money and save time, then we have to look at it," Albion said. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

28-January-03

PENNSYLVANIA: CHALLENGE ON POLLUTION RULES  
The state challenged the Bush administration over its new clean air regulations, taking issue with the rules that nine Northeastern states oppose. The acting secretary of environmental protection, Kathleen A. McGinty, said Pennsylvania filed its petition because it had its own priorities and interests about the Environmental Protection Agency plan, to take effect on March 3. The plan would make it easier for factories and refineries to modernize without buying expensive pollution controls. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Water storage system to be built in south Broward
Think of them as bathtubs, 2 miles long and 1.5 miles wide, the equivalent of more than 10 Pro Player stadiums, including parking. The tubs, the first to be built in southern Broward County, are part of the 36-year, $7.8 billion Everglades restoration that calls for the creation of water storage systems, treatment of polluted water and rerouting of canals to prevent seepage of fresh water out to sea. One will go in Weston, between U.S. 27 and the new Isles of Weston developments, north of the C-11 Canal, which flows along Griffin Road. It will cover 1,490 acres. The other will go in Miramar, between U.S. 27 and the Sunset Lakes development; north of the C-9 Canal, which flows along the Broward and Miami-Dade line. It will cover 1,650 acres. The earthen levee that holds the water in Miramar will be 4 feet high and store water only up to 2 feet deep. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Second wave of manatee counts released: Lee up, Collier down
The minimum number of West Indian manatees plying Florida waters jumped by about 250 this week when the Florida Marine Research Institute released the second wave of sea cow survey numbers for 2003. Lee County numbers increased from the 299 that were counted earlier this month to 420. Meanwhile, Collier numbers dropped from 183 in the first count to 147. Numbers from the first count were released Jan. 16. Overall, the first count showed 2,861 manatees throughout the state. The figures released Monday showed researchers on the second count had spotted 3,113 of the mammals.  The Florida Marine Research Institute is a branch of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and conducts annual manatee surveys when weather permits. The overall state numbers were just shy of the record 2001 count, which tallied 3,276 sea cows. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Glades plots path for next 20 years 
Attendance, fishing impact are among top issues

TOURIST ATTRACTION: Everglades National 
Park visitors have long buzzed the marshes 
south of Tamiami Trail in airboats.  The park 
is considering whether to open some of the 
East Everglades for different experiences. 

For the first time in more than two decades, Everglades National Park is thinking about changing what people can -- and can't -- do in South Florida's largest chunk of wilderness. Anglers fishing isolated backwaters in Florida Bay and the 10,000 Islands may have to navigate through new zones intended to protect manatees and se  grass. Tourists who have long buzzed the marshes south of Tamiami Trail airboats may be silenced.  Visitors may be turned away from Shark Valley or other popular trails if too many show up.  Or -- it's critical to note -- none of those changes may happen.  ''I have made no decision to close anything or restrict anything,'' park Superintendent Maureen Finnerty said. "It's going to be a very open process. I hope we hear from locals and members of the diverse community of users. This is their park. I'd like to have their input."  
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

NOAA adds about 90,000 acres to Rookery Bay research reserve

An environmental gem on the Southwest Florida coast is shining a bit brighter with approval of a boundary expansion for Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. The Ten Thousand Islands, an untouched maze of barrier islands that dot the coast south of Marco Island, is included in a decision earlier this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to add some 90,000 acres of state-owned islands, coastal wetlands, pine forests and submerged lands to the reserve.  In all, the added land runs from the northern tip of Keewaydin Island, skirts around Marco Island and takes in Cape Romano and the Ten Thousand Islands to the edge of Everglades National Park. The  addition brings the size of the federal reserve, created in 1978, to 110,000 acres. "I'd say it's a significant step," reserve manager Gary Lytton said Monday. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

27-January-03

Settlement Means New Protections for Manatees

Florida manatees live in shallow coastal 
waters, where they feed on seagrasses 
and aquatic vegetation. 
(Four photos courtesy Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission)

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced new measures aimed at protecting the endangered Florida manatee. The steps, which include new speed zones for powerboats and better enforcement of existing rules, refuges and national parks, are part of a settlement between the federal government and environmental groups who sued over what they called ineffective management of the dwindling species.  Under the latest agreement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will propose three new manatee protection areas and establish specific time lines for putting up signs to alert boaters that they are entering manatee protection areas. The agreement, which was filed in federal district court in Washington DC, is the most recent development stemming from a January 2001 legal settlement between the agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a coalition of more than a dozen environmental groups. 
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

Males fight to survive development, restricted habitat
Female panthers aren’t the only ones having trouble surviving in Collier County. Young males are finding it increasingly difficult to find territory. They need about 200 miles of land on which to feed and find a mate. If a young male encroaches on a larger male’s land, the bigger cat will kill him. Survival is tough and even hard work doesn’t guarantee success. That’s what a 2-year-old male cat known as #99 discovered. A year ago, the youngster struck out on his own looking for a home. He roamed from the Panther Preserve to Florida Gulf Coast University to Southwest Florida International Airport. He crossed major roads and smaller streets, trying to avoid both traffic and other male panthers. He apparently worked hard to survive, but now the 2-year-old male is dead. He was recently hit by a car on Immokalee Road. 
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

 State to decide this week whether to pursue Estates land purchase to dislodge resident
Jesse Hardy has lived at the end of a dirt road in Southern Golden Gate Estates, without a telephone and without electricity, for the past 27 years. Not even Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet could convince him to leave now, he said. Bush and the Cabinet are set to decide Tuesday in Tallahassee whether to grant state land buyers the authority to pursue eminent domain against Hardy, a 67-year-old disabled veteran who lives on 160 acres with his adopted 7-year-old son, Tommy. "I plan on fighting this to the very end," Hardy said. His homestead is part of a 55,000-acre buyout in rural Collier County south of Interstate 75. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Lawsuit Warns of Methylmercury in Fish
California's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against five grocery store chains, aiming to require the stores to post warnings about the dangers of methylmercury in fish. In a complaint filed in San Francisco Superior Court, the attorney general's office alleges the grocers have  violated Proposition 65, a ballot initiative enacted by California voters in 1986. The law requires businesses to provide "clear and reasonable" warnings before exposing people to known carcinogens and reproductive toxins. "Generally, fish are an important source of protein," said Attorney General Bill Lockyer in filing the suit last earlier this month. "But consumers deserve to know when they are being exposed to chemicals that can cause cancer, birth defects and reproductive harm.  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 27, 2003
                US Plans to Thwart Global Mercury Treaty Talks, Document Shows

Letter to the editor: End delay on Everglades water project
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians has lived in the Everglades for centuries. Our culture and way of life depend on its health. The obsession of the  Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Department of the Interior with the unnecessary removal of the residents of the 8.5 Square Mile Area has stalled a vital restoration project. The Modified Water Deliveries Project was authorized by Congress in 1989 to restore more natural flows to the Everglades. This $140 million project was supposed to benefit 900,000 acres of Everglades wetlands, including more than 200,000 acres of tribal land. The Corps said that it would be completed by 1997. Today the project is nowhere near completion, and the Corps is implementing interim plans that restrict the flow through the Everglades, which will flood tribal lands.  The Fish and Wildlife Service predicts the latest Corps plan will degrade 88,300 acres of snail-kite critical habitat and kill endangered snail kites there.   
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Managing the departments: Grades for Bush's Cabinet secretaries
From National Journal
Many Cabinet secretaries are politically well-connected and influential in the Oval Office. But what about their ability to run the huge departments they are responsible for managing? National Journal assessed the management skills of President Bush's appointees in its Jan. 25 special issue.
Colin Powell, State Department Grade: A
When Colin Powell assumed the helm of the State Department, most observers agreed it was acutely underfunded, understaffed, and demoralized after years of often-acrimonious bickering with former Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C, and his staff.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003 National Journal All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                Government Executive

26-January-03

Editorial: Abusing the Environment
The Senate late last week finally approved a $390 billion appropriations bill underwriting dozens of federal agencies for the fiscal year that began last Oct. 1. This is something it should have done months ago, in a more orderly fashion. A sprawling omnibus bill enacted under duress always invites a host of last-minute, usually mischievous, amendments. This is especially true on environmental issues. President Bill Clinton vetoed a budget bill in 1995, and precipitated a government shutdown, in part because of environmentally destructive riders.  This year's budget scramble also produced disheartening environmental outcomes — with one conspicuous exception. It was the near victory of an amendment offered by Senator John Edwards of North Carolina to block the Bush administration's recent rollback of important regulations governing emissions from power generators and other industrial plants.    
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Developer seeks OK to work around bald eagle nesting guidelines
A developer in northern Collier County is finding that the trouble with bald eagles is that they just won't stay put.  After the 1999-2000 nesting season, Audubon Joint Venture, the developer of Audubon Country Club, carved Warwick Way and eight home sites out of a natural area at the country club. Then the eagles threw the developer for a loop.  Instead of returning to their old nest, the eagles built a new nest — this time closer to the cleared Warwick Way lots.  That put the lots within 750 feet of the nest, an area called a primary protection zone, where federal bald eagle guidelines for enforcing the Endangered Species Act call for no construction year-round.  So Audubon developers are seeking permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a break from the guidelines to go ahead with construction on the eight lots during the non-nesting season. The nesting season runs from October to May.
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Crowding fatal to panthers
Males kill females in territory 
Another panther kitten was orphaned when its mother was killed by a male panther in Collier County, showing a new pattern of males killing females with young. From 1981 to 2001 records show four female panthers were killed by males. While it’s common for males to kill males, it had been unusual for them to kill a female. But in just four months from September 2002 to January 2003 three females were killed by males. “It’s proving what we said all along. We have an increased possibility of males encountering females. There’s no place else for them to go,” said Larry Richardson, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who works at the Florida Panther Refuge located off State Road 29 in Collier County.  Richardson said diminishing land means more males are forced to live closer to females and compete for food. 
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Environmental concerns may impact route of future FPL line
Florida Power and Light is in the planning stages of a transmission line that could dissect environmental sensitive lands in eastern Lee and Collier Counties. FPL wants to construct a line of up to 36 miles in length that would stretch from a substation near the Orange River in Lee County to Golden Gate Parkway west of the interstate in Collier County. FPL officials said the new line is needed to serve existing and future customers. The line is expected to be operational by December of 2005. The exact route of the line has yet to be decided. FPL assembled a group of about 20 local citizens to make recommendations on where the line should be built. Some of the group members are concerned that the line could have an adverse impact on preserve areas such as the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed, or CREW, a 60,000-acre watershed that's located west of Corkscrew Swamp. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Advocates recall lake discharge struggles
In 1998, river activists began crafting water cleansing plans. Today, water decisions are made to avoid what happened then.
When it comes to the protection of the St. Lucie River, today's battles against the continuing discharges from Lake Okeechobee are being waged as personal missions by environmental activists with emotional memories of a five-year-old nightmare. "I remember when I caught those lesioned fish. I brought my boat back to the marina, and I washed my boat completely inside and out with fresh water," said Leon Abood, chairman of the Rivers Coalition. "It chokes me up a bit now. "I said, 'That boat isn't going back in the water until I can get that water clean.' It was a promise I made for myself," he said. Abood, like others active on environmental issues, can't forget the spring of 1998 when the Treasure Coast was awash in an ecological and economic crisis.   
Copyright  © 2003  TCPalm All rights reserved.

Island of Dissent Blocks Revival Bid 
Senate Moves to End 14-Year Impasse on the Everglades Restoration Effort
Julio Concepcion has re-created his own little slice of Cuba here in the most contentious patch of Florida, a rustic neighborhood at the edge of the Everglades known as the 8.5 Square Mile Area. Concepcion has a tropical orchard with mangos, mammees, plantains and papayas the size of footballs. He has an apiary with about 1.5 million bees. And just as he did before fleeing from Fidel Castro in 1962, he has a beef with his government. Federal officials want to buy 77 homes at the western tip of Miami's sprawl in order to reflood the eastern end of the Everglades. The Senate approved language in its budget bill Thursday authorizing the buyouts; Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and President Bush's aides recently endorsed the measure. But Concepcion and some of his neighbors are refusing to sell, and it is not clear whether the buyout plan will survive negotiations with the House of Representatives.   
Copyright  © 2003  Washington Post  All rights reserved.

Republicans elect state leader 
Chairwoman expects GOP to become majority party  
Republicans chose their "best cheerleader" Saturday to lead a two-year GOP stampede aimed at re-electing President Bush, taking Sen. Bob Graham's seat in Washington and making the GOP Florida's majority party. Republican National Committeewoman Carole Jean Jordan of Vero Beach easily defeated Jim Stelling of Seminole County for the party leadership. Stelling, who had been vice chairman before running for the top spot, was succeeded by J. Allison DeFoor II of Wakulla County. "We can talk forever about what we'd like to do," Jordan told the 204 Republican Executive Committee members in a closed caucus. "But the greatest wealth I've taken from this race is going into your individual counties and realizing the multitude of difference there is from North Florida to South Florida, and east and west." 
Copyright  © 2003  Tallahassee Democrat / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial:  Speed up restoration
Graham amendment would get Everglades project moving at last
Congressional conservatives have some valid questions about Everglades restoration — lots of people do — but if the various compromises stitched together for this project aren’t honored, it never will be started, much less completed. Floridians tired of delays in this work need to let congressional leaders know that they must not continue to re-fight every battle and disregard every compromise that has been hashed out in this far-from-perfect process. U.S. Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., is the new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and as such can be a major obstacle to the $8 billion federal-state plan to restore some of the natural flow of water in the Everglades, and with it some of the lost vigor of that unique ecosystem.   
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Quietly but distinctly, environmental policies rolled back
Halfway into his four-year term, President Bush has significantly altered the nation's environmental policies, often without attracting much notice. A handful of his most controversial policies have made headlines, notably his abandonment of an international treaty on global warming, approval of a federal dump for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain in Nevada and his proposal to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  But Bush's administration has slipped a number of major policy changes under the public's and the media's radar by quietly issuing executive orders that don't require congressional approval, rewriting highly technical environmental regulations and muzzling dissent within the administration. Three dozen experts in the environmental-protection and business communities were asked to assess the administration's environmental record at midterm. 

Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

25-January-03

FLORIDA: INTERIOR DEPT. TO SET UP MANATEE ZONES  
The Interior Department agreed to establish new protected zones for manatees in three regions where collisions with boats have killed increasing numbers of the sea cows. The Fish and Wildlife Service negotiated an accord with a coalition of environmental groups that had sued over prolonged delays in establishing areas where boats would be banned or required to slow down. The new areas, to be set up by July, will include parts of the St. John's and Caloosahatchee Rivers.
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Senate passes Everglades bill that may be key to implementing plan
Environmentalists were optimistic Friday that an amendment passed by the Senate would clear the way for the heart of the Everglades restoration project to be carried out. The amendment, co-sponsored by Florida Sens. Bob Graham, D-Miami Lakes, Bill Nelson, D-Tallahassee, and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, clarifies language to allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a levee and canal system around most of an 8½-square-mile area in southwest Dade County. The project, known as Alternative 6D, is seen as the last sticking point in the execution of the Modified Waters Delivery Project, which is aimed at restoring water flow to Everglades National Park. "The 6D project was serving as a cork on Everglades restoration," said Brad Sewell, a senior attorney at the National Resources Defense Council. "This amendment really allows us to pull out the cork and let the water flow."    
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Senate backs 'Glades home buyouts
Environmentalists and Everglades National Park have won a key round in a Senate struggle involving a plan to uproot homeowners so more water can flow to the park's east side. The Senate on Thursday night approved an amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill that could clear the way for the Army Corps of Engineers to buy 77 homes in a neighborhood west of Kendall known as the 8 1/2 Square Mile Area. The Senate adopted the buyout language -- opposed by the community -- as part of a vast $390 billion spending bill for fiscal year 2003. The House already has passed its version without the Everglades language. Members from each chamber will meet in conference to produce a final compromise that both the House and Senate must approve before it can go to President Bush to be signed into law.     
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

24-January-03

Commentary: Putting the spin on the Toilet Coast
I don't need a physician to know I'm losing my patience. Between the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, I'm not quite sure who is making more of an effort to transform the Treasure Coast into the Toilet Coast. What's even more discouraging is that the population along this coast appears to be buying into it. Ever since the sugar growers learned how effective a political spin doctor can be against a slam dunk amendment, the people who manage the water have jumped on the bandwagon. You see, spin is in -- because it's not really a lie or a sin. The new spin on deluging the St. Lucie River and the rest of the coast with fresh water is to label the discharges "pulse releases." The only thing resembling a pulse is the frequency of the release. With an expected 140 days of discharges ahead before the rainy season, that leaves about 20 days we won't feel that pulse throb.    
Copyright  © 2003  TCPalm All rights reserved.

Invasive Algae Smothering Florida Coral Reefs

Caulerpa brachypus is a nonnative macroalgae 
that has invaded Florida's coral reefs. 
(All photos courtesy Harbor Branch
Oceanographic Institution, Inc.)

An invasive, coral smothering seaweed has spread like a green tide across the reefs along the south Florida coast. Recent reports from divers and fishers show that the seaweed has become so thick on reefs in Florida's Palm Beach County, about an hour north of Miami, that it is forcing lobsters and fish away. The species, a type of macroalgae, has also now been spotted as far north as Ft. Pierce, Florida, about 60 miles away. "It can smother just about everything down there," said Dr. Brian Lapointe, a marine ecologist at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution. Lapointe said the threat posed by the seaweed, called Caulerpa brachypus, is even more alarming than that of other troublesome species he has studied in the area because it is an invasive normally found in the Pacific, but, until a year ago, nowhere in Florida. The species may have been released from a saltwater aquarium or from a ship's ballast water.  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

Babcock ranch for sale in entirety
Conservation agencies eager to make purchase
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioners said Thursday they want to join other agencies to buy all 92,000 acres of Babcock Ranch. There’s one catch. The Babcock family wants to wrap up the deal in months instead of years, said Wade Hopping, who spoke before the commission Thursday in Fort Myers on behalf of the family. “We’re open to that but we’re not waiting 10 years,” Hopping said. “The property is under some development pressure.” Although the Babcock family is willing to sell the entire property to the government for conservation, the family also has a proposal that it unveiled in May 2001 to develop 20,000 acres for housing, sell 44,000 acres to the state for conservation and keep 28,000 acres for themselves. In December 2001, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection put the ranch on its priority list of lands to buy. 
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Manatee status won’t be changed
State wildlife commissioners took their staff’s recommendation Thursday and agreed not to reclassify the West Indian manatee from endangered to threatened. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in Fort Myers for three days of meetings, decided to wait until November to take up the issue again. Kenneth Haddad, executive director of Florida Fish and Wildlife, recommended the move last week. “We don’t want this to further polarize the issue,” he said. Waterfront property owners, environmentalists, local governments and boaters have been at odds over manatee protections since the Save the Manatee Club and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service settled a lawsuit two years ago. Since then, boat dock construction has been restricted in parts of Lee County and Cape Coral and more slow speed zones have been threatened. The downlisting of the sea cow in Florida would have had no real effect on the mammal’s protected status.
Copyright  © 2003  News-Press All rights reserved.

Wildlife commission delays decision on reclassifying manatees
The state's top wildlife protection agency delayed downlisting the West Indian manatee Thursday in order to give researchers and the public more time to gather data and review the proposed change. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission met in Fort Myers this week with the key issue being manatee protection and the listing status of the controversial marine mammal. More than 100 residents, boaters and members of interest groups filled the Lee County Commission chambers Thursday. The sea cow is currently classified by the state and federal governments as endangered, although the Fish and Wildlife Commission's staff is recommending the state status be change to threatened. Any change on the state level would not affect the federal status or protections. The seven-member commission voted unanimously to postpone the decision until November.    
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

23-January-03

Letter to the Editor: ‘Green groups’ rolling in it
Did you ever wonder how those environmental groups get all that money to bring lawsuits against the government? Plaintiffs such as Save the Manatee Club, Pegasus Foundation, Florida Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, Florida Audubon, Humane Society of the United States and Defenders of Wildlife are financially blessed with income and support far above and beyond simple memberships and donations.  Some of these “green groups” receive millions of dollars in government grants (taxpayer funds). Their lawsuits against the government often result in additional government money when these suits are settled.  Many foundations such as the Ted Turner Foundation donate large sums both individually and collectively. The Pegasus Foundation itself belongs to a national consortium of foundations that donates $340 million each year to green groups. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial: An Everglades deadline
Unfortunately, Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs didn't attend the Everglades Coalition's 18th annual conference this month in Delray Beach. Mr. Struhs was very busy, an aide said, "writing phosphorus criteria" for the Everglades. More than 400 people at the conference, though, had some words about Everglades restoration -- including "phosphorus criteria" -- that Mr. Struhs needed to hear.  Conference-goers kept the message simple, with T-shirts that read "Keep the Everglades a Perfect 10." That refers to the 10-parts-per-billion phosphorus limit, which scientists say the state must set and enforce to restore water quality and protect native vegetation and wildlife. "No loopholes," read a wall banner, meaning that the tough water-quality standard should apply throughout the Everglades, not give breaks to sugar farms or drainage basins for suburban runoff. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Just ducky 'round here
Welcome to a duck hunter's dream: Stormwater Treatment Area-5, a state-managed Everglades wetland where the hunting is free and plentiful

TOP FLIGHT: Ringed-neck ducks fly over 
Stormwater Treatment Area-5, a wetland 
that boasts the highest hunter success rate 
of all the state-managed waterfowl areas. 
DAVID WALTERS / Herald Staff

Cold, rosy-orange dawn slowly illuminates a cattail-studded marsh on a sleepy Sunday in the heart of Everglades agriculture country. But as the big pink ball clears the east side of the levee, the crack of small-arms fire shocks the quiet. At first there is only a burst or two, but then the gun blasts become as constant as a cavalry skirmish.  What's going on here are the initial preparations for upcoming Super Bowl feasts around South Florida, hunters securing their main courses from the skies: duck á l'orange, barbecued duck breasts wrapped in bacon, roast duck, duck soup. Why go to Publix when you can secure a cheap and tasty party tray for yourself in this scenic, 5,120-acre marsh? 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Whooping Crane Patriarch Dies at 39
Canus, a one-winged whooping crane that played a crucial role in establishing a captive breeding population of his endangered species, died last weekend of natural causes, just a few weeks short of his 39th birthday. Scientists believe that the average lifespan of a whooping crane lasts from 25 to 30 ears, although captive birds can live much longer. Canus was part of the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) captive breeding program at the Wildlife Research Center in Patuxent. "Canus the individual may be gone, but his legacy will persist in the every growing populations of wild whooping cranes in North America," said USGS Patuxent Center director Judd Howell. "He was a great symbol for restoration of wildlife populations, and he will be missed."  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

22-January-03

States To Get More Say in Refuge Management
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has issued a new policy calling for more cooperation with state fish and wildlife agencies in managing the 540 national wildlife refuges around the United States.  The new policy was developed in cooperation with a team of state fish and wildlife agencies. It requires the USFWS to involve states early in the process, when initiating national policy development to address either a legislative requirement or a broad scale refuge management issue.  "We are committed to involving our state counterparts early in all aspects of refuge management, not just as reviewers, but as participants," said USFWS Director Steve Williams.  "I expect the Service to involve our state counterparts early in all aspects of refuge management, not just as reviewers, but as participants," Williams told the agency's regional directors in a Director's order. "I am committed to seeing the Service strengthen its ties with the agencies." 
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 21, 2003
                News Release: Service To Work More Closely With States on Refuge Policy

                Related Links,

                National Wildlife Refuges

                Director's Orders

Environment funding slated on some fronts
Environmental spending takes a big hit in Gov. Jeb Bush's proposed budget but environmentalists said Tuesday said they are happy overall, especially given the tough budget climate.  "When it comes to Florida Forever and the Everglades restoration, we're really pleased with this budget," said Eric Draper with Audubon of Florida. Each program is fully funded with $300 million.  Money is also included to protect springs and manatees.  Draper said he couldn't find "any ugly reductions."  Overall, the budget proposes a 20 percent, or $426 million, cut in the budget for the Department of Environmental Protection, leaving $1.6 billion.  Half the cuts come from a $200 million reduction in grants to local governments for stormwater and sewer plant projects. Instead the governor proposes beefing up the state's low-interest loan program for local governments.  Twenty-two positions are cut and dozens of trust funds are moved into the general budget. 
Copyright  © 2003  Daytona News-Journalonline All rights reserved.

21-January-03

Bush Proposal May Cut Tax on S.U.V.'s for Business
The Bush administration's economic plan would increase by 50 percent or more the deductions that small-business owners can take right away on the biggest sport utility vehicles and pickups.  The plan would mean small businesses could immediately deduct the entire price of S.U.V.'s like the Hummer H2, the Lincoln Navigator and the Toyota Land Cruiser, even if the vehicles were loaded with every available option. Or a business owner, taking full advantage, could buy a BMW X5 sport utility vehicle for a few hundred dollars more than a Pontiac Bonneville sedan, after the immediate tax deductions were factored in.  Tax experts and environmentalists say the plan would provide incentives for businesses to choose the biggest gas-guzzling trucks because it takes several years to depreciate the cost of passenger cars and smaller sport utility vehicles. The ramifications of the Bush plan on S.U.V. buyers were reported today in The Detroit News. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

News Release: Service To Work More Closely With States on Refuge Policy
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is committed to working more cooperatively with State fish and wildlife agencies in managing the 540 National Wildlife Refuges around the United States, under a policy issued by Service Director Steve Williams.  "We are committed to involving our State counterparts early in all aspects of refuge management, not just as reviewers, but as participants,"Williams said. The new policy was developed in cooperation with a team of State fish and wildlife agencies. It requires the Service to involve States early in the process, when initiating national policy development to address either a legislative requirement or a broad-scale refuge management concern, need, or issue.  Specifically, the Service will work cooperatively with interested State fish and wildlife agencies to help develop comprehensive conservation plans (CCPs).  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  Fish and Wild Service All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 22, 2003
                States To Get More Say in Refuge Management

                Related Links,

                National Wildlife Refuges

                Director's Orders

Editorial: Reprieve for a river
Government rarely responds as quickly to complaints as the agencies that manage Lake Okeechobee did last week. When the public learned that the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to dump extra water from a project north of Lake Okeechobee into the lake and the St. Lucie River, they were outraged. With extra rain brought by cyclical El Nino rains during the normally dry winter season, the lake already is suffering from high water, and the river faces nonstop releases of fresh water from the lake through June.  The problem was a bad decision. The agencies approved a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission project to lower Lake Tohopekaliga, one in a chain south of Orlando, to remove muck and help marsh grasses regenerate. The plan may have merit, but not in a wet year, when too much water is uprooting grassy fish habitat in Lake Okeechobee and overwhelming the St. Lucie.   
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

GOP senator not buying Everglades plan
Oklahoma’s Inhofe bucking party’s line
Florida’s vast and ailing Everglades is shaping up as one of the first environmental litmus tests for Republicans who now control both chambers of Congress.  The Bush administration and Sunshine State Republicans are pressuring a key GOP senator to drop his opposition to a critical water project that is the linchpin to the 30-year, $8 billion environmental restoration of Florida’s famous River of Grass.  But so far, it doesn’t appear that Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., new chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, is budging.  “Sen. Inhofe doesn't agree with it on substantive grounds and he doesn't agree with it on procedural grounds,” said spokesman Gary Hoitsma. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Editorial:  Corkscrew, power lines don’t mix
Electric company should steer clear of natural resource
Florida Power & Light’s proposed new high-power transmission line in Lee and Collier counties may be an economic necessity, but it could damage world-class natural resources if its route is not carefully planned.  At special risk is the pristine Corkscrew Swamp in southeast Lee County and northern Collier, and the endangered wood storks that nest there each year. They and their habitat, especially the renowned Audubon preserve, are important to the whole world of bird and nature lovers.  Transmission lines through any part of the swamp could threaten birds and natural systems in this area, arguably the last significant naturally functioning wetland system in South Florida — maybe in the whole state. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Manatee status change delayed
State wildlife commission wants input at meetings
Align A move to change the status of the West Indian Manatee from endangered to threatened in Florida may be shelved for the time being.  The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission’s staff has recommended to its seven commissioners that they postpone any action on downlisting the manatee. The commission will be in Fort Myers beginning Wednesday for three days of public hearings. They are set to hear the manatee issue on Thursday.  “Deciding the issue now would further polarize the public at a time when various factions are arguing and litigating to increase or decrease manatee protection efforts,” said Kenneth Haddad, executive director of Florida Fish & Wildlife, in a news release.  And the tensions between environmentalists and boaters in the manatee protection issue are mounting.
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.                 

Editorial: Hamilton Harbor
Naples should welcome request to delay process
Public hearings and the quest for permits yet again for Hamilton Harbor, originally known as Sabal Bay, are poised to be placed on hold. The developer says it wants to hear more from the Naples-based Conservancy of Southwest Florida on environmentally friendly changes to plans for a marina opposite southern Port Royal on Naples Bay.  Naples City Council ought to agree, with pleasure.  This is a good sign for those who, on one hand, relish an end to nearly 15 years of fighting and, on the other, want to make sure undue damage is not done to nature in the bargain. There is nothing wrong with seeking options to the destruction of even a single acre of mangroves, which Collier Enterprises says would take place under today's harbor plan, even though the affected area seems minuscule compared to the original 15 acres and the 1999 version's 2.3 acres. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 20, 2003
                Collier Enterprises seeks more time to negotiate with Hamilton Harbor opponents

20-January-03

Everglades: Partnership still crucial
There are, as Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote, no other Everglades in the world. And that is why we must work together to save them.  Our goal is an ambitious one. We are committed to restoring natural flows to restoring natural flows to the Everglades, improving water quality, delivering water for both natural system and human needs, in the right amounts and at the right time. Together, we will get the "water right" and, in the process, restore a unique ecosystem.  That is the reason we are here this morning. We are working together to accomplish an engineering feat the like of which the world has never seen. Our ambitious undertaking is to replumb an ecosystem that once covered 18,000 square miles so that its natural flows once again provide: Habitat for wading birds and alligators; better recreation opportunities for our children and their children; and an improved water supply for the residents of South Florida. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Collier Enterprises seeks more time to negotiate with Hamilton Harbor opponents
In an unexpected late-hour twist, a Collier Enterprises official said Saturday that the company will ask the Naples City Council for more time to try to reach a deal with opponents of a proposed marina on Naples Bay.  The City Council has set a special meeting for Tuesday at City Hall to take up the hot-button question of whether to rezone a spot on the eastern shore of Naples Bay, next to Bayview Park, for Hamilton Harbor.  The plans represent a scaled back version of earlier marina plans. Approval of the new marina would be a big step toward settling a $25 million lawsuit and $19 million property rights claim the company filed against the city after a previous City Council revoked earlier approvals for the marina in 2000. The plans also need state and federal environmental permits. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Facing Harsh Fiscal Reality

Maryland Governor Robert 
Ehrlich (Photo courtesy 
Office of the Governor)

Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich says time is running out to save the Chesapeake Bay, but his state needs the federal government to fund its restoration and protection.  "Time is of the essence and this has got to get done in the next five years," Ehrlich said. "The magnitude of the problem far outstrips the state's ability to pay for it."  The bay watershed encompasses some 64,000 square miles. It includes parts of six states - New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia and all of the District of Columbia.  The health of the Chesapeake Bay, which is endangered by agricultural runoff, industrial pollution and untreated municipal wastewater, is an issue few Maryland politicians can afford to ignore. The nation's largest estuary, Chesapeake Bay is one of America's most famous bodies of water, and Ehrlich, a Republican, repeatedly pledged his support for cleanup efforts during his election campaign. 
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                For more information on the Chesapeake Bay, see: http://www.cbf.org

                For more information on Maryland's state budget, see: 
                http://www.dbm.state.md.us/html/fy2004budgethighlights.html

                For a copy of the University of Maryland School of Law's report, 
                "Keeping Pace: An Evaluation of Maryland's Most Important Environmental Problems 
                and What We Can Do to Solve Them," see: http://www.law.umaryland.edu/environment/

Farm Bureau seeks standards for Everglades restoration
The Florida Farm Bureau Federation announced Monday that it is urging members of the Environmental Regulatory Commission to base new phosphorus standards for water flowing to the Everglades on scientific information.  The federation said in a release that it is also asking the ERC to consider economic impacts and to assess the relative risks and benefits to the public as it considers the standard.  "This common-sense approach is nothing more than what state and federal laws require," said Carl B. Loop Jr., Florida Farm Bureau president, in the release. "On behalf of the more than 150,000 Florida Farm Bureau member-families, I am urging the ERC to base the standard on the real-life research that shows 16 parts per billion is an appropriate standard that would fully protect the Everglades."  The ERC is considering setting the standard for every part of the system at 10 ppb. 
Copyright  © 2003  Tampa Bay Business Journal  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                Florida Farm Bureau Federation

19-January-03

Albuquerque Case Pits Thirst Against Fish

Rick Scibelli for The New York Times
The silvery minnow, once plentiful in 
the Rio Grande, is on the endangered list.

A three-inch-long endangered fish is standing between this city and its plans for a well-watered future.  The fish, the silvery minnow, native to the Rio Grande, has been the subject of years of court battles. But now a federal appeals court is about to decide whether, to save the fish, Albuquerque must give up drinking water it has set aside behind a federal dam for the years ahead.  The case poses the most direct confrontation yet between the Endangered Species Act, which ranks the protection of threatened animals and plants above human needs, and the water rights held by cities like Albuquerque in Western states where water is becoming increasingly scarce.  Among the states that have joined with the city of Albuquerque and the State of New Mexico in asking the court to reserve the water for people are Colorado, Idaho, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Wyoming. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Power in numbers
River advocates lifted voices to halt plans that would damage St. Lucie
Two voices grew into a powerful chorus last week, and the sound it produced just might have saved the St. Lucie River ecosystem further damage.  It was a chorus that stopped the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and especially the South Florida Water Management District from dumping millions of gallons of Lake Tohopekaliga water into Lake Okeechobee and thus into the St. Lucie Estuary.  The plan had been to lower the Tohopekaliga 3 feet below the traditionally low summer levels, to allow bulldozers to remove invasive plants and muck choking the habitat. In fact, the dumping actually started in November.  Congratulations first to the two voices Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard and St. Lucie County Commissioner Frannie Hutchinson. 
Copyright  © 2003  Stuart News - TC Palm  All rights reserved.

Take a walk on the muddy side
Big Cypress an ecological gem
When you think of the Big Cypress Swamp -- that 729,000-acre wilderness northwest of Everglades National Park -- you probably imagine stinky, sticky mud, maddening clouds of mosquitoes and herds of poisonous snakes and fierce alligators.  What you need is a reality check.  The only way you're going to find out what the swamp is really like is to wade out into it, mud and all.  I did it a couple of weeks ago, along with six members of the Broward chapter of the Sierra Club, and I will now dispel a few of the more outrageous myths mucking up this national preserve: The mud does not stink.  Nor do the decaying marsh grasses mixed with algae known as periphyton (it smells more like pine-scented room deodorant). 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

College land swap is a bad bargain
Before Florida Gulf Coast University opened in 1997, its ''founding mission statement'' promised an emphasis on environmental education. Located near Fort Myers, the new public university said it would be ''ideally suited'' to study the impact of a soaring population on ''a unique and sensitive'' ecosystem.  Today, its students and faculty are getting a blunt first-hand lesson outside the classroom.  FGCU's administration has cut a dubious land-swapping deal with a big developer that, if approved by Lee County, will result in the campus being surrounded by four new golf courses and 1,400 homes.  The university has agreed to give 215 prime acres to the Ginn Co., which is developing the project. In exchange, the company has pledged 315 acres to the university as a site for a new engineering school and, oddly, a new home for the university president. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Ave Maria University: A different perspective
Driving through some sections of this farm community in Collier County 120 miles southwest of West Palm Beach is like traveling through a rough-and-tumble neighborhood in a developing country.  Crumbling apartments are as gray as the thunderheads threatening overhead. Sagging mobile homes look as if they'll collapse from the slightest breeze. Nearly windowless warehouselike flophouses where a migrant worker can rent a bed for a few bucks a night squat on a busy street. A hooker trolls for tricks on New Year's Eve — riding a bicycle.  More than three-quarters of the people living in this town of nearly 20,000 did not graduate high school. Nearly one-third earned less than $15,000 in 1999, and a similar number live below poverty level.  
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Collier development codes
Current examples bring priorities into question
We could obsess with consistency and insist that rules are rules.  Or we could dissect those rules and find loopholes that would make everything legal.  Or we could employ common sense and look at three development case studies making headlines these days, and ask: Where are our priorities? Where are our values? And, what were we thinking when we got ourselves into this mess?  In other words, a bracing slap of reality beats more paralysis by analysis.  Let's start with the eagles. A condo developer north of Vanderbilt Beach proposes hastening the retreat of a nest of federally protected eagles within the development danger zone, by building a fake tree nearby. Not just any fake tree.  A fake tree with limbs at just the right angles that, research shows, are appealing to eagles.      
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

A growing number of people are moving west — to Naples

Ana Garro highlights a client's hair at Ana's
Secret Salon on 14th Avenue South in Naples.
Garro moved her salon business from Miami
to Naples last year, part of a migration trend
that is adding growing numbers to Lee and
Collier counties. Dan Wagner/Staff

From the window of the American Airlines jet that first brought Alejandro Antonio Ruiz from Puerto Rico to Miami, the metropolis looked like an island outpost.  The deep hues of the Atlantic Ocean dominated the view from his window seat 30,000 feet above Miami-Dade County. Nearly six miles closer to the earth, Ruiz remembers losing the view of the ocean and seeing nothing but concrete and pavement stretching in every direction.  "It wasn't my kind of place," Ruiz said. "When you see images of Miami you see sand and palm trees and sun. ... I think maybe they should show the sun setting behind a traffic jam."  Ruiz got his first view of the sprawling megalopolis of Miami-Fort Lauderdale in 1999. Within six months he took a drive across Alligator Alley to visit Naples on a weekend whim.  "I pulled over on the side of the road just to make sure I had my exits right," he said.  
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

18-January-03

Letter: E.P.A. and the Wetlands
To the Editor:
The Bush administration has not opened "a door" that may cause the loss of substantial acres of wetlands (editorial, Jan. 11). It was the Supreme Court that determined in 2001 that the Clean Water Act's regulatory program does not apply to a relatively small portion of wetlands that might be proposed for development. We are talking about thousands of acres affected each year — not 20 million.  Recently we reaffirmed our commitment to regulatory protection of acres unaffected by the court and began a series of activities to fulfill President Bush's commitment to assuring no net loss of wetlands. Those actions include a multiagency action plan, financing to strengthen states' capacity to protect wetlands and a new incentive program to protect more than two million acres of wetlands on private lands.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

U.S. May Open Oil Reserve in Alaska to Development

The New York Times

The Bush administration today proposed opening up part of the nation's largest remaining block of unprotected public land to oil and gas development.  The proposal affects nearly nine million acres of the Alaska North Slope in the government's National Petroleum Reserve.  Home to distinctive wildlife and tundra, the land is near the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which the administration still hopes to win the necessary Congressional approval to open up to oil drilling.  Today's draft proposal was released by the Bureau of Land Management, which offered four alternatives — including doing nothing — for the area, which was set aside in the 1920's for possible energy development.  Environmental organizations said they had long expected most of this land to be leased, but noted that the proposal would constitute the largest single on-shore offering to industry in the history of the American Arctic. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Despite no more water from north, lake too full
As St. Lucie River advocates celebrated the victory of stopping the drawdown of a Central Florida lake into Lake Okeechobee in the middle of a wet winter, on Friday reality struck.  Even without the extra water from the Lake Tohopekaliga habitat restoration project, water managers still plan to continue the heaviest "pulse"-style releases from Lake Okeechobee for at least another 10-day cycle, starting on Tuesday.  It's only the first of a predicted 140 days of discharges that could lead to murky water and damaged oyster beds and sea grasses in the estuary.  On Friday, Lake Okeechobee stood at 16.30 feet above sea level. For the first time since the middle of November, the lake wasn't rising. That alone, federal scientists said, is a small victory.  Water managers have released the nutrient-rich freshwater from Lake Okeechobee into the brackish St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers for a total of 90 days since July.   
Copyright  © 2003  Stuart News - TC Palm  All rights reserved.

Corkscrew visitors dwindling
International, out-of-state traffic down since attacks

A CLOSER LOOK: Marlene Bumgarner of 
San Francisco looks through a scope set 
up on the boardwalk of the Audubon of 
Florida Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. One 
of the guides fixed the scope on a yellow-
crowned night heron.
GARTH FRANCIS/news-press.com

Diminished airline travel has hit globally acclaimed Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary harder than much of Southwest Florida, and swamp managers anticipate a 10-year low in attendance.  Florida-based tourists and repeat tourists have buoyed Lee County’s annual 1.9 million visitors and many attractions in Lee and Collier counties. But Audubon-sponsored Corkscrew has struggled to compensate for post-9-11 drops because two-thirds of its attendance comes from first-timers who primarily are out-of-staters and foreigners.  The 11,000-acre swamp lies east of Bonita Springs and in Collier and Lee counties, which have seen at least a 20 percent drop in European visitors in the past 18 months.  Corkscrew Swamp is known the world over. It has the largest stand of old-growth cypress in the world. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Collier to hire full-time employee to oversee conservation program
The Collier County Commission has given county staff the green light to hire a full-time employee to oversee Conservation Collier.  The person will be in charge of the county's first greenspace acquisition program, which will save wildlife habitat, protect water resources and provide public open space in Collier County.  On Tuesday, the commission agreed to use $117,000 of the county's general fund reserves to pay for the employee's salary and health benefits and the program's operating expenses this year.  Joe Schmitt, administrator of the county's community development and environmental services division, said he hopes to fill the spot by March.  The commission will use up to $75 million in bonds to buy land for preservation and public access.  The bonds would be paid back with an annual property tax of up to a quarter-mill. That amounts to $25 per $100,000 of taxable property value. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

17-January-03

Lennar closer to starting project near Biscayne Bay
A state administrative law judge Jan. 10 cleared the way for Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) to develop 516 western Miami-Dade County acres targeted for Everglades restoration. But there are no clear winners in the ongoing battle among four national environmental groups, the South Florida Water Management District and Lennar. Stakes run high, since the turf tussle's outcome will likely set a precedent, say lawyers for Lennar, Florida Audubon, the National Parks Conservation Association, the Everglades Trust and Everglades Foundation. The legal battle started after the water district board voted 7-2 in April to permit Lennar to build 3,300 homes – Homes by the Bay South – discarding Everglades restoration plans to buy 400 acres in the middle of the proposed development site. Environmentalists urged the district and later the administrative law judge to buy Lennar's tract for Everglades restoration.    
Copyright  © 2003  Bizjournals All rights reserved.

New Jersey Officials Present Map Showing Battlefields in New Fight on Sprawl
State officials, beginning the anti-sprawl campaign that Gov. James E. McGreevey announced this week, today presented a map of the state that sketches out preliminary plans for controlling development.  The glossy map divides New Jersey into bright green, red and yellow patches, designating areas for growth, preservation and stages in between. What developers may do in each will be subject to regulations that environmental and planning officials are writing.  The map is a draft and far from complete, but within a year it is supposed to be detailed enough to show individual building lots.  "It is the kind of initiative we've been waiting for in New Jersey for almost two decades," said Barbara Lawrence, director of New Jersey Future, a statewide planning organization.  But Ms. Lawrence, like environmental advocates who applauded the plan, said that until the precise boundaries and regulatory requirements were determined it would be hard to tell whether and where development would be forbidden. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Who Gets the Water?
A faulty everglades plan pits alligators and pelicans against developers.
Flying over the everglades, passengers might expect to see a flock of great egrets or a twisted mangrove forest. Instead, they look down on an area the mining industry calls the "Lake Belt," a blasted landscape of pits, railroad tracks, and dynamited rock.  "It’s destruction beyond belief," says Barbara Lange, everglades co-chair for the Sierra Club’s Florida Chapter. "There are huge, rectangular holes that don’t look like lakes at all."  The limestone mined here supplies concrete for roads and sidewalks to support south Florida’s booming population. More mines scheduled over the next several decades will eat up an additional 15,000 acres of wetlands.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  Sierra Magazine All rights reserved.

Opinions: Workshop draws ideas to improve preservation
Apparently voters like Conservation 2020, but a few changes in the land acquisition program might be needed if a public workshop Thursday evening was any indication.  About 20 people gathered in the Cypress Lake Middle School cafeteria to air their thoughts about the program in the first of five public meetings.  Passed in 1996 and up for renewal in 2004, Conservation 2020 has bought more than 10,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land in Lee County.  Suggestions ranged from raising more money more quickly to changing the rules to let the county partner with state and federal agencies to acquire more land.  Bob Page, 66, of South Fort Myers suggested taking out bonds instead of the current pay-as-you-go method.  “I think this is a great way,” Page said of the current program, “but it’s not buying enough."  The Conservation 2020 tax of 50 cents on every $1,000 in property value raises about $14 million a year. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Area planners give lukewarm approval to dock resolution
Some cracks appeared Thursday in the united front Southwest Florida governments have been presenting against federal rules to protect the manatee.  The Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council adopted a resolution against a five-year moratorium on new dock construction, but the resolution approved wasn't the one initially offered and the vote was not unanimous.  The public comment period on the proposed incidental take rules for the Marine Mammal Protection Act ends Jan. 27. Those rules threaten a virtual dock building moratorium because they would find the entire region an "area of insufficient protection" in which activities that might impact the species, which federal officials say includes the construction of new docks, would not be allowed.  Many Southwest Florida cities and counties have jumped into the battle, including Cape Coral, the region's largest city, which has filed suit against the federal government. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Manatee group loses court fight over endangered species law
Critics of manatees and sea turtle regulations can file administrative challenges, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday, rejecting an argument by environmental groups that such challenges could not be made.  But the losers aren't too upset.  That's because the unanimous decision means Save the Manatee Club, the Florida Wildlife Federation and others in the environmental community will also be able to challenge rules made by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  "We thought we'd be defending them ... and now I think it's more likely that we're going to be challenging them," said David Guest, a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund who represented Save the Manatee Club and the Florida Wildlife Federation.  The two groups and some of their officers went to court in 1998 arguing that regulations adopted by the fish and wildlife board weren't subject to administrative challenges. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Hearing on county's rural growth plan ends, but both sides 'hopeful' to continue negotiations
An administrative hearing on a challenge to Collier County's new plan for rural growth ended Thursday, but the back-and-forth might be just starting.  A state official defending the plan and a leader of the opposition said after Thursday's wrap-up that they are "hopeful" that their behind-the-scenes talks could lead to the start of serious settlement negotiations.  Collier County and two environmental groups rejected an offer from opponents before the hearing started in December to begin negotiations, saying the two sides were too far apart.  Mike McDaniel, an administrator in the community planning division of the state Department of Community Affairs, said Thursday that there has been "significant movement" by opponents since that earlier offer. He would not elaborate. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

16-January-03

News Release: LAKE TOHOPEKALIGA DRAWDOWN POSTPONED
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District make joint decision
Due to near-record rainfall during December in the Kissimmee Basin, officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), U.S Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District today agreed to postpone the drawdown of Lake Tohopekaliga. The purpose of the drawdown is to enhance fish and wildlife habitat in the lake by exposing a portion of the lake bottom and removing accumulated organic sediments.  "The Lake Tohopekaliga habitat enhancement project will be reinitiated during more normal water conditions," said Ed Moyer, director of the FWC's Division of Freshwater Fisheries.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  South Florida Water Management District  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Phosphate futures
Mining's impacts, reclamation requirements should be reviewed.
Manatee County Commissioner Amy Stein asked a pointed question about phosphate mining this week, and it ought to echo through government offices in Tallahassee and Washington.  IMC Phosphates won approval Tuesday to expand mining operations at its Four Corners Mine in northeastern Manatee. During discussions about the proposal, Stein raised doubts about the company's record of fixing up mined land.  The phosphate industry loves to tout its work in repairing land damaged during mining. The reclamation efforts, which are required by state law, are inarguably better than they were decades ago, when companies typically abandoned mining sites after they finished stripping away phosphate rock. 
Copyright  © 2003  Herald Tribune  All rights reserved.

On Politics: An Extra Chair at Dawson's Shop
Following the trail of other former chairmen of the House Appropriations energy and water development subcommittee, retired representative Sonny Callahan (R-Ala.) has joined Dawson & Associates.  The lobby shop boasts three former chairmen of the spending panel -- Callahan, Tom Bevill (D-Ala.) and John Myers (R-Ind.) -- a fourth, Ron Packard (R-Calif.), has set up his own firm. Dawson & Associates also includes five former leaders of the Army Corps of Engineers, as well as ex-officials of the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Office of Management and Budget. Robert K. Dawson served as associate director for natural resources, energy and science at OMB during the Reagan administration and earlier was the civilian head of the Corps.  "They're work horses as well as show horses," Dawson said of the former lawmakers.  Callahan said he'll split his time between Alabama and Washington. 
Copyright  © 2003  Washington Post  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Everglades among parks endangered
Pollution, urban encroachment and a lack of funding are among problems endangering some of America's national parks.
Again this year, an advocacy group has ranked Everglades National Park on its list of the 10 most endangered of America's 387 National Park System units.  One of the world's largest freshwater marshes, Everglades National Park comprises about a fifth of the historic Everglades area, is home to 15 endangered species and is visited by more than a million people annually.  But, according to the National Parks Conservation Association, the park is continuing to be threatened by pollution.  In an annul report issued this week, the association said water levels and pollution remain "significant" concerns with low water flows concentrating pollutants from agricultural and agricultural runoff. 
Copyright  © 2003  Fort Pierce Tribune  All rights reserved.

15-January-03

Not Building Green Is Called a Matter of Economics

Marty Katz for The New York Times
Dan Wertz, a building engineer, shows 
the potassium permanganate pellets 
in the air-purification system of the 
Tower Building. The windows are made 
of glass that reduces the transfer of heat.

The tools for constructing environmentally conscious, energy-efficient office buildings have existed for decades, but commercial developers have not adopted the principles of what is commonly called green or sustainable building because a compelling case demonstrating the economic rewards has not been made, according to specialists in real estate, finance, design, construction and environmental health and safety.  "This is a concept that has sputtered along for 20 or 30 years," said Daniel R. Tishman, executive vice president of Tishman Realty Corporation. "It's an economic thing."  It is a phenomenon with parallels to the popularity of sport utility vehicles, except that buildings are responsible for more than 36 percent of the country's energy consumption, and transportation only 27 percent, according to the Energy Information Administration of the Department of Energy. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Editorial: New Players on Global Warming
Given the Bush administration's inert approach to global warming, the best hope for getting a start on the problem this year lies with the Senate. The prospect that something will actually happen there improved greatly this week with the introduction of a bipartisan bill bearing the signatures of two marquee sponsors, Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut and John McCain of Arizona.  The bill provides an economywide approach to cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide, that threaten to disrupt the earth's climate in environmentally destructive ways. It would require industrial sources to scale back emissions and would also establish a market-based system of emissions trading, modeled on the successful 1990 acid rain program, to encourage innovation and help polluting industries meet their targets at the lowest possible cost. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Concerns Raised Over Altered Fish
A new study maintains that the government is poorly structured to assess possible environmental hazards posed by genetically modified fish.  The study, being issued today by the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology, a nonprofit group, comes as the Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve a salmon genetically engineered to grow twice as fast as regular salmon.  The study notes that oversight of the fledgling field is left largely to the F.D.A., which regulates such fish under the rules covering drugs for animals. But the study says that those rules may not allow the agency to consider fully the environmental risks of such fish and that even if it can, it lacks the expertise.  "Regulators will increasingly have to stretch their authority to make old laws and regulations address the evolving next wave of products," Michael Rodemeyer, executive director of the Pew Initiative, said in a statement.   
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Commentary: Water agencies float a whopper
It was high tide when I walked my dog down to the Intracoastal Waterway in Hobe Sound last weekend. The water usually is clear at high tide, when clean, salty water flows in from the ocean through the St. Lucie Inlet, a few miles to the north. On this bright, sunny Sunday, the water was opaque and gray. Because of the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, gray is the color everyone will see for the next few months in much of the St. Lucie River and parts of the Indian River Lagoon.  Lake Okeechobee, often the cause of coastal misery when its dirty fresh water is dumped into the brackish river, also is suffering this time. A fisherman setting out shiner traps Monday in an area that usually has heavy marsh grass was horrified to discover that the grass is gone. "The marsh grass shelters these bait traps," said Carroll Head, with the group Friends of Lake Okeechobee. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

Group discusses solution for lake
A public meeting was held Tuesday night at the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Okeechobee Service Center to present the draft Evaluation of Alternatives Report for the Lake Okeechobee Sediment Management Feasibility Study.  About 30 people representing various government agencies and private organizations, as well as concerned citizens were in attendance. The purpose of the meeting was to inform the public of the findings of the feasibility study, to answer questions and to solicit suggestions before the report is finalized. Kathy Lukasiewicz, of Blasland, Bouck & Lee, Inc. presented the results. Her organization has been commissioned by SFWMD to conduct the study.  The study was based on the assumption that the lake may not respond quickly to reductions of external phosphorus inputs if the problem of the phosphorus already in the lake is not addressed. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Zap - Okeechobee News  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Imperiled Everglades
Our position: Florida's sensitive Everglades is in critical need of help from Congress.  Most politicians talk a good game when it comes to restoring the imperiled Everglades. But for the new Republican majority, the first real test of congressional support for the ailing River of Grass could come as early as next week.  That's when the U.S. Senate is scheduled to consider the Department of Interior's budget -- and a critically important proposal by Florida Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson to keep the restoration on track.  There's only one problem: The new GOP chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, doesn't much care for the Everglades. In fact, he cast the sole Senate vote three years ago against a joint federal, state and local effort to restore the marshy swamp. Just last fall, he called the $8 billion restoration plan "a waste of money." 
Copyright  © 2003  Orlando Sentinel  All Rights Reserved.

Coalition edges Everglades restoration forward

MIKE HENTZ/The Citizen
A backpacker walks the Florida 
Trail in Big Cypress National 
Preserve in the Florida Everglades. 
The Everglades Coalition, which
met this weekend in Delray Beach, 
hopes to advance a list of priorities 
to keep restoration efforts moving 
forward.

The restoration of the Florida Everglades is everybody's business. That was the theme this weekend as local, state and federal officials, along with environmental groups, got together in Delray Beach for the 18th annual conference for the Everglades Coalition. The Coalition is the environmental voice of the fragile Everglades ecosystem.  Monroe County Commissioners David Rice and Murray Nelson listened as Gale Norton, secretary of the Department of the Interior, expressed her support for compromise on a controversial part of the Everglades restoration plan [called Alternative 6-D] that would buy out the homes of residents in an 8.5 square mile area that will be flooded. The homeowners do not wish to leave and that has held up a full implementation of the water transfer plan.  "The key to our success is the strength of our partnership and our commitments to collaboration," said Norton. 
Copyright  © 2003  Keys News / Key West Citizen  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

               18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference:  Restoring the Everglades    

14-January-03

Widely Used Crop Herbicide Is Losing Weed Resistance

Gary Emeigh for The New 
York Times
Mark J. VanGessel, a Delaware 
professor, showing samples 
of resistant weeds.

The world's most widely grown genetically engineered crops — soybeans, cotton and corn developed to be impervious to a popular herbicide — are facing a new challenge to their continued long-term use. The herbicide, known as Roundup, is beginning to lose its effectiveness in controlling weeds.  In the last few years, weeds resistant to the herbicide have emerged in Delaware, Maryland, California, western Tennessee and at the edges of the Corn Belt in Ohio and Indiana.  The problem, crop scientists say, is the very success of the genetically engineered crops, particularly the soybeans, which now account for more than three-quarters of all soybeans grown in the United States. Farmers like the genetically engineered crops, which are sold under the brand name Roundup Ready, because they can spray Roundup herbicide directly over those fields, killing the weeds while leaving the crops intact. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Scientists' Report Finds Grounds for Regulating Redwood Harvest
A panel of independent scientists has completed a report on flooding in the Headwaters Forest conservation area of Humboldt County that could strengthen efforts by local residents to restrict the cutting of redwood trees there.  The report concludes that there are sufficient scientific grounds for addressing the flooding problems by regulating timber harvests along rivers and creeks near the Headwaters federal reserve of old-growth redwoods in Northern California. The logging is being conducted on land owned by the Pacific Lumber Company, which had also owned the forests now protected in the reserve.  The report, which was commissioned by the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, makes no direct recommendations about the amount of logging. But by providing a scientific rationale for regulating timber operations, the report could make it easier for the water quality board to consider new limits. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Scientists still investigating local pelican deaths

Brown pelicans increasingly are being 
found dead from the Tampa area south to 
Naples. Authorities are awaiting tests to try 
to determine a cause. Cameron Gillie/Staff

Scientists are still trying to determine if it was cold-weather stress or other factors that led to the death of dozens of brown pelicans from the Tampa area south to Naples.  Reports of dead pelicans began springing up in mid-December, about the same time a cold weather pattern spread over the region. Biologists in Gainesville are testing pelicans for any evidence of West Nile virus or exposure to red tide. The results should be available in a couple of weeks.  The topic of the birds' deaths was raised Monday during an Estero Bay Agency on Bay Management meeting in North Fort Myers. The non-regulatory agency monitors development, the environment and other related issues within the Estero Bay watershed.  "We started having people come into the office and calling about dead pelicans," said Heather Stafford, director of the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve and an ABM member.
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Opponents' expert endorses economics of rural growth plan
The backbone of a new growth plan for part of rural Collier County got an endorsement Monday from an unlikely source: an expert hired by opponents of the plan.  Florida economist Hank Fishkind, one of the state's most cited economic forecasters, testified during an administrative hearing on a challenge to the growth plan that its Transfer of Development Rights program is based on "competent and substantial" data.  "From an economics perspective, I think it will work," said Fishkind, who runs his own consulting firm near Orlando.  Opponents, who have made the TDR program a central plank of their challenge, pointed to other parts of Fishkind's testimony to cast doubt on whether transferring development rights from one area to another would protect nature — even if it does make economic sense.  
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Housing sprawl threatens environment: study

Across the world, households are 
getting smaller and there are more 
of them

An international housing boom is putting more strain on biodiversity and the environment than overall population growth, researchers say.  Just as cars that carry only the driver to work are more polluting per person than mass transit, homes with just a few occupants are more damaging to the environment.  Ecologist Jianguo (Jack) Liu of Michigan State University and his colleagues calculated population growth, number of households and average household size for 141 countries. They looked at 76 countries containing so-called biodiversity hotspots that are considered rich in native species but threatened by human activity.  Many of the hotspots are in the tropics. But the hotspot list also ranged from subdivisions pressing against the Florida Everglades in the U.S. to mountain habitat for endangered giant pandas in southwestern China. 
Copyright  © 2003  CBC Ottawa  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 12, 2003
                Peoples' household dynamics crucial to biodiversity

Editorial: SEEKING 'GLADES' SOLUTIONS: SPOTLIGHT PUT ON ENDURING CHALLENGES
Two of the thorniest issues connected to the massive Everglades restoration plan got some high-profile attention during the annual Everglades Coalition conference in Delray Beach this past weekend.  First, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton on Friday told environmental groups in the coalition that the Bush administration backs the buyout of half the landowners in the 8.5 Square Mile Area. And on Saturday, Florida's Sen. Bob Graham proposed purchasing the development rights from landowners in the Everglades Agricultural Area to protect the $8 billion investment in restoration.  Neither of these proposals is anywhere near reality yet. But each helps to focus attention on two problems that have defied solution, and especially so the Graham proposal. Levees protect landowners in the 8.5 Square Mile Area from flooding but, at the same time, interfere with water flow from Shark River Slough, the headwaters of Everglades National Park. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

               18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference:  Restoring the Everglades 

Conference to cover pollution issues of Fla.'s St. Johns River
The St. Johns River’s pollution problems are enormous.  Fish die beneath spinach-like mats of algae and under mud washed down from construction sites. Toxic chemicals from industries and sewage kill others. The hormones of some fish and alligators are so badly skewed they can’t reproduce. Some turtles have been born sexless.  These concerns have brought 1,000 people who live along the river to Jacksonville this week to help develop a rescue plan that they hope will restore the river to its pristine state.  Jacksonville Mayor John Delaney, the conference’s host, said Monday he wants the St. Johns cleaned up and hopes it doesn’t take decades.  "It took 55 years to develop a plan to save the Everglades, and in that half century about half the Everglades was lost," he said. "We want to develop a plan to clean (the river) up and restore it forever."  The St. Johns is one of the few north-flowing rivers in the country.  
Copyright  © 2003  Wilmington Star All rights reserved.

13-January-03

Wildlife experts concerned about fate of Loggerheads
Loggerhead sea turtles are in trouble. A report put out by the Florida Marine Research Institute said the number of loggerhead nests in 2002 was the lowest in a decade and it was the second year of high mortality rates for all sea turtles.  "It would break my heart to see another year of decline," said Tom Wilmers, a biologist for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife in the Florida Keys. "There are no more loggerheads on Sawyer Key; it has been three years. The beach is shot from a northeaster' storm in 1993."  Wilmers said in Key West National Wildlife Reserve new lows were set for the number of loggerhead nests. In 1990 there were 60 loggerhead nests and there were less than 39 nests in 2002.  "Whether this is merely a short-term trend for a long-lived species or something more sinister remains to be seen," he said as he explained that sea turtles live more than 50 years -- and possibly as long as 100 years, although there is no proof. 
Copyright  © 2003  Keys News / Key West Citizen  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Don't sacrifice a river
Even in the best of times, those who manage South Florida's water system could not expect those living near Lake Okeechobee or the St. Lucie River to welcome extra water dumped from a lake near Orlando. But an El Nino winter such as this one already has caused extra rain -- and extra pain -- for the lake and the rivers on both coasts.  The extra rain means the lake is 2 feet higher than normal for this time of year, and rising. To lower Lake Okeechobee, water pours west into the Caloosahatchee River. To the east, the St. Lucie Locks have been open continually since the start of December, draining excess water into the St. Lucie River. Extra rain during what normally is the dry season also has flooded the St. Lucie and the Indian River Lagoon with extra runoff from canals. 
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved 

12-January-03

EDITORIAL: 2020 needs your support
We must preserve as much land as possible in fast-growing region
Next week Lee County will start a series of public meetings designed to give the public a chance to be heard on one of the most important and successful local government programs in recent history here, Conservation 2020.  Public forums over the next few months will give people a chance to see what Conservation 2020 has accomplished so far, make suggestions for changes or additional policy directions and decide whether this tax program should be extended, and for how long.  The program, approved by voters in a 1996 referendum, levies a 50-cent tax on every $1,000 of taxable property value — $50 on $100,000, for example — to buy and preserve environmentally valuable land for public use or other public benefit. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Conservation program set to expire soon
About 8,000 acres have been preserved
Green dots, rectangles and oddly shaped formations map the successes of Lee County’s Conservation 2020 program.  The voter initiative has amassed some 8,000 acres of environmentally sensitive land for about $50 million since it began in 1997. That number could go over 10,000 acres if all goes well at a closing Wednesday.  But the program expires soon, and its fate is once more in the people’s hands.  The county has scheduled five meetings over the next five months to let the public know what has been done with the $65 million in property taxes raised to date.  The first meeting is Thursday.  The county also wants to know what the public would like it to do when the seven-year program expires in 2004. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press   All rights reserved.

Guest commentary: Sawgrass Rebellion is here for the long haul
When I read, "Whatever happened to the Sawgrass Rebellion?" on Thursday, Jan. 2, I had to laugh at the idea that the Naples Daily News would consider the Sawgrass Rebellion as something that would go away.  I have come to realize that Property Rights Action Committee (PRAC) accomplishments are deliberately omitted from coverage unless they can be seen in a not-so-significant light.  The Klamath Falls, Ore., citizens who trekked across the United States were God-fearing, country-loving individuals who hoped to raise the consciousness of all citizens of their rights being taken away.  As staff writer Eric Staats reports, the Klamath canal "head gates were closed to save water flows for rare fish species. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Safari-themed retreat clashes with county, environmentalists
Exotic animal trainer Donovan Smith says he's an entrepreneur preserving farmland from development; critics accuse him of bending Collier County growth rules
Beneath a moonlit night, a sitar player sits cross-legged, nimbly plucking the stringed instrument as a pair of chimpanzees scamper nearby. A macaw and cockatiel preen and primp, rolling their necks to the languid music.  Men in tuxedos and women in evening dresses sit around a fire pit while waiters clad in safari hats and khaki uniforms serve nori-wrapped spicy tuna and savory cones of Peruvian seviche out of stone trays from Morocco. A spotted leopard munches on palm fronds, standing sentry atop a wrecked Land Rover.  The scene could come straight out of British colonial Africa, or perhaps an Ernest Hemingway novel. Guess again. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Peoples' household dynamics crucial to biodiversity

The village near Wolong's panda center 
and museum is a hotbed of tourism, with 
local villagers creating panda art for building 
exteriors and selling everything from locally 
made wares to American Pepsi to throngs 
of visitors.
Photo Credit: Sue Nichols, Michigan State University

A new study that examines the world's increasing number of households – even where populations decline – draws a strong link between the lifestyles of humans and the fates of animals such as pandas and crocodiles.  Michigan State University scientist Jianguo (Jack) Liu and colleagues at Stanford University, in the Jan. 12 Advanced Online Publication (www.nature.com) of the British science journal Nature, examine how the growing number of households worldwide – and the declining number of occupants in a household – affects biodiversity and resource consumption.  The paper, entitled "Effects of household dynamics on resource consumption and biodiversity," takes a new look at population dynamics. It explores how increases in the number of households in 141 countries, even where the overall population declines, have a significant impact on wildlife and the environment.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  EurekAlert  All rights reserved. 

Graham inches closer to presidential bid

 
© 2002  Naples News  
Sen. Bob Graham, D-Miami           

For a guy still trying to decide whether to run for president, Sen. Bob Graham, D-Miami, came awfully close Saturday to throwing his hat into a crowded Democratic field.  "I am not running for president," Florida's senior senator and former governor told reporters after delivering a keynote luncheon speech at The Everglades Coalition's annual meeting. "I am going to be the next president of the United States."  The off-the-cuff statement — both contradictory and definitive — momentarily silenced the throng of journalists before Graham qualified his statement.  "If I run, it's not going to be to just be in the field, but with the expectation of victory," he said.         
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.                 

Related Link,       

18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference:  Restoring the Everglades    

Senator's plan blocks Glades farmland loss         
With Big Sugar fast using up its fields in the Everglades, U.S. Sen. Bob Graham on Saturday suggested it was time to consider a buyout.  It wouldn't be the kind that environmentalists have long urged, a massive acquisition of the Everglades Agricultural Area, but something more limited -- the purchase of development rights.  Such a program would allow farming to continue but compensate landowners to prevent them from converting their acres into suburbs.  ''We need to start now to take action to make sure the land doesn't become the next wave of subdivisions,'' the Florida Democrat told a convention of environmental groups meeting on the Everglades.       
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  Al rights reserved.                  

Related Link,       

18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference:  Restoring the Everglades    

11-January-03

Lawmakers pledge support to Everglades replumbing effort
Promising their unflagging support to a crowd of Everglades protectors, a succession of federal and state lawmakers Friday pledged to continue providing the political will, firepower and money needed to restore the beleaguered River of Grass.  U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Gail Norton led the charge on this seaside resort in Palm Beach County, where more than 300 environmental activists, regulators, scientists and lobbyists are spending four days at The Everglades Coalition's annual conference.  The Bush Cabinet member was joined by U.S. Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, and former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-West Palm Beach, and state House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

               18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference:  Restoring the Everglades

Ros-Lehtinen staff pushes Corps track
Lobbying now shifts to Congress
A congressional authorization of $100 million for Keys wastewater projects will remain in the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after consultations between U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s office and congressional appropriations staffers.  "We have been talking to appropriations staff and other experts on the procedure here on Capitol Hill, and staff has recommended we stick with the Army Corps," said Art Estopinan, Ros-Lehtinen’s chief of staff.  All of Monroe County is under a state mandate to significantly upgrade wastewater treatment by 2010 or risk losing state funds. While the recommendation ends attempts to re-route the promised federal money, at least for this year, some local officials remain skeptical over whether the money will ever materialize. 
Copyright  © 2003  Keynoter  All rights reserved.

Environmentalists oppose widening of Krome Ave.
Environmentalists filed suit Friday to block the widening of Krome Avenue to four lanes, calling the proposal a threat not only to the rural character of the Redland but to the $8 billion effort to restore the River of Grass.  ''We believe the widening of Krome will cause irreparble harm to Everglades National Park and is completely inconsistent with Everglades restoration,'' said Jonathan Ullman of the Sierra Club.  Miami-Dade County Manager Steve Shiver said he had not seen the lawsuit.  ''Next week we'll start looking at that and how it affects the directive given to me by the Board of County Commissioners to move forward with four-laning,'' Shiver said.  County commissioners approved the widening Oct. 10, largely because of a series of deadly crashes on the dark two-lane road, which mostly runs past farms, nurseries and packing houses. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Editorial: Stadium Naples
Arrogant or ignorant, Constantine deserved harsher punishment
Circuit Judge Lauren Miller put it so succinctly: it was either by "arrogance or ignorance" that Tim Constantine did not know that the providers of a unrepaid $100,000 loan were developers doing big business with him and fellow county commissioners.  Make that ex-county commissioners. Him included.  Yet, by sentencing Constantine to one day less than a year in prison — and skipping the 14 extra years for which he was liable for lying to prosecutors he had promised to help with the truth about Stadium Naples — "arrogance or ignorance" was rewarded.  Constantine's punishment for helping rig county government in favor of developers and against the public for three years: 364 days of local work- release jail time (an extra day might have sent him to a real prison). 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Stadium Naples: Former county commissioner sentenced to year in jail

Former Collier County Commissioner Tim 
Constantine kisses his wife, Janet, after 
entering Collier County Circuit Judge Lauren 
Miller's courtroom on Friday. Constantine 
was sentenced to 364 days in jail for his 
role in the Stadium Naples public corruption 
case. Prosecutors had asked that he be 
sentenced to 15 years, saying that he 
violated a plea deal by not telling the truth 
while giving pretrial testimony. 
Dan Wagner/Staff

Former Collier County Commissioner Tim Constantine was sentenced Friday to 364 days in jail by Collier Circuit Judge Lauren Miller, who unleashed a diatribe against the prosecution.  Court bailiffs fingerprinted and immediately escorted Constantine to the Collier County jail to begin serving time on a racketeering conspiracy charge for peddling his influence while in office. He asked to begin serving his sentence immediately and might be eligible for work-release.  Prosecutors had asked Miller to sentence Constantine to 15 years — the punishment he agreed to in the original plea bargain deal if he lied and rendered himself useless as a witness to the state.  Before a packed and tense courtroom, Miller gulped down water and then rapidly read from her written opinion, a 15-minute speech that took aim at the prosecution for failing to make Constantine plead guilty instead of "no contest" as part of his deal with the state. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Landowners file class-action suit asking Collier to pay for land use restrictions
Foes of Collier County's new plan for rural growth raised the stakes Friday by filing a class-action lawsuit against the Collier County Commission and members of the Florida Cabinet.  The lawsuit filed in Collier Circuit Court asks a judge to declare that members of a landowner class caught up in a virtual moratorium on growth in the county's rural area be awarded compensation for having use of their land restricted since 1999.  Attorney Jim Mattson, of Key Largo, who represents growth plan opponents, offered an estimate of the claim's value: between $150 million and $200 million.  The lawsuit seeks more than money. It also seeks to void the 1999 order from the Cabinet that imposed the moratorium in the first place and seeks to void the 1999 county law that adopted it. The claim asserts that the two measures are unconstitutional. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

Letter to the editor: Funds wasted to restore 'Glades
Re the Dec. 19 story Report for Congress says Everglades restoration plan lacking in scientific research: What a surprise that the $8 billion Everglades restoration project lacks adequate scientific research. This unproved endeavor is destined to become another federal boondoggle costing three to four times the original estimate because of experimentation and cost overruns.  Recent studies show Florida Bay may actually die as a result of Everglades restoration, due to the heavy influx of polluted water. The project may also spread the introduction of destructive exotic plants and fish into Everglades National Park. Yet we continue to dump millions of tax dollars each year into this poorly planned venture so that our political leaders can claim that they are doing something for the environment.  We don't need to spend more money for more swamps, nuisance alligators, poisonous snakes and clouds of mosquitoes in South Florida. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                December 19, 2002
                Report for Congress says Everglades restoration plan lacking in scientific research

U.S. Plan Could Ease Limits on Wetlands Development
The Bush administration opened the way today for a redefinition of federal rules that could remove obstacles to development on millions of acres of isolated wetlands historically protected under the Clean Water Act. Inviting public comment on the shaping of new rules, the administration said it was acting in response to a 2001 Supreme Court ruling that limited the scope of the Clean Water Act's jurisdiction over isolated wetlands. But in contrast to the Clinton administration, which interpreted that opinion very narrowly, the Bush administration signaled its willingness to consider a much broader approach that could ultimately remove from federal jurisdiction up to 20 percent of the country's wetlands. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers said the action would "clarify and reaffirm" the agencies' authority "over a vast majority of the nation's wetlands."
Copyright  © 2002  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,  

                January 11, 2003
               Editorial: Danger to the Wetlands

Editorial: Danger to the Wetlands
The Bush administration has opened the possibility that up to 20 percent of the nation's wetlands — 20 million acres in all — could lose protections they currently enjoy under the Clean Water Act. This is a door that should have remained closed. At issue is a controversial Supreme Court decision in 2001 in which the court ruled that the Clean Water Act did not protect isolated ponds and wetlands based solely on their value as habitat for migratory birds. Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, said yesterday she intended to ask for public comment on whether the court decision required other changes in established rules that have saved these isolated wetlands from commercial development.
Copyright  © 2002  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 11, 2003
                U.S. Plan Could Ease Limits on Wetlands Development

U.S. Interior secretary backs key 'Glades land buyout                    

Listener
Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton 
listens to one of the 200 activists 
who had heard her speak at the annual 
conference of the Everglades Coalition 
in Delray Beach on Friday.
(Sun-Sentinel/Tom Ervin)

With lots to worry about, environmental groups took some comfort Friday in the Bush administration's endorsement of two of their top positions on the Everglades restoration.  Interior Secretary Gale Norton, in a keynote address to the Everglades Coalition, said clearly that she supports congressional efforts to authorize the buyout and removal of a portion of a Miami-Dade County community that federal officials say obstructs the delivery of more water to eastern Everglades National Park.  That buyout of homes in the so-called 81/2 Square Mile Area sought by the Army Corps of Engineers should happen quickly, Norton said to enthusiastic applause from coalition members gathered for an annual conference at the Delray Beach Marriott.        
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.                  

10-January-03

Carry capacity study turned over to county
The Florida Keys Carrying Capacity study is being turned over to the county, warts and all.  The study, once heralded as a groundbreaking planning tool, was intended to provide an all-inclusive view of the impacts of future development in the Keys.  The study’s companion computer program has been renamed the Carrying Capacity Impact Assessment Model. Richard Calvo, manager of the $6 million project for URS Corp., said that order was too tall.  “This study will help determine the rate of growth for the Keys,” he said, adding that it has been the most scrutinized project in his memory.  It was never intended to determine how many people could be in the Keys, he said.  This week, the team of scientists that earlier found the draft carrying capacity study flawed, released an 80-page second review.  Problems remain, but the program is workable, said Dan Sheer, one of the scientists in on the review team that was put together by the National Academy of Sciences. 
Copyright  © 2003  Upper Keys Reporter All rights reserved.

Hefley furious at choice for panel
New lands chief pro-development
House Republican leaders chose Rep. Richard Pombo, a California rancher and committed foe of the Endangered Species Act, to oversee public lands and environmental protection in the West as chairman of the House Resources Committee.  Pombo leapt ahead of more senior contenders in part because of his ability to raise money, said an infuriated Rep. Joel Hefley, R-Colorado Springs. Hefley, chairman of the House ethics committee, said Pombo's selection gives the appearance that powerful posts can be bought.  "Fundraising evidently was an enormous part of it," Hefley said. "It's unseemly. It's like buying seats, and we shouldn't do that."  Pombo's supporters said he was a solid Republican fundraiser before rising to the powerful committee post. 
Copyright  © 2003  Denver Post Washington Bureau All rights reserved.

Cleanup gets price tag
Deficit: A consensus report suggests another $13 billion is needed to restore the bay's health.
THE MICROSOFT BAY? The Exxon-Potomac River?  Do not take that seriously, warns fiscal analyst Craig Biggs. But auctioning naming rights to the Chesapeake and its rivers did start looking attractive after months of compiling the true costs of restoring the bay.  The multibillion-dollar price tag won't even get lip service in the short run, with all three principal bay watershed states in the throes of budget deficits.  But in the slightly longer run, a huge opportunity exists for real environmental progress in this must-read report, The Cost of a Clean Bay.  Coming from the Chesapeake Bay Commission, which represents the legislatures of Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, it's a serious consensus document.  And a courageous one.    
Copyright  © 2003  Baltimore Sun  All rights reserved.

State's first aviation chief dies at age 77
Grover Carroll Jones helped to build four Florida airports
Grover Carroll Jones, who built four Florida airports as the state's first chief of aviation, died Wednesday. He was 77.  Jones became chief of the Florida Bureau of Aviation in 1969, shortly after the formation of the Department of Transportation. During his 15 years in that post, he arranged financing and supervised construction for the airports at Tampa, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers. He had lived in Tallahassee since 1969.  Jones' effort to build a new Miami airport at the edge of the Everglades collapsed over fears of environmental damage. He became an airport consultant after retiring in 1984.  Clifford Nilson, who worked with Jones at the DOT, said he watched the aviation bureau grow while Jones was at the helm.  "The program for aviation development went from a few hundred thousand dollars to a multimillion-dollar program," Nilson said.
Copyright  © 2003  Tallahassee Democrat / Associated Press  All rights reserved.

Water managers ask to speed bug release
Interior Secretary Gale Norton was asked by water managers Thursday to help hasten the release of quarantined biological control insects and secure more federal money to combat an exotic fern overtaking parts of the Everglades.  Patrick Gleason of the South Florida Water Management District board told Norton, who briefly visited the board en route to an annual meeting of the Everglades Coalition, that a noxious weed called Old World climbing fern is "out of control." He asked her to cut through some bureaucratic red tape to get insects from overseas that feed on the vine out of a Gainesville laboratory and into the Everglades.  Norton replied she would be happy to talk to federal officials about the bio-control bugs., but cautioned that past experiences underscore the need for authorities to exercise care before unleashing something foreign into South Florida's natural areas.    
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Sanctuary expands science program
Families can play and learn all afternoon Saturday in one of the oldest habitats on the planet, the ancient forest of The Audubon Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  The new event is called “Swampy Science Saturday,” an expansion of the sanctuary’s popular “Swamp Saturdays for Kids,” which usually focuses on a single topic, such as digging for fossils.  The new program, from noon to 4 p.m., will include an array of activities held at various sites at the sanctuary named for John J. Audubon, the late naturalist.  The activities are free with sanctuary admission.  Parents and their children will be able to practice dip netting for a variety of aquatic organisms that are found in freshwater marsh wetlands, said Laurel Chaplin, Southwest Florida education director for Audubon of Florida at the sanctuary. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press  All rights reserved.

Canker money challenge reaches high court today

Attorney Brian Patchen filed a lawsuit against 
the state more than two years ago concerning 
the destruction of his citrus trees. His court 
case has reached the Florida Supreme Court. 
RICHARD PATTERSON/MIAMI HERALD

Brian Patchen loved his six citrus trees -- limes, grapefruits and sweet honeybells. But two years ago, state chain-saw crews cut them down because they were within 1,900 feet of another tree infected with citrus canker.  The state offered the Miami Beach man a Wal-Mart gift certificate for $100 for the first tree and $55 each for the other five to be used to buy noncitrus trees.  Not nearly enough for his decades-old trees, which were worth thousands of dollars each, Patchen told the state. He got himself a lawyer, and today the Florida Supreme Court will hear his case.  If the court were to agree with Patchen, it would put the state in a bind. Florida agricultural officials have already destroyed 600,000 trees throughout the state, 125,000 in South Florida, compensating owners in a way similar to the offer they made Patchen.  ''I am going to be 60 years old,'' said Patchen, himself a lawyer. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Rule Weakening Definition of 'Dolphin Safe' Is Delayed
Under pressure from environmental and animal welfare groups, the Commerce Department agreed today to delay imposing a rule that would relax the definition of "dolphin safe" tuna.  The groups negotiated a deal with government lawyers that would delay any departmental action on the rule for 90 days, when the change is scheduled to enter into litigation in federal court in San Francisco.  The conservation groups, in turn, agreed not to seek a temporary restraining order against the government. In previous lawsuits, the groups have twice succeeded in blocking an easing of the dolphin-safe designation.  The action today leaves intact strict criteria that tuna producers must meet to sell their product with a "dolphin safe" label. No tuna that is caught using purse seine nets to encircle dolphins may be called dolphin safe, and there must be no dolphins killed or seriously injured in the process. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 9, 2003
                Two Scientists Contend U.S. Suppressed Dolphin Studies

Interior Secretary Calls for Compromise to Restore Everglades
Interior Secretary Gale Norton told a coalition of environmental groups Friday that the department will strengthen the science program guiding the Everglades restoration project.  Speaking at an annual Everglades conference, Norton also told the groups that the department will develop a strategy to recover habitat for endangered species who live in the grassy waters. She told them that the restoration plan will succeed only through compromise and cooperation.  ''If we collapse into bickering, if we find ourselves walking away from the table, if we try to effect restoration through an adversarial process, we will fail,'' she said.  
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 8, 2003
                Press Release: Secretary Norton Calls for Continues Partnershi

                January 10, 2003
                DOI Accomplishments

                January 10, 2003
                Remarks of Interior Secretary Gale Norton

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

Remarks of Interior Secretary Gale Norton
Everglades Coalition, Delray Beach, Florida, January 10, 2003       
Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you this morning on one of President Bush's and the Department of Interior's highest environmental priorities, the restoration of the Everglades.  There are, as Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote, no other Everglades in the world. And that is why we must work together to save them. During my tenure as Secretary, I've flown over, slogged through, and experienced the beauty of the Everglades.  I have met with and listened to many of you who are involved in the details of the projects that in the end will restore what the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes call Pahayokee, or "grassy water." Read more...   
Copyright  © 2003  Department of the Interior All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 8, 2003
                Press Release: Secretary Norton Calls for Continues Partnership

                January 10, 2003
                DOI Accomplishments

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

Press Release:  Interior Department Accomplishments in Everglades Restoration Since 2000  
President Bush and Governor Jeb Bush signed an agreement in January 2002, to restore the Everglades, as required under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). The agreement is enforceable and binding. It will ensure the restoration of natural flows to the Everglades. Under the agreement, the state commits to managing its water resources so that water produced by the plan's implementation will be available to restore the natural system. Meanwhile, the federal government commits to be an active partner in obtaining funding and working with the state to implement the plan.   Read more...  
Copyright  © 2003  Department of the Interior All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 8, 2003
                Press Release: Secretary Norton Calls for Continues Partnership

                January 10, 2003
                Remarks of Interior Secretary Gale Norton

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

Everglades conference opens, with politics on the agenda  
Environmentalists opened an annual national conference Thursday night on the Everglades in Delray Beach with a long to-do list overshadowed by a pressing question: Which way is the political wind blowing? That's particularly hard to read in Washington, D.C., where the balance of power and congressional leadership have dramatically changed since the landmark $8 billion restoration plan was passed three years ago with nearly
unanimous support.  On the positive side, the Bush administration is sending a Cabinet-level
representative, U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, to reaffirm the president's commitment to the project. 
Copyright  © 2002  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

Related Link,                

18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference:  Restoring the Everglades

09-January-03

Grants Available for Environmental Education
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting applications for grants that can be used to fund innovative ways to educate the public about the environment.  The EPA funds environmental education projects that focus on educating teachers, students or the general public about human health problems from environmental pollution; improving teaching skills for educators, typically through workshops; building state or local capability to develop and deliver environmental education programs; or promoting environmental careers among students.  The program also encourages projects that educate members of a community through a community based organization, or educate the general public through print, film, broadcast, or other media to be more environmentally conscious and make environmentally responsible decisions.  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

Florida Town Hires Planner to Protect Environment
A small planned community in Florida has hired a full time environmental planner to ensure protection for the town's natural resources.  Environmental planner Greg Golgowski once worked to ensure developments such as the town of Harmony did little harm to the state's natural environment. Now, Golgowski does that work for Harmony alone.  Harmony, located about half an hour's drive from Orlando, is a planned community that includes 11,000 acres of meadows, wetlands, stands of southern pines and two 500 acre natural lakes. The land was once the Triple E Ranch, a working citrus and cattle farm.  "This is a very unique and progressive action for a development to take," Golgowski said of his new role with Harmony. "It's unheard of for a Florida developer to hire someone as staff to get its residents involved in the community's environment and to make sure natural habitat is managed in order to preserve and protect it."  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

Pataki Backs Wind and Solar Power
In a brief, low-key passage in his annual address to the Legislature, Gov. George E. Pataki yesterday electrified green-energy supporters and environmentalists who had hoped without much hope for years that New York would become a national leader in sustainable nonpolluting energy.  Mr. Pataki said he would direct that, within the next decade, 25 percent of the state's electricity supply come from sources like solar and wind power.  Although New York already produces more renewable energy than many states — around 17 percent of its electricity — mostly from hydroelectric power, achieving an additional 8 percent in a state as big as New York would still be a significant step, energy experts said.      
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

McCain and Lieberman Offer Bill to Require Cuts in Gases
At a packed committee hearing, Senators John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut, joined forces today to challenge the Bush administration on global warming.  The two former — and possibly future — political rivals to President Bush and each other offered their bill to reduce the emissions of heat-trapping gases, saying the administration was stuck in neutral on that crucial environmental matter.  "The United States is responsible for 25 percent of the worldwide greenhouse gas emissions," Mr. McCain, chairman of the Science, Commerce and Transportation Committee, said as he opened the hearing. "It is time for the United States government to do its part to address this global problem, and a discussion of mandatory reductions is the form of leadership that is required." 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Two Scientists Contend U.S. Suppressed Dolphin Studies
Two former government scientists who spent years investigating stress in dolphin populations charged this week that superiors at their federally funded laboratory shut down their research because it clashed with policy goals of the Clinton and Bush administrations.  The scientists, who worked at different times over the past decade at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, said their research indicated that the practice of chasing and encircling dolphins to catch tuna exposed the dolphins to dangerous amounts of stress.  The accusations, by Dr. Albert Myrick, a wildlife biologist, and Dr. Sarka Southern, a research associate, came days after the Bush administration relaxed the criteria for declaring tuna netted by Mexican and other foreign fishing boats to be "dolphin safe." 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 10, 2003
                Rule Weakening Definition of 'Dolphin Safe' Is Delayed

Ros-Lehtinen opts to let Army Corps administer funds

U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

The message from U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen on how to get the $100 million in federal wastewater funds to the Keys was simple: Stay with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.  "The congresswoman will contact the ACOE to inform them of her strong support of this project," said Arthur Eftopinan, her chief of staff in Washington, D.C. "She will now speak with Rep. Bill Young, the chair of the Appropriations Committee for the House, to express her strong support of funds for wastewater in 2003."  Ros-Lehtinen hosted a conference call Wednesday with Monroe County officials, environmental groups, and state Rep. Ken Sorensen when she informed them that any shift in administration from the ACOE to the Department of Environmental Protection would be time consuming and unfeasible.    
Copyright  © 2003  Keys News / Key West Citizen  All rights reserved.

Metro Report: Patrick Gleason will leave SFWMD board
Patrick Gleason will leave the board of the South Florida Water Management District when his four-year term expires in March, the Lake Worth hydrogeologist announced Wednesday at the district's board meeting in suburban West Palm Beach. "The whole thing has just been a thrill," said Gleason, one of Gov. Jeb Bush's nine appointees on the board. But Gleason estimated that the unpaid job takes up half his time and said his departure will allow CDM, the engineering company where he is vice president, to begin competing for district Everglades contracts. "He has served the board very well," Bush spokeswoman Liz Hirst said.
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

'Glades money running short
Water managers, who have been snatching up thousands of acres in a huge burst of buying land, are out of cash for their Everglades restoration property hunt.  Despite the cash crunch, South Florida Water Management District officials say they have been told by the state to continue their stepped-up effort to buy land necessary to carry out the landmark $8.4 billion water-storage and plumbing project.  District land acquisition director Tom Olliff said the agency is "flying without a net," but has been told by Florida Department of Environmental Protection not to stop. "The direction we've been given is to go full steam ahead," Olliff said.  Water managers have bought about 195,000 acres, or about 45 percent of the 400,000-plus acres they need to carry out the 30- to 40-year restoration effort that Congress approved in 2000. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

WHERE THE GATORS ROAM
Shark Valley in Everglades National Park doesn't have sharks and isn't a valley, but it is an ideal place to spot Florida's favorite reptile.

LOOK OUT! Alligators are not uncommon 
sights around the boardwalk at Shark Valley 
in Everglades National Park. The gators are 
also plentiful on the paved 15-mile loop road 
through the Shark River Slough. 
JON KRAL / Herald File

A friend recently asked (no doubt expecting to lead a tour of visiting relatives): Where is the best place to see alligators?  Following the full moon of Dec. 19, I now have the answer -- the Shark Valley tramway in Everglades National Park.  Located on Tamiami Trail about 18 miles west of the Dade Corners intersection (Tamiami Trail & Krome Avenue), Shark Valley has neither sharks nor is it a valley. This section of Everglades National Park features a flat, paved 15-mile loop road through the Shark River Slough, a sawgrass prairie that is home to untold numbers of gators.  To view the abundant reptiles, you can ride the tram, a bike, or walk.  Last month, I joined a group of six from the Sierra Club Broward chapter in bicycling the entire loop under the full moon. 
Copyright  © 2003  Miami Herald  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                Everglades National Park: Biking the Shark Valley Tram Road -- a great way
                to experience the quiet beauty of the Everglades

                Everglades National Park: Shark Valley Trails

                Birding Shark Valley: One of the highlights of a trip to the Everglades
                is the first tram trip of the morning at Shark Valley.

                Shark Valley Tram Tour Homestead, Florida (Tours)
                Shark Valley Tram Tour Departs from Shark Valley in the Everglades National
                Park, off Hwy 41. The 2-hour, 15-mile excursion explores ...

Cape deal requires new Sailport study
Species survey ordered for new development
The controversial Sailport housing development near Four-mile Cove Eco Park in Cape Coral will remain on hold, pending a new protected species survey.  The city’s recent decision to require developer Millennium Development Group of Estero to conduct a new survey on the 194-acre site comes in response to a July lawsuit filed by 19 homeowners who live near the proposed community. The lawsuit was submitted less than a month after the city council approved the project by a 5-3 vote.  The suit said the city should not have signed off on the 207-home development, because Millennium failed to meet the city’s environmental standards.  Cape Coral’s comprehensive plan mandates that a protected species survey be completed within one year of a zoning application. The suit argued that Millennium’s survey was more than 3 years old. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press   All rights reserved.

Editorial: Turn skeptical senator into ally for Everglades
The Everglades Coalition's 18th annual conference starts today in Delray Beach, without one person many had hoped might attend: Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., the new chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.  Sens. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., and Bob Smith, R-N.H., both former committee chairmen, attended coalition meetings and became strong advocates for the Everglades. But Sen. Inhofe has Everglades supporters justifiably worried. In 2000, he was the only vote against the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, on which South Florida's future depends. With tax cuts, the Homeland Security Department and a possible war in Iraq competing for attention in a tight budget year, there is a new threat to federal money for restoration.  Read more...
Copyright  © 2003  Palm Beach Post  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

Altered politics to affect 'Glades
Proponents of the restoration project must carve funding out of an extremely tight federal budget.  
Federal deficits and new leadership in the Senate have created potential obstacles for the costly Everglades restoration project in the session of Congress that opened this week.  Everglades proponents must carve out funding from what will become an extremely tight budget. They also must overcome deep skepticism from the incoming chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Sen. James Inhofe, a fierce critic of some environmental regulations and the only senator to vote against the Everglades replumbing master plan.  
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

Environmental groups fear Everglades land purchases will slow
The massive plan to revive the Everglades includes buying up hundreds of thousands of acres that used to be part of the River of Grass and undoing decades worth of abuse.  The state has purchased nearly half of the 403,000 acres needed for the restoration in a race against developers and rising real estate costs.  But some environmental groups fear the aggressive pace will slow and that lands crucial to the restoration will be developed or will become too expensive as land values rise.  The agency charged with buying the land, the South Florida Water Management District, has already spent the money budgeted for this fiscal year and faces a $6 million deficit. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

08-January-03

Former Conservancy CEO wows crowd with tales of deep ocean life

David Guggenheim, vice 
president for conservation 
at the Ocean Conservancy

They are worms that live in utter darkness, feed on methane gas seeps, support a diverse ecosystem and were unknown to humans just a few years ago.  That these undiscovered aquatic communities a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico could have been ringed by explosive human growth and remained a secret surprised even David Guggenheim, vice president for conservation at the Ocean Conservancy.  Guggenheim, the former president/CEO of The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, was back in Naples this week to raise money for the Washington, D.C.-based group that seeks to protect the world's oceans and share what he's learned in deep water expeditions of the gulf.  Guggenheim wowed an audience of about 200 at Caribbean Gardens on Tuesday night with deep water shots from the 2002 Sustainable Seas Expedition of what lies far beneath the gulf's often calm surface. 
Copyright  © 2003  Naples News  All rights reserved.

                Related Links,

                For information about the Ocean Conservancy and how to support its
                efforts, visit www.oceanconservancy.org. 

                To see pictures and video footage of the 2002 Sustainable Seas Expedition, visit
                www.sustainableseas.noaa.gov.

Panel: Skeptical Environmentalist Perverted Message

Bjorn Lomborg authored the 
controversial book. 
(Photo courtesy Bjorn Lomborg)

An official Danish scientific ethics panel has ruled that Bjorn Lomborg "perverted the scientific message" in his book "The Sceptical Environmentalist," which disputes the seriousness of many key environmental problems. The decision is an embarrassment for the Danish government, which last year installed Lomborg as head of a new Environmental Assessment Institute (IMV).  Part of Denmark's Committees on Scientific Dishonesty, the panel decided to examine Lomborg's book after receiving several complaints. It has cleared him of the most serious charge of misleading readers deliberately or through gross negligence, but nevertheless finds the book to be "clearly contrary to the standards of good scientific practice."  A key challenge for the committee was whether, in fact, the book could be regarded as a work of science and therefore within its jurisdiction.  
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 8, 2003
                Book: The Skeptical Environmentalist

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                January 8, 2003
                The skeptical environmentalist

The skeptical environmentalist
BJORN Lomborg used to be a left-wing Greenpeace member, very concerned about the environment. One day he read an analysis of the environment that challenged his beliefs. Since his work was in statistics at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, he was well placed to investigate. To his shock the deeper he looked into firmly held beliefs, the more falsities, exaggerations and poor statistics he found. The result of his researches is his book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, which has caused a furor since its publication in 1999.  The subtitle of the book is Measuring the True State of the World. An ambitious target, even in 515 pages. Lomborg gives an astonishing portrayal of the current and future state of the world, discussing topics such as population, food and hunger, health, energy use, pollution and the environment.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  The National Witness Group All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 8, 2003
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                January 8, 2003
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Environment and Science: Danes Rebuke a 'Skeptic'
A branch of the Danish Research Agency has concluded that Prof. Bjorn Lomborg, an author whose upbeat analysis of environmental trends has been embraced by conservatives, displayed "scientific dishonesty" in his popular book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist."  Professor Lomborg, who has a doctorate in political science and teaches statistics at the University of Aarhus, has portrayed the book as an unbiased scientific refutation of dire pronouncements by environmental groups. But it has been attacked as deeply flawed by many environmental scientists since its publication in English in 2001 by Cambridge University Press.  Many experts have said that environmental conditions, in most cases, are not nearly as good as Professor Lomborg portrays them, but also not nearly as bad as some environmental groups and scientists have said.
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 8, 2003
                Book: The Skeptical Environmentalist

                January 8, 2003
                Panel: Skeptical Environmentalist Perverted Message

                January 8, 2003
                The sceptical environmentalist

Editorial: California Curbed
The decision by Interior Secretary Gale Norton on New Year's Day to reduce water flows from the Colorado River to farmers in California's Imperial Valley and 17 million urban consumers in Southern California was right on the mark. Though Ms. Norton could have found ways to delay the order, doing so would only have encouraged California to continue its undisciplined and unfair diversion of water to which a half-dozen other states also have rightful claim.  Some Bush administration critics called the decision political payback for California's support of Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election, as well as for the state's running quarrel with Washington over environmental and other issues. This argument is beguiling but untrue. Secretary Norton was simply following a path charted by her predecessor Bruce Babbitt. 
Copyright  © 2003  NY Times online  All rights reserved.

Teamwork Needed to Decipher Environmental Science

Rita Colwell heads the 
National Science Foundation. 
(Photo courtesy NSF)

A new internal report calls on the National Science Foundation to embrace a more interdisciplinary approach to its work in order to provide the public and policymakers with the information and tools to address critical environmental challenges.  Advances in science have expanded the horizons of what can be studied, the report's authors wrote, and have created the demand for collaborative teams of engineers and natural and social scientists to move beyond current disciplinary research and educational frameworks.  The report, "Complex Environmental Systems: Synthesis for Earth, Life, and Society in the 21st Century," provides recommendations for the National Science Foundation's next decade of environmental research and education programs. 
Copyright  © 2003  Environmental News Service - ENS All rights reserved.

            Related Link,

                For a copy of the NSF report, see:
                http://www.nsf.gov/geo/ere/ereweb/index.cfm

EDITORIAL: Coral reef’s loss teaches lesson to all
Devastation proves nature can’t handle uncontrolled growth
The devastation of the Florida Keys’ once-magnificent coral reef is a lesson for Southwest Florida.  For the sake of our economy and quality of life, we must understand and protect the natural systems we depend on.  As a report on the Keys reef in The News-Press Sunday showed, by the time people realize that a natural treasure is being destroyed, it could be too late to save it.  Better to act now to create as large a margin for environmental error as law and economic realities allow, rather than wait until the decline can be scientifically proven.  Buy as much land for preservation as possible, especially land buffers around water, and work for the smartest growth management possible everywhere else.  If we protect water from human damage, our descendants can have it and its resources to enjoy. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press   All rights reserved.

Lee County first in state manatee deaths
But the number killed in boat accidents falls
Lee County led the state in overall manatee deaths last year with 58, according to a report released Wednesday by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.  The figure was up from 51 in 2001. However, boating-related manatee deaths fell from 23 in 2001 to 13 last year.  The 13 boating-related deaths in Lee were second more than happened in any county except for Brevard.  Overall manatee deaths were down statewide. Last year there were 305 deaths compared with 325 in 2001.  Statewide, 95 manatees were killed by boats, up from 81 in 2001. 
Copyright  © 2003  News Press   All rights reserved.

Press Release:  Secretary Norton Calls for Continued Partnership in Everglades Restoration; Outlines Steps Interior Department Will Take to Promote Cooperation.  Interior Department Accomplishments in Everglades Restoration Since 2000 Remarks of Interior Secretary Gale Norton  
The restoration of the Everglades depends on continued cooperation among the many stakeholders in South Florida, Secretary of the Interior Gale A. Norton said today at the annual meeting of the Everglades Coalition.  "The key to our success is the strength of our partnership and our commitment to collaboration," Norton said. "If our dialogue is honest and continuing; if our science is sound and independently verified; and if we work together, rather than at cross-purposes, we will make the right decisions and we will succeed."  Read more...  
Copyright  © 2003  Department of the Interior All rights reserved.

                Related Articles,

                January 10, 2003
                DOI Accomplishments

                January 10, 2003
                Remarks of Interior Secretary Gale Norton

                Related Link,

                18th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference: Restoring the Everglades

Summit aim is protection of St. Johns
Florida's largest river suffers endless abuse, ranging from the runoff of a huge citrus grove at its headwaters to the continual dredging of a shipping channel at its mouth to the Atlantic Ocean. That's the challenge facing hundreds of regulators, politicians and environmentalists who will gather in Jacksonville next week for a summit on restoring and protecting the St. Johns River. The two-day meeting will be modeled after one in 1997 that served as a catalyst in getting state spending of $50 million largely for improvements of sewage plants along the river.  However, that hasn't solved the woes of diminished wildlife and fisheries, the loss of aquatic grasses and frequent algae blooms.  The 310-mile river continues to serve as a disposal basin for Central Florida street drainage, waste waters of a Palatka pulp mill and minimally treated sewage in the Jacksonville area. 
Copyright  © 2003  Orlando Sentinel  All Rights Reserved.    

07-January-03

News Release: Planned Development: An answer to Florida's urban sprawl problem
Florida’s population, which totaled 15.6 million people in the year 2000, is projected to swell to 20.7 million  by 2025 if current immigration, birth rates, and domestic migration trends continue, according to the Census Bureau.  This growth should come as no surprise, since a rapidly expanding population has been a fact of life in Florida for many years.  If you lived in Florida in 1950, you had approximately 2.8 million neighbors, less than 20 percent of the number of inhabitants statewide today.  If we tighten the focus to the Orlando region, we see a similar scenario.  The number of residents grew from around 100,000 in 1900 to more than 1.5 million a hundred years later.  This growth is even more dramatic when we consider what didn’t exist for the first 50 years of that decade – air conditioning, jet travel, interstate highways, mosquito control, and most  forms of the instant communications that we enjoy today.  Read more . . . 
Copyright  © 2003  Town of Harmony All rights reserved.

More fish added to advisory
Staff and wire reports
Biologists have asked state health officials to add several marine fish species to a forthcoming health advisory that warns Floridians about eating mercury-tainted fish.  The state is finishing the wording on the advisory and could make brochures available to the public as early as next month, said Bill Parezik, a Health Department spokesman.  Researchers at the Florida Marine Research Institute have called for limiting consumption of cobia, little tunny, blue fish and crevalle jack.  They also have found data suggesting another fish, greater amber jack, should be added to the list, said George Henderson, a senior scientist with the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

                Related Article,

                January 6, 2003
                State ready to update list of fish that are dangerous to eat

                Related Link,

                Florida Advisories on Freshwater Fish Consumption

Airport opens new concourse
Most airports offer little to inspire travelers while they wait to board flights.  But the newest concourse at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport just might stir a few imaginations, if not a little jealousy for airlines and passengers stuck in older, more cramped terminal spaces. When the $53 million Concourse B opens today inside Terminal 1 -- the first terminal on the roadway leading into the airport -- travelers will be greeted by a cavernous space with dramatic white, high ceilings and windows.  The concourse is the new home to discount carrier Southwest Airlines, the airport's second-largest carrier behind Delta Air Lines.  The new concourse is part of a $1.2 billion, 20-year expansion program to help the airport eventually handle up to 30 million passengers a year. About 17 million passengers passed through the airport in 2002, more than twice the 8 million who traveled through it after the last expansion in the 1980s. 
Copyright  © 2003  Sun-Sentinel  All rights reserved.

Revised:  11/16/03