News - February 2003

J. Pat Carter/AP Florida proposes standards for water quality in the Everglades 21-Feb-03	Recent Developments • Recent home • Press Releases • Litigation • Legislation • Regulations • Case Law • Law Review Articles • Reports • Research • Conferences • Links March 2003 Jan 2003 News Archives

News - February 2003

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News

28-February-03

U.S. Seeking Cleaner Model of Coal Plant
The Energy Department yesterday announced plans to build an experimental power plant within 10 years that runs on coal but emits no carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that makes coal plants major contributors to global warming. The project, called FutureGen, is considered a first step toward creating a generation of coal-fueled power plants that emit no greenhouse gases and cost no more than 10 percent extra to run, department officials said. The technology is essential, said Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, if the vast coal reserves in the United States and in many developing countries are to be used without adding to the atmosphere's burden of greenhouse gases. Coal-fueled plants now produce about 40 percent of the roughly 23 billion tons of carbon dioxide humans release into the atmosphere each year, and coal is still considered a vital underpinning of economic development, here and overseas.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

27-February-03

New eastern route proposed for Collier Boulevard extension
"When you talk about full build-out of the area, it becomes one of the routes that begins to look attractive," Wayne Daltry, Lee County's Smart Growth director said. "It's not whether 951 is needed, it's whether it's needed in the next two decades."

Wayne Daltry

When Lee County officials were ready to start studying potential routes for the extension of Collier Boulevard, they included Collier County in the mix because the road already runs through that county. Maybe they should have included Hendry County as well. In the wake of the first of several public workshops on the proposed road, Lee commissioners have asked their engineers to look into pushing the route farther east than was originally considered.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Court filing seeks dismissal of Collier growth plan challenge
A lawsuit challenging Collier County's plan for growth on the outskirts of Golden Gate Estates is groundless and should be dismissed, attorneys for the county and state argued in court papers filed this week. The state and Collier County filed the papers urging Collier Circuit Judge Hugh Hayes to dismiss the suit, citing errors in the complaint filed for landowners in North Belle Meade. The lawyers' request for dismissal points out that the landowners have claimed they can't use their land for mining when the new plan doesn't rule it out. As well, lawyers for both government entities say the landowners haven't exhausted administrative avenues to answer their complaint, nor have they been turned down by the county after applying for a permit to use their land. "Right now we're just saying they haven't even stated a case," said Marti Chumbler, who was hired as outside counsel for Collier County government.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

State Animal Squeezed
They were supposed to be the comeback kits - 30 Florida panthers born last year that offered bright and shining hope for the recovery of the most endangered mammal in America. But more panthers will not translate to survival of the species if the cypress forests and freshwater marshes they call home continue to be felled and filled at a breathtaking pace, according to a National Wildlife Federation report released Wednesday. The report, which ranks Florida's state animal as the most imperiled of all, places the blame squarely on the shoulders of federal agencies mandated to protect it: "What is happening to the Florida panther is death by a thousand cuts, with the government being complicit in the bleeding.'' The report cites the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's approval of small- and medium-scale development permits that will lead to the destruction of more than 6,000 acres of habitat the agency has designated critical to panther recovery.
Copyright © 2003 Tampa Tribune All rights reserved.

26-February-03

Experts Fault Bush's Proposal to Examine Climate Change
A panel of experts has strongly criticized the Bush administration's proposed research plan on the risks of global warming, saying that it "lacks most of the elements of a strategic plan" and that its goals cannot be achieved without far more money than the White House has sought for climate research. The 17 experts, in a report issued yesterday, said that without substantial changes, the administration's plan would be unlikely to accomplish the aim laid out by President Bush in several speeches: to help decision makers and the public determine how serious the problem is so that they can make clear choices about how to deal with it. The president has said that more research is needed before the administration can even consider mandatory restrictions on heat-trapping greenhouse gases linked to global warming.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Timber Company Accused of Fraud in Deal to Save Redwoods
A deal struck four years ago to save about 10,000 acres of giant redwoods in Humboldt County in Northern California was supposed to end the bitter feuding over logging there. In exchange for $480 million from the federal and state governments, the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to turn the world's largest privately owned grove of ancient redwoods into a public reserve. The company also consented to a series of regulations on logging operations on its remaining 211,000 acres, including some additional preservation. But from the very beginning, some environmental groups were unhappy with the so-called Headwaters deal and fought for more restrictions on Pacific Lumber, largely to no avail. Now they appear to have gained a powerful new ally in the recently elected district attorney in Humboldt County, Paul Gallegos, who took office last month.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Letter to the Editor: Extra water will come from sources other than Everglades
The Post recently ran an article titled "County accused of making water grab" (Feb. 8), which I think did not fairly and objectively address Palm Beach County's request for a 20-year water use permit from the South Florida Water Management District. While the article implied that the county intends to take additional water from the Everglades, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, the Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department has worked closely with district staff and has proposed something that few other utilities in Florida have been willing to do: utilizing alternative water sources to meet 100 percent of the additional water needs, thereby offsetting the impact to the regional system. The Palm Beach County Water Utilities Department should be complimented on its willingness to do the right thing to help preserve the environment, not criticized for it, as the Feb. 15 editorial "Avoid a 'water rush' " did.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Article,

March 18, 2003
Letter to the Editor: State working hard to get best value on land deals

Audubon: Areas in Polk County Significant in the Protection of Birds
Polk County is an important place for birds, according to Audubon of Florida. Five local areas have been proposed for listing in Audubon's Important Bird Areas program. The areas are the Avon Park Air Force Range, the Green Swamp, the Lake Wales Ridge, the Kissimmee River Basin, and Lake Hancock and the Upper Peace River Basin. The program's goal is to identify areas that provide "essential habitat for populations of one or more species of native birds." Statewide, there are 100 sites of various sizes that have been put on the list. Important Bird Areas, or IBAs in the parlance of organizers, are listed based on nominations of sites and documentation of their significance by backers. The nominations are being reviewed by a panel of experts, including some of Florida's top ornithologists. Originally, the plan was to publish the results by late 2002, but budget constraints have delayed publication, said Mark Kraus, Audubon of Florida's deputy director.
Copyright © 2003 The Ledger All rights reserved.

Related Link,

For more details on the local sites or to find information on sites elsewhere in Florida,
the draft IBA report is available online at: http://www.audubon.org/bird/iba/florida

Editorial: Overpay for land now, or pay even more later
In the rush to buy land for Everglades restoration projects, it's a seller's market. Taxpayers have every right to cringe at obscene prices landowners are charging and South Florida Water Management District buyers are paying. A two-part series in The Post this week cited such cases as the Broward land speculator who made 13 times her money and the Loxahatchee rock mine owner who made eight times what a state-hired appraiser says the rocky turf would bring on the open market. There are other examples, including a $711,000 bill for a financially troubled landowner's dying, 154-acre citrus grove in St. Lucie County. Government always is at a disadvantage in buying land. The process by law is conducted in the open, and speculators who pay attention to government plans can buy up land and jack up prices. South Florida's rising real- estate market sometimes leaves land buyers little choice but to pay top dollar.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

$307 million to be held for Everglades
Gov. Jeb Bush and the Florida Cabinet agreed to shift $307 million from a reserve into a state land-buying account Tuesday, a move designed to prevent state lawmakers from using the cash to help balance the budget. Bush wants to eventually use the money to help with Everglades restoration. "We believe this is a high priority and there will be a temptation to sweep this up and spend it on all sorts of wonderful things," Bush said. "But I think the Everglades is an important enough priority." Last year the Legislature wanted to use $100 million from a bond reserve account to help balance the state budget. Bush vetoed the move, saying it would "weaken a conservation program that been a model for a nation." Environmentalists also were highly critical of legislators since the money in the reserve account came from bonds issued for Florida Forever/Prevention 2000 bonds, the state's main land-buying program.
Copyright © 2003 Orlando Sentinel All rights reserved.

25-February-03

State to announce plan to shift library collection
Historians, academics and others oppose Bush's cost-cutting plan to disperse the collection.
Gov. Jeb Bush's administration will try to defuse a simmering controversy today by announcing a plan to shift part of the huge state library collection from the state archives in the capital to Broward County's Nova Southeastern University. But the Florida Library Association immediately declared its opposition to the idea and said it was worried that the collection would "wither away" if it were dispersed to other areas. Lt. Gov. Frank Brogan has called a news conference this morning to discuss the library's future, and Nova is expected to have representatives on hand. The plan to be announced today is a first step. The Legislature, which will open its annual session a week from today, must decide the library's fate, subject to Bush's approval or veto.
Copyright © 2003 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.

Related Article,

                January 9, 2003
                PRESS RELEASE: SECRETARY DETZNER ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENT OF NEW STATE LIBRARIAN
                AND DIRECTOR OF DIVISION OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES

Related Links,

Florida Department of State
Division of Library and Information Services

FLA -- Florida Library Association

NOVA Southeastern Library, Research and Information Technology Center

24-February-03

100 years later, refuge system still struggling
As America prepares to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the largest and most diverse system of wildlife refuges in the world, many of the sanctuaries are being threatened by an onslaught of exotic species, increasing competition for scarce water and pollution from urban sprawl. At the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge on the northern tip of the Florida Everglades, for example, wildlife managers are struggling to keep from being overwhelmed by water-hungry Australian trees and choking European vines that are overtaking native plants and displacing wildlife. From the six Klamath Basin wildlife refuges near the Oregon-California border to the bottomland forests of the White River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas, competition from farmers for water is threatening to drain refuges of their life's blood. Fast-growing cities, particularly in the arid West, are also adding to water pressures.
Copyright © 2003 Scripps Howard News Service All rights reserved.

National Wildlife Refuge Association

Growing up on the Allapattah Ranch
Series: The Everglades Land Deals • Some would reject Everglades buyout • Growing up on the Allapattah Ranch • In rush to buy, is any price too high? • How four deals unfolded • Lawyer champions property values The old wooden house still stands, looking much as it did when I was a little girl growing up on the Allapattah Ranch in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Today, it triggers memories of green pastures, golden sun and the animals who were my playmates. If I stayed out of sight in those days, I also was out of the minds of grown-ups who were keeping an eye on me. With the ranch as my 22,000-acre playground, I could do that easily. Our house, one of several the ranch provided for its workers, was on Martin Grade, a two-rut dirt trail 12 miles from the nearest hard road in western Martin County. We had no electricity when we moved in. Daddy would crank a generator at the barn for electricity when it was needed.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Articles,

In Series: The Everglades Land Deals:

February 23, 2003
How four deals unfolded

February 23, 2003
In rush to buy, is any price too high?

February 23, 2003
Lawyer champions property values

February 24, 2003
Some would reject Everglades buyout

Some would reject Everglades buyout
Five years ago, amid the nurseries and horse farms west of Delray Beach, Muslims from Bangladesh found a 9-acre haven where they could practice their faith. But the state has other plans for the land: burying it beneath 12 feet of water. It's just one of many ways the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration is sweeping up people's dreams along with their land. Look at the 195,000 acres the restoration has devoured and you'll find sites that were supposed to become churches, mosques and cemeteries. South Florida water managers are buying cattle ranches and citrus groves that families have owned for decades. They're buying tracts where developers had envisioned pricey gated subdivisions -- now, never to be built. For some landowners, losing their treasured property is "sentimental," said Mohammed Hossain, president of the Islamic Foundation of Florida. "When you have a worship place, it's your intention to worship God."
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Articles,

In Series: The Everglades Land Deals:

February 23, 2003
How four deals unfolded

February 23, 2003
In rush to buy, is any price too high?

February 23, 2003
Lawyer champions property values

February 24, 2003
Growing up on the Allapattah Ranch

Lakes Park gets runoff
$2.5 million from project to restore Everglades trickles in to clean water

WATER WATCHERS: Loren
Weiland, left, and Debbie Scheel,
both of Fort Myers, watch a
nesting tilapia at Lakes Park,
which will receive money from
the Comprehensive Everglades
Restoration Project to clean
water that runs into Hendry Creek
and Estero Bay. AMANDA INSCORE

Not all that glitters green in the $8 billion Everglades restoration plan is actually in the legendary River of Grass. Take Lakes Regional Park, for example. Lee County’s urban oasis will get up to $2.5 million of Everglades money. At least six other projects lie outside the historic Everglades flow way but within the $8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The plan aims to repair the wrongs done by a 55-year-old engineering feat aimed at draining southern Florida and controlling flooding. Those in charge of restoration say the outlying projects are just as necessary as the ones taking place amid expanses of sawgrass, tree islands and elegant wading birds. “You have to look at the entire ecosystem of South Florida and its interdependency,” said Dennis Duke, who heads up the restoration effort for the federal partner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Copyright © 2003 News-Press All rights reserved.

23-February-03

Activist is 'reasonable' voice
Jennifer Seney will wade into the most unlikely places to gain support for protecting Pasco's environment and wildlife.
What is it about a pony-tailed, deliberately plain, T-shirt-wearing, middle-aged environmentalist that makes wealthy developers gratefully open their checkbooks? From her swamp-hemmed home in Quail Hollow, Pasco activist Jennifer Seney hasn't just signed a truce with the forces of development. She also has made a case for slowing the bulldozers -- and has done so with accolades from developers who have a billion-dollar stake in the thousands of new homes rising from pasture, scrub and swamp. "My greatest success has been being a successful pain in the a--," the 51-year-old said as the morning sun, piercing the oaks and cypress outside her living room, glints off her gray streaked hair.
Copyright © 2003 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.

State biologists investigating rash of black bear killings
Wildlife biologists are investigating a rash of illegal black bear killings that may be a result of the rising number of conflicts between the protected species and humans, officials said. The state has had six new bear killings since last fall, including four in central Florida, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said. With more than 100 illegal bear killings in the past 24 years, the average has been about four a year. Biologists found the carcass of a black bear last month near a rural Marion County road. It apparently had been shot with a high-powered rifle and moved to make it appear that it was killed in a road accident, wildlife officials said. Such cases could be due to more reported cases of human interaction with "nuisance" bears, wildlife officials said. "I think it's logical considering the number of human-bear conflicts we have -- there's going to be more opportunity for this to happen," Fish and Wildlife bear coordinator Thomas Eason said.
Copyright © 2003 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.

Map of Viewing Sites for the Florida Black Bear

                Florida Black Bear -- Kids' Planet -- Defenders of Wildlife
                .... SIZE: The average weight of a Florida black bear is 350 pounds for males and 150 pounds for females.
                However, they can range in weight from 150 to 600 pounds. ... Description: Includes information about the
                habitat, diet, life span, and size of this bear.

Florida Black Bear Festival at Umatilla

CNN - Florida black bear denied federal protection - December 8, 1998

Everglades land: In rush to buy, is any price too high?
Seven years ago, Annette Dubner paid $489,000 for a forested lot at the Everglades' marshy fringes. Last summer, the Boca Raton speculator resold the Broward County wetland for $6.3 million. Who paid? You, the taxpayer, in the name of saving the Everglades. You're also paying $139 million for 900 acres of Loxahatchee rock mine, eight times what one state-hired appraiser said the land could fetch on the open market. And you paid $711,000 for a financially troubled citrus grower's dying grove in St. Lucie County -- more than double what one of his lenders thought the property was worth. It's all part of a loud chorus of ka-ching, courtesy of the $8.4 billion effort to restore the Everglades and expand South Florida's water supply. The restoration is inspiring an orgy of land-buying by water managers, who are racing desperately against developers to snatch the last available acres unclaimed by suburbia.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Articles,

In Series: The Everglades Land Deals:

February 23, 2003
How four deals unfolded

February 23, 2003
Lawyer champions property values

February 24, 2003
Growing up on the Allapattah Ranch

February 24, 2003
Some would reject Everglades buyout

How four deals unfolded
Special situations have allowed some landowners to make huge profits. Here's a look at how four of those deals unfolded. 1. 154 acres of aging St. Lucie citrus grove: Appraised value: $307,720 to $547,000. Water managers paid: $711,100. Summerlin Grove was full of old trees and dim prospects. Grove owner D.L. Scotto & Co. filed for bankruptcy protection to fend off creditors, and one of those creditors, Farm Credit of South Florida, appraised the land for $307,720 last year. The land "is not considered to be a viable citrus grove," wrote Farm Credit appraiser Carson McCurdy. Still, the South Florida Water Management District paid $711,100 for the 154 acres, based on its own appraisal of $547,000. It plans to use it as part of a reservoir to help the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lagoon. Deputy Land Acquisition Director Ruth Clements defends the price: It is far cheaper than trying to condemn the tract, she said.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Articles,

In Series: The Everglades Land Deals:

February 23, 2003
In rush to buy, is any price too high?

February 23, 2003
Lawyer champions property values

February 24, 2003
Growing up on the Allapattah Ranch

February 24, 2003
Some would reject Everglades buyout

Lawyer champions property values
With his silver coif and smooth baritone, Toby Prince Brigham could be mistaken for an evangelist. In a sense, he is -- a preacher of the gospel of property rights, based on sacred text of the Constitution. And if you're a land-grabbing bureaucrat, he may be your worst enemy. The Miami lawyer has spent more than 40 years fighting condemnation cases, representing some of Florida's biggest and most politically connected landowners. He's won tens of millions of dollars in legal fees and a reputation as the state's top eminent domain attorney. But he says his work is nothing less than a crusade. "It's a cause of freedom," said Brigham, 68. "All of our civil rights empower the individual, and they keep government from becoming totalitarian." He'll remind anyone who will listen that Americans' property rights were bought with blood on the battlefield.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Articles,

In Series: The Everglades Land Deals:

February 23, 2003
How four deals unfolded

February 23, 2003
In rush to buy, is any price too high?

February 24, 2003
Growing up on the Allapattah Ranch

February 24, 2003
Some would reject Everglades buyout

Editorial: An Everglades moment
Details, deadlines and money have been persistent problems for David Struhs, Florida's top environmental regulator. While the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection continues to promise that the state will set strict pollution limits for the Everglades, he still hasn't provided details of how the department will measure damaging phosphorus that runs off farms and suburban areas into the fragile ecosystem. He used a news conference last week to reiterate his support for a low pollution standard, but he again did not elaborate. Instead, he says everything will be revealed this week to the state Environmental Regulation Commission. The commission can change or reject his plan before sending it back to him. If the commission proposes standards that are less protective, Mr. Struhs should stop the process and rely on the 10 parts per billion "default standard" for phosphorus in the 1994 Everglades Forever Act.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

22-February-03

Opinion: A Pollutant by Any Other Name
The pressure on President Bush to abandon his irresponsibly passive approach to global warming was ratcheted up this week. On Thursday the attorneys general of seven Northeastern states announced their intention to sue the administration — in the person of Christie Whitman, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency — for its failure to regulate power plant emissions of carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas, as required by the Clean Air Act. These same states frequently pressured Mrs. Whitman's Democratic predecessor, Carol Browner, to invoke various provisions of the act to reduce long-regulated pollutants like sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain. The difference this time is that they are trying to get the federal government to pay attention to carbon dioxide, the one compound that remains completely unregulated despite mounting scientific evidence that it is likely to be the most dangerous pollutant of all.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved

21-February-03

Miami's Lennar wins Everglades test case
Regional water management officials have unanimously given Miami home builder Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) the nod to build 3,300 homes in west Miami-Dade County on land targeted for Everglades restoration. The 9-0 vote on Feb. 13 climaxed a year of wrangling among the South Florida Water Management District's staff, Lennar and four national environmental groups. It is the first time the West Palm Beach- headquartered district factored the 10-year, $8.4 billion, federal-state Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (CERP) into its decision. But Lennar appears to have trumped Everglades restoration in the balancing act. Environmental groups opposed the project because of Lennar's 516-acre development footprint. CERP wanted to buy 400 acres in the middle of the Lennar project as a storm water treatment area that would help feed cleaner water into nearby Biscayne Bay as well as rehydrate the Everglades.
Copyright © 2003 Bizjournals All rights reserved.

Florida proposes standard to measure water quality in Everglades

Florida Department of Environmental Protection
Secretary David B. Struths, stands near a
map of the Florida Everglades showing the
area that will be protected by water quality
standards for phosphorus, during a meeting
in Hollywood Thursday. J. Pat Carter/AP

Florida has proposed a new standard to measure water quality across the Everglades, but only "time will tell" when that goal will be met, the state's top environmental official said Thursday. The state hopes to eventually limit to 10 parts per billion the level of phosphorous contained in water discharged into all parts of the Everglades, Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs said. That amount is roughly the same as the level in drinking water. Struhs said microorganisms essential to native plant algaes and grasses in the Everglades are damaged once they are exposed to phosphorous above that level. About 90 percent of the Everglades' 2.4 million acres already meet the standard, Struhs said. Phosphorous is commonly used in fertilizers, which flow into the Everglades watershed from surrounding farms and suburbs. The Environmental Regulation Commission is set to review the proposal next Thursday.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

* pdf file (must have Acrobat Reader to open)

Indian River Lagoon's denizens are suddenly ailing
Dolphins in the Indian River Lagoon are contracting fungal diseases. Juvenile green sea turtles are sprouting deadly tumors, and manatees and fish are getting lesions. Are these sicknesses in North America's most diverse estuary nature's course? Or are they the result of changes in water quality resulting from development, agriculture and freshwater discharges? Scientists, environmental groups, bureaucrats and lay people will talk about the reasons for the lagoon's decline and solutions to the problems when they convene from 8:45 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday at the Holiday Inn Oceanfront, 2605 N. A1A, in Indialantic, east of Melbourne. The seminar, themed "The Indian River Lagoon: An Estuary in Transition," is sponsored by the Florida chapter of The Nature Conservancy and the Marine Resources Council. Jupiter Island resident Nat Reed is among the speakers. Read More...
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Strict limit on pollution proposed for Everglades
Florida's top environmental regulator announced a strict pollution limit for the Everglades on Thursday. But he couldn't say when the state will finish cleaning that pollution, or who will pay the $450 million needed to complete the project. "It's anybody's guess as to how long it will take," said David Struhs, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection. State law says all water entering the Everglades must be clean by the end of 2006, but Struhs would promise only that all the necessary construction will be finished by then. Even that promise depends on accelerating separate Everglades projects now scheduled for completion in 2007 or 2008. As for the money, Struhs said, "everything is on the table" -- including the continuation of a special property tax that was scheduled to expire this year.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

State to set Everglades pollution limit
Without releasing a lot of details, state officials made clear Thursday that they will propose a strict pollution limit for the entire Everglades that appears to lean toward what environmentalists are seeking. But "only time will tell" when that pollution limit can be met after the cleanup program is in place by the end of 2006, said Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs. "It's anybody's guess how long that technology will take to meet our goals," Struhs said Thursday. The DEP is proposing to cut to 10 parts per billion the levels of phosphorus, a fertilizer, entering the Everglades in drainage from farm fields south of Lake Okeechobee. Struhs said the rule would apply the tough standard to the entire marsh. The Everglades Coalition has lobbied hard for a limit of 10, the level found in pristine waters of the Everglades. Audubon of Florida said it was encouraged but needed to see more of the details that are being worked out.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel / Associated Press All rights reserved.

Glades water quality at issue
Some wary of proposed new state standard
Florida has proposed a new standard to measure water quality across the Everglades, but only "time will tell" when that goal will be met, the state's top environmental official said Thursday. The state hopes to eventually limit to 10 parts per billion the level of phosphorous contained in water discharged into all parts of the Everglades, Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs said. That amount is roughly the same as the level in drinking water. Struhs said microorganisms essential to native plant algaes and grasses in the Everglades are damaged once they are exposed to phosphorous above that level. About 90 percent of the Everglades' 2.4 million acres already meet the standard, Struhs said. Phosphorous is commonly used in fertilizers, which flow into the Everglades watershed from surrounding farms and suburbs.
Copyright © 2003 Tallahassee Democrat / Associated Press All rights reserved.

Everglades water standard urged
Florida has proposed a new standard to measure water quality across the Everglades, but only "time will tell" when that goal will be met, the state's top environmental official said Thursday. The state eventually hopes to limit to 10 parts per billion the level of phosphorus contained in water discharged into all parts of the Everglades, said David Struhs, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. That amount is roughly the same as the level in drinking water. Struhs said micro-organisms essential to native plant algae and grasses in the Everglades are damaged once they are exposed to phosphorus above that level. About 90 percent of the Everglades' 2.4 million acres already meet the standard, Struhs said. Phosphorus is commonly used in fertilizers, which flow into the Everglades watershed from surrounding farms and suburbs. The Environmental Regulation Commission is to review the proposal Thursday.
Copyright © 2003 Orlando Sentinel All Rights Reserved.

20-February-03

7 States to Sue E.P.A. Over Standards on Air Pollution
Seven state attorneys general, all Democrats, mostly from the Northeast, announced today that they would file a lawsuit accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of failing to enforce the Clean Air Act by neglecting to update air pollution standards. The lawsuit, which would be the third brought by states against the Bush administration over the Clean Air Act in the last seven weeks, shows the increasingly antagonistic relationship between the Northeastern states and the federal government over clean air. Across the country, states are becoming increasingly active on environmental matters, with many officials criticizing the Bush administration as eager to roll back regulations and Congress as unable to demonstrate effective oversight. The attorneys general sent a letter to the E.P.A. administrator, Christie Whitman, giving her the requisite 60-day notice of their intent to sue.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

DEP secretary offers new phosphorus pollution cleanup plan
Everglades. Department of Environmental Protection Secretary David Struhs is set to release the proposal today at a nature center in Hollywood, Fla., in advance of presenting it next week to the state's Environmental Regulation Commission. That body, comprising seven political appointees, has been holding hearings on a 10 parts per billion phosphorus standard in the Everglades for more than a year. Struhs' proposal sticks to the 10 parts per billion limit. What's new are details about the rule that would set how phosphorus levels would be measured and enforced. With the Everglades Forever Act in 1994, the state Legislature set a December 2003 deadline to set a phosphorus pollution limit and a December 2006 deadline to meet it. Struhs hailed the rule as a historic step, saying it would apply throughout the Everglades — "perimeter to perimeter, levee to levee" — and require "continual improvement and no backsliding."
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

Ranches residents say no to water plans
Southwest Ranches residents showed up in force Wednesday night to tell drainage officials that they don't want to pay for canal improvements in another city. The South Broward Drainage District wants to add water control gates to canals, clear paths on easements so vehicles could drive next to the canals and redirect the flow of water in an area known as the S-9 and S-10 basins. The changes are part of the massive Everglades restoration plan. A study conducted for the drainage district said most of the canals in the area, bordered on the north by Griffin Road and Sheridan Street, on the east by 186th Avenue and 172nd Avenue, on the south by Pines Boulevard and on the west by U.S. 27, do not need improvements. However, some parts of the Chapel Trails development in Pembroke Pines don't provide adequate drainage and need to be fixed, the study said. The improvements would cost $3.6 million and would be paid for by homeowner assessments over seven years.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

State backs low pollution limit for Everglades
State environmental regulators say they're sticking with a tough pollution limit for the Everglades despite objections from sugar growers who call it a recipe for lawsuits. The state estimates it could cost $450 million to finish cleansing farm and suburban runoff to meet the limit. That's on top of the $867 million in state and federal money already being spent to build pollution-filtering marshes in Palm Beach and Hendry counties. The proposal also could prove expensive for western Palm Beach County cities such as Wellington, which has less than four years to cleanse the manure-laden runoff it pumps into the Everglades. The fine print is set to come today from David Struhs, secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection. He plans to announce the details that environmentalists and growers have been awaiting for more than a year: Where and how will the state measure the pollution?
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Editorial: Mixed Everglades victory
The victory took nearly a quarter-century, but Congress at last has approved plans for partial buyout of a 77-home community in Miami-Dade County east of Everglades National Park that is crucial to restoring the Everglades. The decision, which came as part of a spending bill Congress approved last week, allows the Army Corps of Engineers to condemn homes in the community known as the 8.5-Square-Mile-Area. It means the corps can begin a project Congress approved in 1989 to send more water to the park. The project depends on removing the homes or protecting them from floods. Good teamwork between federal officials and Gov. Bush's office helped to get the proposal passed. The spending bill itself, however, contains disappointing news for the Everglades. It allocates just under $20 million for actual construction projects approved in 1996 and $23.7 million for restoration of the Kissimmee River.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

COMMENTARY: Proposal contrary to principles
Florida Gulf Coast University’s support of the Ginn Co.’s proposed golf course development to the east of the campus will do more harm than good, both to the environment and to FGCU’s reputation as the “environmental university.” Ginn plans to ask Lee County commissioners to rezone the land, currently zoned as a Density Reduction Groundwater Resource area, to allow three times the existing limit on housing density. If the proposal is approved, Ginn has promised FGCU a net 100 acres plus $9.5 million to start an engineering school. Supporters of the project promise that the development will actually improve the environmental quality of the land. Granted, the parcel’s features now include a rock mine and invasive exotic plants. However, I have yet to see the study proving that asphalt and turf grass are more environmentally beneficial than melaleuca trees.
Copyright © 2003 News Press All rights reserved.

State proposes tough new pollution standard for Everglades but says it won't meet 2006 deadline
State environmental officials Thursday proposed strict Everglades pollution limits long advocated by environmentalists and many scientists, with one major caveat: no hard and fast deadline for meeting that standard. The new proposed guidelines focus on phosphorus, a common chemical found in fertilizer. While it may do wonders for crops such as sugar, for the Everglades it is poison. The main impact will be on farmers, who will have to take steps to clean up the water that runs off their fields. More than a year ago, the Florida Department of Environment Protection hinted it might propose a phosphorus limit of 10 parts per billion for water flowing into the Everglades -- about half the amount remaining in most farm runoff after it goes through a phosphorus removal process.
Copyright © 2003 Miami Herald All rights reserved.

19-February-03

Environmentalists brace for battle
With a $4 billion budget shortfall setting a gloomy stage for the 60-day legislative session that begins March 4, environmentalists find themselves girding for battle on two fronts. On top of the usual attempts by industry lobbyists and business-friendly lawmakers to weaken environmental regulations, conservationists are fighting to preserve toxic cleanup and land preservation programs that represent victories won decades ago. "Thirty years of environmental work is in jeopardy," said Jerry Karnas, a lobbyist for Save the Manatee Club. At issue are some 150 trust funds that Gov. Jeb Bush has proposed eliminating, many of them huge pots of money earmarked for preservation and cleanup programs and backed by taxes on such things as gasoline and real estate transactions.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Public wants more of 'old' Everglades
Park holds hearing on revisions
At once free and constrained. That was how some hunters, fishermen and airboaters who attended an Everglades National Park planning session Tuesday said they felt when visiting their own little corner of the river of grass. The session, one of several spanning both of Florida's coasts and the Keys, was designed to solicit public input as the park goes through a revision of its general management plan, last altered in 1979. Dozens of South Florida residents filled a conference room at Florida International University in Southwest Miami-Dade to take part. The common plea: Give us more of our Everglades back. ''People just want to get out there and enjoy it,'' Miami resident Bob Fischer said.
Copyright © 2003 Miami Herald All rights reserved.

18-February-03

NEW HOME FOR WILDLIFE
Wildlife Returning to Kissimmee River

The Kissimmee River returns to its
meandering route off to the left while
the manmade canal is filled in
BILL BAIR/THE LEDGER (2002)

Second of two parts
The white dots seemed thick in the diminishing ponds in a section of the Kissimmee River's dry season flood plain. Upon closer inspection, most of those dots turn into great egrets, one of the larger wading birds that frequent Florida's wetlands. One pond has 25 of them, another has 20. These are good numbers. "It can be intimidating to see that many of them at once," said Stefani Melvin, a biologist with the South Florida Water Management District. Melvin has been in charge of monitoring bird life before and after the start of the Kissimmee River restoration. The first phase of the project, the largest river-restoration effort in the world, has been completed. The next phase is scheduled to begin in fall 2004.
Copyright © 2003 The Ledger All rights reserved.

Related Article,

February 17, 2003
Part 1: GOING WITH THE FLOW

Related Link,

South Florida Water Management District
Kissimmee River

17-February-03

GOING WITH THE FLOW
Kissimmee River Restoration Spares Three Communities, Meets Goals

Light reflects off the water at the Hidden
Acres Estates marina on a canal that leads
to the Kissimmee River near Lorida. The
river's restoration will force the marina to
make some changes.
RICK RUNION/THE LEDGER

First of two parts
Bob Mooney said he initially feared the restoration of the Kissimmee River would destroy a "special community," where residents leave fishing gear in their boats and don't bother to lock their cars or houses. The original idea was to buy out everyone in Hidden Acres Estates, River Acres and Kissimmee River Shores, riverfront communities located south of U.S. 98 in Okeechobee County, that were to be flooded by the river's rising waters. "The plans would have destroyed our community, as we know it," said Mooney, a Hidden Acres resident. But officials of the U.S. Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District worked with residents of the three subdivisions. These negotiations have "allowed us to have our community almost intact," Mooney said.
Copyright © 2003 The Ledger All rights reserved.

Related Article,

February 18, 2003
Part 2: NEW HOME FOR WILDLIFE

Judge rules on environmental challenge law
A circuit judge Monday upheld a controversial new law that environmentalists say could block some groups and citizens from fighting proposed developments. The ruling, by Circuit Judge L. Ralph Smith in Leon County, was a victory for Senate President Jim King, who got the law passed in the closing moments of last year's legislative session. King, a Jacksonville Republican whose district includes parts of Volusia and Flagler counties, tacked the measure onto a popular Everglades restoration bill. The move incensed many environmentalists and helped spur an election challenge to King in the fall. The law, in part, requires that people be affected by proposed developments before they can launch challenges through the state's administrative hearing process. King said the law is needed to prevent unwarranted legal challenges that can delay developments for months and cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Copyright © 2003 Daytona News-Journal Online All rights reserved.

Everglades bill to displace Cubans
Hundreds of Floridians, mostly poor Cuban immigrants, will be displaced from their homes in the Everglades because of a little-noticed rider to the 2003 federal spending bills that passed last week. Residents of an 8.5-square-mile area, which abuts the Everglades National Park in Dade County, Fla., said they feel betrayed by Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and the president they thought would protect them. "Everyone down in this community voted for President Bush and his brother, and they're being sold out," said Madeleine Fortin, who has lived in the area since 1994. As part of the effort to restore the Everglades National Park by flowing fresh water back in, Congress directed the Army Corps of Engineers in 1989 to build flood controls to protect the area. Much of that is unusable property, but Miss Fortin said her examination of local land records showed that around 138 parcels have land-use codes showing legal residences, and 152 are defined as having "major economic activity" on the property — mostly farms, ranches and nurseries.
Copyright © 2003 Washington Times All rights reserved.

Everglades Plan to Raze 77 Homes Compromise Measure to Revive Park After 14-Year Delay
Congress has approved a plan to destroy 77 homes at the edge of Everglades National Park, jump-starting efforts to restore flows to the ailing River of Grass after 14 years of delay. The compromise measure to buy out the most flood-prone portion of what is known as the 8.5 Square Mile Area, a tight-knit Cuban American neighborhood of mango groves and horse pastures, was supported by President Bush and Gov. Jeb Bush (R), as well as by regulators and environmentalists. Tucked into last week's $397 billion budget bill, it would revive the Modified Water Deliveries Project of 1989, a long-stalled plan to rehydrate the parched eastern side of the park. The revival of "Mod Waters" would also help the much larger $8.4 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the most ambitious environmental project in history.
Copyright © 2003 Washington Post All rights reserved.

16-February-03

Logging Jobs Benefit Pygmies, but Imperil Their Forest Home
For Pygmies logging the rain forests of central Africa, the chain saw's whine signals the promise of work — and threatens a way of life. As the Congo Republic's timber industry picks up after years of ruinous civil war, international logging companies are cutting swaths deep into the heart of the huge Congo basin. The boom puts the Pygmies in a wrenching dilemma: tree by tree, the jobs it gives them are destroying the forest home where they have lived for millenniums. "It's out of a need to survive that I work with the timber companies," said Bekou, a Pygmy logger. "Our life is impossible outside the forests." Loggers say they offer jobs and schooling, and want to save Pygmy culture. But the Pygmies say each tree felled means less leafy cover for the striped antelopes they hunt and brings them closer to losing their heritage.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times, AP online All rights reserved.

15-February-03

U.S. spending bill includes plenty of Florida projects
Most will be going to the Everglades, Kissimee River restoration
The nearly $400 billion spending bill approved by Congress late Thursday contains more than $100 million for Florida environmental, educational, agricultural and transportation projects. The largest share provides $90 million for construction projects in Central and South Florida related to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and $23.7 million for continued work on the Kissimmee River restoration project. Florida also will receive $15 million in federal money to assist the state in the purchase of land considered crucial to the Everglades project. The projects were pushed by Florida Sens. Bob Graham and Bill Nelson, both Democrats. Citrus growers will get a helping hand from Uncle Sam. The spending bill included $18 million to compensate Florida growers whose crops have been ravaged by citrus canker.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Homes near 'Glades to be razed
Congress has signed off on a plan to raze homes blocking water flow to eastern Everglades National Park, and legislators and environmentalists said Friday it could end an almost decade-long impasse. By approving a $397 million spending bill late Thursday, the House and Senate authorized federal engineers to "immediately carry out" a plan to condemn 77 homes west of Krome Avenue in a community called the "81/2 Square Mile Area" in Miami-Dade County. The Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida water managers want to take that private land, inside the most flood-prone portion of the community, to increase water flows to 109,000 acres of wetlands annexed into Everglades National Park. "By including this language in the omnibus [spending] bill, the logjam is broken," said U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., who pushed for the authorization along with U.S. Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Fort Lauderdale, and other Florida delegation members.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

Everglades restoration projects move closer to reality
A cluster of Everglades restoration projects in Lee and Collier counties moved up the approval chain Friday when a local group of scientists and regulators voted on the next round of recommendations for Southwest Florida. The Southwest Florida Regional Restoration Coordination Team met at Florida Gulf Coast University to talk about restoration projects for the Estero Bay watershed, Big Cypress Basin, Caloosahatchee River and Charlotte Harbor. The team consists of various government agencies and scientists and makes recommendations on Southwest Florida Everglades projects. The restoration of the Everglades is expected to take 30 years. Team members voted the purchase and restoration of 3,840 acres owned by Agripartners Properties as the top priority for the Estero Bay region, and the restoration of the Camp Keais Strand as the chief item for the Big Cypress Basin.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

14-February-03

Funding available for habitat restoration by grassroots organizations from FishAmerica/NOAA
Coastal grants: Conservation groups can apply for coastal restoration grants through a program sponsored by the FishAmerica Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The FishAmerica Foundation, which is the conservation and research arm of the American Sportfishing Association, will accept matching grant proposals for projects to restore coastal habitats and fisheries through March 12. Grant awards will be announced in June. Grants range from $5,000 to $30,000. The announcement and full grant package are available at www.fishamerica.org. Previous grants have funded projects to restore wetlands and other fisheries habitat; improve fish migration routes; and build reefs and other structures in marine areas.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

Related Links,

                Fish America Foundation - Investing Today in Sportfishing's Tomorrow
                The problem: More than 1 million full-time jobs and $108 billion of the American economy depend on
                sportfishing, yet more than 37% of our waters do not meet government standards. The answer: FishAmerica.
                It provides local hands-on projects to enhance fish populations, water quality, and applied fisheries research
                in North America. During the past 20 years, FishAmerica has helped nearly 700 grassroots organizatons. The
                foundation matches every dollar contributed to FishAmerica.

Fish America/NOAA funding available for Habitat Restoration

Opinion: Weak Response on Global Warming
In a transparent bit of salesmanship that should not be mistaken for a serious policy, the Bush administration announced Wednesday that it had persuaded several major industries to make voluntary reductions in the rate at which they produce carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming. It was the administration's latest effort to show that voluntary controls will make unnecessary the mandatory reductions called for by many scientists, environmentalists and members of Congress — as well as by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that Mr. Bush rejected after taking office. There are two main problems with the Bush policy. First, he is asking almost nothing in the way of real sacrifice. A serious approach would request net reductions in emissions. Mr. Bush asks only for a decrease in what he calls "carbon intensity," under which emissions can grow as long as they increase more slowly than the economy itself. That of course misses the point.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

13-February-03

Lake area storage reservoirs planned
While construction of $217,000,000 in water storage reservoirs in the Everglades Agricultural Area is not expected to be completed until September 2009, much of the land to be used to store water south of the EAA has been acquired by the state. According to Brad Clark, project manager for the EAA Storage Reservoirs Project Phase I of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville, since 1999 the state or federal government has purchased 40,000 acres of land south of Lake Okeechobee to be used to store 240,000 acre feet of water. Mr. Clark todl those attending a public meeting on the project, held at Lake Shore Middle School in Belle Glade January 21, those parcels include 31,000 acres between the North New River Canal and the N. Miami Canal, 9,000 acres east of the North New River Canal and an additional 9,000 acres near stormwater treatment areas elsewhere.
Copyright © 2003 Glades County Democrat All rights reserved.

NOAA Press Release:
TORTUGAS ECOLOGICAL RESERVE VIOLATION BRINGS $20,000 PENALTY
Cites Owner and Operator of Shrimp Trawler Attorneys for the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have issued a $20,000 civil penalty in the case of a vessel cited for illegal shrimp trawling in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary’s protected Tortugas Ecological Reserve last December. Christine Ho of Abbeville, La., owner of the Fishing Vessel Miss Christine V, and vessel captain Cu T. Nguyen of Port Arthur, Texas, face a combined penalty in the incident. The Coast Guard vessel Nantucket cited the Miss Christine V on Dec. 16, 2002. The Nantucket escorted the Miss Christine V to Key West, where its catch of 1,117 lbs. of pink shrimp was seized and sold by a NOAA agent. The $1,733.38 proceeds from the sale remain in escrow pending settlement of the case.
Copyright © 2003 Florida Keys All rights reserved.

Related Links,

NOAA

NOAA Oceans and Coasts

Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

Lennar project trumps Everglades restoration
In West Palm Beach Thursday, officials managing South Florida's waters unanimously gave Miami homebuilder Lennar Corp. (NYSE: LEN) the nod to build 3,300 homes in west Miami-Dade County on land targeted for Everglades restoration. Environmental groups oppose the project because Lennar's 516-acre development footprint remains in the middle of land targeted for Everglades restoration. They claimed victory and defeat after Thursday's vote. "It's a victory since for the first time the district agreed it must consider Everglades restoration policy in its permitting, but a defeat since 'Glades restoration got the leftovers, and Lennar got what it wanted," said Erin Deady, Miami-based lawyer for Florida Audubon. In a 9-0 vote, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) likely ended a year's wrangling with district staff and four national environmental groups.
Copyright © 2003 Bizjournals All rights reserved.

Graham upset over oil buyout
Sen. Bob Graham has questioned a plan to buy out private oil rights in the western Everglades, saying he was "mad as hell" that the Bush administration budgeted money for the deal without the opportunity for congressional scrutiny. The administration agreed last year to spend $120 million to acquire oil rights at Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge and Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The deal prevented plans by the Collier family for extensive exploratory drilling and seismic operations in areas inhabited by panthers, manatees and other endangered species. Graham, who is recovering from heart surgery, said he was upset that the administration was attempting to slip a $40 million down payment into a 2003 appropriations bill without the opportunity for Congress to examine the deal. "He called from his recovery bed and said, `I'm mad as hell about this,'" his press secretary, Jill Greenberg, said Wednesday.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

For All to Read: A Mexican Resort's Dirty Secret
This was paradise. But a sewer runs through it. Mexico's environmental protection agency sampled the water in Zihuatanejo's beautiful bay back in September. The results were not pretty: the agency said sewage from the city's wastewater plant had tainted one of the nation's loveliest harbors. Winter currents are cleansing the bay, and hundreds of tourists are frolicking on the beach. The report has driven few people away. But it singled out Zihuatanejo among 16 of Mexico's most popular beaches that suffer from pollution. It found fecal coliform levels in the marina, near the plant, at 1,500 parts per 100 milliliters of water, far beyond health standards. "People and tourists have a right to know this," said Víctor Lichtinger, Mexico's environmental secretary. But the right to know is a novel concept in Mexico. The local hoteliers reacted to the report's becoming public this week like a man with a hangover hearing an alarm clock.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

12-February-03

Growth plan amended to allow huge U.S. Home project
The Heritage Bay golf course development hits a lot of community hot buttons, and county commissioners started pushing them Tuesday. Commissioners voted 5-0 to amend the county's growth plan to allow the huge U.S. Home project on 2,562 acres, or four square miles, at the northeast corner of Collier Boulevard and Immokalee Road, setting the stage for a rezoning vote that could come later this spring. The project would include up to 3,450 homes and golf courses. Projections show 7,100 people could live there someday. Land at the intersection and in three village centers spread through the project would hold up to 175,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and 55,000 square feet of office space. It's not just the project's size that is getting attention.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Latest salvo fired in war over manatee protections

A manatee sign hangs on a boat dock at
Island Beach Club near Big Carlos Pass
while a fishing boat races through the
background in Estero Bay on Tuesday
afternoon. David Ahntholz

Marine industry groups, joined by Lee County and other Florida municipalities, have fired back at a proposed agreement that would increase the number of protection areas for manatees, saying scientific data does not warrant a decision that could devastate economies along the state's shorelines. The objection, filed on behalf of four marine industry groups, is in response to the proposal announced last month by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and 18 environmental groups. The groups agreed to drop contempt of court charges against Interior Secretary Gale Norton in exchange for the creation of three new areas where powerboats would be banned or have to abide by new speed limits. "Faced with the threat of being held in contempt by this court and constant pressure from plaintiffs, federal defendants have agreed to a stipulated order that is not merely illegal, it is bad," reads the objection, filed late Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Cabinet defers action on Golden Gate Estates condemnations
The standoff between the state and a trio of landowners, including the Miccosukee Indian Tribe, continued Tuesday after state officials again delayed a decision whether to condemn the parcels for Everglades restoration. Separate negotiations with Miccosukee leaders and a pair of reluctant landowners will continue for at least a month as state land buyers attempt to strike three deals by March 13, when the Cabinet again meets to address the matter. At issue is the state's attempt to purchase the final 4,000 acres of a 55,000-acre buyout in Southern Golden Gate Estates. So far the buyout has cost nearly $90 million. The governor and Cabinet last month were asked to begin condemnation proceedings on homesteaded property, a maneuver the Cabinet has so far avoided in its quest to restore the Everglades. Following testimony Jan. 28, the Cabinet voted to allow more time.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Conferees Approve Provisions to Expand Development in Alaska National Forests
Republicans have tucked provisions into the spending bill that the House and Senate conferences are negotiating to permit road building in two Alaska forests, expand timber harvesting in national forests and open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to exploratory oil drilling. Democrats say the provisions would weaken Clinton-era protections for national forests. Republicans say Democrats and conservation groups are distorting the proposals to generate opposition to reasonable modifications of overly restrictive policies. Republicans defeated a Democratic effort on Monday to strip the forest amendments from the bill. As a result, the changes will most likely be included if the $396 billion package is approved. Conservation groups said introducing those policies in the negotiations seriously undermined the 2.2 million comments that the public submitted before the policies were introduced in 2000.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Editorial: Threats to the Forest
A Senate-House conference has now approved an omnibus appropriations bill loaded with destructive anti-environmental riders. Since President Bush has no intention of vetoing the bill — as President Clinton did in 1995 when presented with a similarly offensive measure — the House should remand it to the committee for repairs. The worst of the amendments would open up much of Alaska's Tongass and Chugach forests for logging. One would exempt about 14 million acres in the two forests from protections granted by a Clinton-era rule, developed over three years and since upheld by the courts, prohibiting commercial development in roadless and largely unlogged areas of the national forest system. A second would resurrect and insulate from future legal challenge a faulty 1997 management plan for the Tongass, effectively rescinding a more protective plan approved in 1999.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

11-February-03

Graham asks justification of $120 million deal on drilling rights
Sen. Bob Graham wants the Bush administration to justify spending $120 million to buy oil and gas rights from a pioneering Florida family to protect the Everglades and the state's pristine beaches from drilling. The proposed buyout of the Collier family would nullify its substantial oil and gas rights in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Big Cypress National Preserve, which is adjacent to Everglades National Park in southwestern Florida. Graham spokesman Paul Anderson said Tuesday the senator, who is recovering from heart surgery, has asked the Department of Interior to explain how the government reached the valuation of the rights since last spring but has not received any information. The senator said he was "mad as hell" when he learned that a $40 million down payment had been included in President Bush's proposed 2004 budget, Anderson said.
Copyright © 2003 Herald Tribune All rights reserved.

Press Release: STATE PARTNERSHIP CREATES 16,000-ACRE CONSERVATION CORRIDOR
Today's unanimous vote by Governor Bush and the Florida Cabinet approves the acquisition of environmentally significant land that creates a 16,000-acre conservation corridor in St. Johns County. The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) joined with the St. Johns River Water Management District to purchase 8,465 acres of the Northeast Florida Blueway, a chain of marshes and tidal lands. "The benefits from this Florida Forever purchase reflect the program's true purpose," said DEP Secretary David B. Struhs. "Through this partnership, the state is conserving the last remaining undisturbed marsh, protecting water quality within the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve, and almost tripling the size of one of the most tranquil state parks on the Atlantic coast." Read More...

Wetlands Protection Fades
The first time the Army Corps of Engineers counted how much federally protected wetlands would be lost to a colossal new container port being planned here, it came up with more than 100 acres. The next time, the agency revised that count to fewer than three acres. That was good news for the Port of Houston, the sponsor of the $1.2 billion project. But it was bad news for environmentalists, who found that one of their main arguments against the terminal, its effects on protected wetlands, had been deeply undercut. The revision in the wetlands figure may have been drastic, but it was not isolated. For two years, the engineers, by statute the country's pre-eminent protector of wetlands, have been recalculating its authority, and what is now emerging, in places like Seabrook is evidence of a broad retreat.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Letter to the editor: Hastings: Now no time for Bush to renege on Everglades promise
The Post's editorial on the future of Everglades restoration ("Secure Everglades money," Thursday) identified a variety of obstacles standing in the way of the project. None is as important as continued financing for land acquisition. The acquisition of restorable land always has been one of the most critical ingredients of the Everglades restoration project. The president has traveled to Florida and boasted that he supports Everglades restoration. Yet, when the photo ops and political hits are over, he is nowhere to be seen. Instead, the president has changed his tune and is now aligning with those who oppose the restoration project. His budget cuts financing at a critical moment, jeopardizing the future of the entire restoration process. The cost of Everglades restoration has increased drastically as the realities of the market have set in.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Opinion: New plan leaves wetlands high and dry
Just three months after proclaiming this ''the year of clean water,'' the Bush administration is proposing new regulations that are the most serious threat to the Clean Water Act since it was passed by Congress 30 years ago. Goodbye, Year of Clean Water. Hello, Years of Living Dangerously. At issue is whether the government will protect wetlands or abandon many of them to the not-so-tender mercies of developers. The stakes are tremendously high. Wetlands are rain forests' less glamorous cousins: the bogs, marshes, meadows and swamps that filter out pollutants, provide natural flood control and are home to hundreds of species of plants and animals -- many of them already in danger of extinction. To step or paddle into a wetland is to travel back in time. In many parts of the country, wetlands are the last magnificent vestiges of wild America. There you can still find creatures like the black-crowned night heron and the silvery salamander.
Copyright © 2003 Miami Herald All rights reserved.

Local dolphin group receives $50,000 grant
A local dolphin care organization is the recipient of one of seven new grants to marine conservation organizations. The new grantee, Island Dolphin Care in Key Largo, serves critically ill and special-needs children from around the world through dolphin-assisted therapy programs. A $50,000 grant from Ocean Fund will enable the facility to install interactive, educational aquariums and learning stations in the central meeting room of its new two-story facility. In the six-and-a-half years since the launch of the Ocean Fund, the global vacation company has donated $5.95 million on behalf of Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises to 37 organizations working to protect the marine environment. The complete list of Ocean Fund grant recipients is as follows: Island Dolphin Care: $50,000 to install seven interactive, educational aquariums and learning stations at the new Island Dolphin Care Center;
Copyright © 2003 Upper Keys Reporter All rights reserved.

DEP regional director Meeker to step down
After nearly 3 ½ years, the woman who oversees South Florida's sewage, sludge and sea grass is moving to private industry. Then again, 3 ½ yes is a long tome for Melissa Meeker, was only 30 when she took over the state Department of Environmental Protection's regional office in West Palm Beach. Meeker is resigning March 6 to head the Florida operations of Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp., a global consulting company with offices in Stuart. "This is the longest I've ever spent in the same job," Meeker said Monday, three days after breaking the news to her staff. But she may not be done with government; She hopes the experience in the private sector could qualify her for a more senior role at DEP or another agency. "I've only worked for government my whole career," she said. "I've never experienced private life.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Environmental agency losing district director
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Southeast District office is losing its director of 3 ½ years, Melissa Meeker. Meeker resigned Friday to become Florida operations manager for Foster Wheeler Environmental in Stuart. Meeker, 33, was in charge of environmental regulation for the DEP in six counties including palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. She earned $109,009 a year and managed a staff of 135 people. During her tenure with DEP she won achievement and service awards and Governor's Office recognition. Her last day is March 6. Note: This article is not in the online edition.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

District Court of Appeals case may end ROGO
A three-judge panel heard oral arguments this week that could end the county ’s Rate of Growth Ordinance not only in Monroe County but also in all areas of critical state concern. Ed Guedes with Weiss and Serota served as the lead attorney giving oral arguments for the county, Islamorada and Marathon. Jim Mattson represents the 90 plaintiffs in what is called the Ambrose case. Judges David M. Gersten, James R. Jorgenson and Mario P. Goderich heard the arguments on Wednesday, Feb. 5 in Miami. Last May, Circuit Judge Richard G. Payne ordered the county to allow 90 people to build homes on vacant lots that were platted prior to June 30, 1972. But the order affects anyone in the county who owned a vacant lot that was on the books prior to 1972, the year the state Legislature approved the Environmental Land and Water Management Act.
Copyright © 2003 Upper Keys Reporter All rights reserved.

10-February-03

Florida, tribe at odds on land issue
State wants site for Glades work
When is land owned by an Indian tribe part of its sovereign nation and when is it simply a piece of land the Indian tribe bought? In South Florida, the question is threatening to stymie Gov. Jeb Bush's high-profile effort to restore the Everglades and lead to a face-off with the Miccosukee Indian Tribe in the U.S. Supreme Court. And it could have long-term implications for how much autonomy the Miccosukee tribe, or any Indian nation, enjoys on land it purchases outright. Bush and the state Department of Environmental Protection, unable to get the Miccosukees to sell 800 acres the tribe bought in 1997 on the edge of the Everglades in Collier County, are expected to urge the Florida Cabinet to condemn the property at its meeting Tuesday. In a condemnation, government takes private land for public use after a jury decides the amount to be paid the seller.
Copyright © 2003 Miami Herald All rights reserved.

County's tier system targets land for acquisition
County planners are asking for the public's help to identify lands for conservation and future development. Planner Maureen Lackey and her colleagues are working to initiate a three-level tier system as a means for the county to acquire land to meet the Monroe County Comprehensive Plan for smart growth initiatives. Smart growth initiatives encourage development only of areas where infrastructure, such as paved roads and electric service, is already in place. Lackey is using maps from Florida Department of Transportation aerial photos shot in 1985, and importing information from the property appraiser's office, a tedious process at best. Because of changes in the maps as new buildings go up and old ones come down, Lackey is asking for public input. "Public input is critical in that some of the information we have from the mapping system may need updating," she said. "We need folks to say what our maps show is not what's really there when that is the case.
Copyright © 2003 Keys News / Key West Citizen All rights reserved.

U.N. Conference Backs Efforts to Curb Mercury Pollution
Delegates attending a United Nations environmental conference here last week endorsed a global crackdown on pollution caused by mercury, although the United States blocked efforts for binding restrictions on its use. Mercury, a highly toxic heavy metal, is particularly dangerous for infants and children, and it can be passed from pregnant women to their fetuses. Human exposure to mercury comes from a variety of sources — consumption of fish, occupational and household uses, dental fillings and some vaccines. The United Nations Environment Program will begin assisting countries, particularly those in the developing world, in devising methods for cutting emissions of mercury from sources like coal-fired power stations and incinerators. Further action, possibly including a binding protocol, was put off until 2005.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

A Catholic College Will Rise in Florida

Tom Monaghan, the founder of
Domino's Pizza, at the temporary home
of Ave Maria University in Naples, Fla.

On a remote 750-acre site near the Everglades, Ave Maria University, the nation's first new Roman Catholic university in four decades, is about to rise from the fields of peppers and tomatoes that stretch to the horizon. The founder of Ave Maria, Tom Monaghan, is better known as the founder of Domino's Pizza. He has grand plans for the university: majors as varied as theology and hotel management; a Division I football team; three golf courses, including one for donors only; and a new town, Ave Maria, with a commercial center joining the campus. But his mission is as much religious as educational. "For 25 years, I've felt the need for a school with more spirituality," said Mr. Monaghan, who has committed $200 million to the university. "The reason God created us was to earn heaven, so we could be with him, and my goal is to help more people get to heaven.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

As Cities Move to Privatize Water, Atlanta Steps Back
Privatization has hit the water sector, which has remained mostly the bastion of public utilities. Over the last five years, hundreds of American communities, including Indianapolis, Milwaukee and Gary, Ind., have hired private companies to manage their waterworks, serving about one in 20 Americans. The main reason is that the cities are facing enormous costs to repair aging sewer pipes, treatment plants and other water infrastructure. Federal officials say the total cost of repairs could outstrip current spending by more than $500 billion in the next 20 years. The utilities' hope has been that partnerships with private companies could generate savings and provide access to capital to help cover such staggering bills. But a cautionary tale has emerged here in Atlanta, where the largest water privatization deal collapsed in January.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

09-February-03

On The Miccosukee, Everglades Restoration
Re Chairman Billy Cypress's Jan. 27 letter End delay on Everglades:
For decades tribe leaders have complained about government interference on their lands -- but welcome government when it's convenient. Congress has afforded Indian tribes tax-free income in the form of limited gambling. But that's not enough? Not only do the Miccosukee repeatedly ask the Legislature for full gaming rights, now the tribe is asking Congress to complete the delayed Everglades restoration process as the tribe deems correct. As previously reported in The Herald, the tribe has purchased lands bordering the eastern side of its reservation. The property had been sought by government agencies for Everglades' restoration. Since the tribe avoided stating the reason for the purchase, we can only speculate that it's an effort to block a portion of the proposed restoration. How does this help end the delay? Read more . . .
Copyright © 2003 Gambling Magazine All rights reserved.

Naturally Magic
An hour south of Orlando, this Florida kingdom flaunts ancient sand hills and exotic birds
I breathed a sigh of relief when my children outgrew the age of mandatory pilgrimages to Disney World. No more visits to central Florida, land of crowded theme parks, strip malls, endless orange groves. And so it remained until recently when, to celebrate my mother's landmark birthday, I succumbed to our shared weakness for natural history adventures and signed up to visit an area billed as "the other magic kingdom." Right in Mickey's backyard, they promised, is an area of unique geological formations and wonderful natural treasures: the Lake Wales Ridge and Kissimmee Valley. How, I wondered, could we have possibly missed all that before? Quite easily, it seems, because "the other magic kingdom" has been considerably less visible and promoted than its famous neighbors. Read More...
Copyright © 2003 Nola All rights reserved.

Up the Creek:
To air is human, especially for Florida anglers
"Carole doesn't want me to go on an airboat," I told Clay Gooch. "Says she'll divorce me." "Okay," he replied, "then I'll write you a check for court costs." What a pal! That's what friends are for. Clay continued to give me the airboat bass-fishing pitch. He'd done the thing, and had a great time. Besides, he said, it's a great story. A bass on every cast, some up to 7rpounds. Airboats are not dangerous, he continued. He said he feels safer in an airboat than in a flats boat. After he conned me into taking a trip last year into the innards of the Everglades where I was the spider swisher and snake catcher, I had some reservations. Naturally, I kept these trepidations from Carole. "Besides," I told her, "Clay says he'll pay my court costs." She got out the insurance policies to see if they covered airboats.
Copyright © 2003 Eastern Star Democrat All rights reserved.

Residents in path of Everglades restoration fight to keep their homes, land
Drive through the cluster of homes and agriculture dubbed the 8 1/2 Square Mile Area in south Miami-Dade County and you'll find a tranquil backwater. Houses sit on dirt lanes sometimes swamped with water. People raise fruit, bees and horses on property sandwiched between busy suburbs and peaceful nature on the east edge of Everglades National Park. But the sleepy rural setting has become a catalyst of controversy. Residents in this small outpost have put a chokehold on a goliath of a project: the $8.4 billion plan to restore much of the Everglades. "How they've been able to grandstand for so long, I've always been befuddled by it," said Richard Grosso, executive director of Nova Southeastern University's Environmental and Land Use Law Center. The once low-profile community's fate is being bandied about in Capitol Hill maneuvers.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

Toll: Legislator envisions toll roads

The toll plaza on the portion
of Interstate 75 known as
Alligator Alley, looking west.
Gary Coronado

The year is 2010. Traffic along Interstate 75 is backed up for miles after a fatal accident near the Bonita Beach Road exit. A commuter heading to work in Naples is southbound on the interstate. To avoid the logjam ahead, he exits at Alico Road and gets onto a toll road — the newly completed extension of Collier Boulevard. In the meantime, a woman northbound on I-75 in Naples is late for an appointment in Tampa but there is an accident on the interstate ahead. Onlookers have traffic backed up for miles. So she exits onto a limited-access toll lane in the interstate median and has clear sailing. These scenarios could become reality in the future should a new transportation authority proposed by a local legislator become law, Collier and Lee commissioners said. State Rep. Mike Davis, R-Naples, has proposed a bill to be considered at the upcoming legislative session that would create a Southwest Florida Transportation Authority.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Toll road authorities have had mixed success throughout Florida
Throughout the state, transportation authorities similar to the one being proposed for Southwest Florida have built a number of toll road and bridge projects. Some have been labeled "boondoggles" by critics; others far exceeded expectations. Several have gotten off to a slow start. Among them: The Garcon Point Bridge in the Panhandle and Suncoast Parkway in the Tampa area. Few drivers were using the Suncoast Parkway last year, leaving it about $3 million short of toll revenue projections. Daily traffic was about 4,000 cars per day fewer than expected on the toll road that stretches from the Veterans Expressway in Hillsborough County, through Pasco County to U.S. 98 in Hernando County. The Garcon Point Bridge over eastern Pensacola Bay, a pet project of former House Speaker Bolley "Bo" Johnson, is drawing about half the number of motorists experts predicted when the authority approved a $95 million bond issue to build it.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Related Article,

February 9, 2003
Toll: Legislator envisions toll roads

08-February-03

Portion of bill last sticking point to Everglades water project
The White House this week sent a six-page letter to key leaders meeting over the final disagreements on the spending bill for this fiscal year. In it, Mitch Daniels, head of the Office of Management and Budget, outlined items the Bush administration wouldn't support and threatened to veto the measure if it surpassed certain spending limits. Tucked inside the missives against "unacceptable provisions" lies administration backing of a Senate amendment authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers to purchase land in the heart of the Everglades restoration effort. It's an important endorsement of Alternative 6D, which would clarify language giving the Army Corps the authority to construct a levee and canal system around most of an 8½-square-mile area in southwest Dade County. The plan also authorizes the Corps to purchase 77 residential tracts to restore water flow to Everglades National Park.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Letters to the Editor: On the Miccosukee, Everglades restoration
Re Chairman Billy Cypress's Jan. 27 letter End delay on Everglades:
For decades tribe leaders have complained about government interference on their lands -- but welcome government when it's convenient. Congress has afforded Indian tribes tax-free income in the form of limited gambling. But that's not enough? Not only do the Miccosukee repeatedly ask the Legislature for full gaming rights, now the tribe is asking Congress to complete the delayed Everglades restoration process as the tribe deems correct. As previously reported in The Herald, the tribe has purchased lands bordering the eastern side of its reservation. The property had been sought by government agencies for Everglades' restoration. Since the tribe avoided stating the reason for the purchase, we can only speculate that it's an effort to block a portion of the proposed restoration. How does this help end the delay?
Copyright © 2003 Miami Herald All rights reserved.

County accused of making 'water grab'
Palm Beach County wants to send 70 percent more water into its residents' faucets, pools and sprinklers in the next two decades -- angering environmentalists who say the "grab" could steal from the Everglades. The dispute is part of what promises to be an increasingly fierce struggle: the scramble for the hundreds of billions of gallons of newly captured water promised by the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration. Environmentalists, fearing a "water rush" by city and county utilities, say Palm Beach County's application for a 20-year permit extension could be Exhibit A. The dispute surprised County Commission Chairwoman Karen Marcus, who said she knew nothing about the county utilities department's request until Everglades advocates informed her last month. "It almost sounds like we're elbowing our way in first to make sure we have what we need, and to heck with everybody else," Marcus said Friday.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

07-February-03

Opinion: Shortchanging the Environment
His State of the Union oratory to the contrary, President Bush wants to spend less money on the environment and clean energy programs than Congress gave him two years ago. In a way, that's not surprising. Domestic programs generally took their lumps in a budget weighted toward tax cuts and military spending. Even so, some of the president's proposals — including a reduction in the Environmental Protection Agency budget from $8.1 billion in 2002 to $7.6 billion this year — seemed downright peculiar, coming as they did on the heels of Mr. Bush's ringing pledges for a cleaner environment and reduced dependence on foreign oil. The president's clean-energy agenda is a prime example. Yesterday he again predicted great things for his proposed "Freedom Car," the hydrogen-powered vehicle to which he intends to devote about $1.7 billion in research money over the next five years.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Editorial: Phosphate fight must go on Appeal is necessary to defend region's environment and water supply
The regional water authority may end up spending a few hundred thousand dollars in its latest legal battle with IMC Phosphates. But the costs - to the environment and to Southwest Florida's largest water supply -- could be much greater if the company is allowed to proceed with plans to strip-mine a huge tract near the Peace River. This week, representatives from Charlotte, Manatee and Sarasota counties voted to have the Peace River - Manasota Regional Water Supply Authority appeal the state's decision to issue a permit for a 20,675-acre [32 square miles] mine at Ona in Hardee County. The mine would be located upstream from the authority's treatment plant, which supplies drinking water to more than 100,00 local residents.
Copyright © 2003 Sarasota Herald All rights reserved.

Western officials await 'Glades water decision
Attorneys general of seven Western states are taking a keen interest in a legal fight over storm water generated by western Broward communities. The officials of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana and North and South Dakota fear the outcome of a court case over dirty water pumped into the Everglades could affect the business of moving water on the opposite side of the United States. The case "raises an issue of vital importance to the economic and social well-being of the West," said a Jan. 24 letter sent to Interior Secretary Gale Norton and signed by New Mexico Attorney General Patricia Madrid and her counterparts in the other six states. The focus of their concern is a lawsuit filed by the Miccosukee Indian Tribe and Friends of the Everglades over a trio of pumps west of the junction of Griffin Road and U.S. 27 operated by the South Florida Water Management District.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

06-February-03

Anglers worry about park plan

CAPT. BOB JOHNSON/Special
to The Citizen
The Snake Bight Channel near
Flamingo, a popular area for
backcountry anglers, may be
closed to motorized vessels

Prime fishing waters of Florida Bay are being loved to death, according to Everglades park officials. So much so that backcountry anglers find themselves in danger of losing access to fishing grounds within park boundaries, which include most of the bay. Fishing enthusiasts are concerned as the most famous park in the South begins to draft a revised 20-year general management plan, which sets guidelines for park usage, among other things. Some park employees are recommending closures in portions of the bay to prevent boat propeller scarring of sea beds. The last management plan was written in 1979, and the park is facing the same dilemma almost all of America's lands face: how to balance the public's access to these natural wonders with the need to protect them against a growing population. Local anglers and guides fear that Everglades park management will close parts of the park, specifically Flamingo, Tin Can Channel and Snake Bight Channel, to motorized vessels in order to protect seagrass.
Copyright © 2003 Keys News / Key West Citizen All rights reserved.

05-February-03

National park celebrates death of its last melaleuca tree

National Park Service Director Fran Mainella
celebrates the symbolic removal of the last
stand of melaleuca trees at Big Cypress
National Preserve in Ochopee with Billy
Snyder, forestry technician with the preserve,
right, during a ceremony near the headquarters
on Tuesday. The Park Service has spent $3.5
million since 1984 ot rid the preserve of the
non-native tree that is considered an invasive
pest that overtakes natural habitat. Monitoring
will be needed to keep the trees under control.
Dan Wagner

Officials poisoned the last known melaleuca tree stump in the Big Cypress National Preserve on Tuesday, ending a phase in the 25-year battle to eradicate the invasive tree that has dried up thousands of acres of Florida wetland. National Parks Service Director Fran P. Mainella killed the stump, the last of 120,000 melaleucas that were once in the 729,000-acre park. Also known as the paperbark tree, the melaleuca is an Australian native that was brought to Florida by developers in the early 1900s to soak up swamps and marshes. Today, it is considered one of the biggest threats to the state's ecosystem because it destroys native vegetation that serves as food and shelter for wildlife. It can quickly convert a swamp into a dense thicket and still covers 7 million acres in Florida. "This is just huge to be able to have treated all the melaleucas at Big Cypress," said Mainella, who served as the Florida State Park Director from 1989 to 2001.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Related Articles,

April 1998
Mitigation funds boost melaleuca control efforts

June 24. 2002
Melaleuca Project

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Melaleuca quinquenervia

Invasive Species: Melaleuca profile

Exotics in the Everglades

Opinion: Yazoo Boondoggle
Every so often something comes along to remind us of Congress's immense capacity for self-indulgence at the expense of sound public policy. This time it's the Yazoo Pump, a senseless (and expensive) project buried in the Senate version of a huge appropriations bill now headed to a House-Senate conference. Our hope is that fiscal conservatives among the House conferees will kill it. Failing that, it will be up to Christie Whitman, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to do so. This project is yet another instance of the destructive relationship between the Army Corps of Engineers and its pork-loving paymasters in Congress that, over the years, has produced one environmental disaster after another. The Yazoo Pump is billed as a flood control project by its two Senate champions, Trent Lott and Thad Cochran of Mississippi, who say it's essential to the farm economy in the Mississippi Delta.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Budget: Bush budget proposal doesn't include funds for new Everglades projects
President Bush's proposed budget includes $180 million for the Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers to spend on Everglades restoration. What it doesn't include has environmentalists puzzled. The Army Corps' budget includes no new construction projects as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Nor is money set aside for the Interior Department to acquire land as part of the project designed to restore water flow through an 18,000-square-mile area in central and south Florida. "The original implementation schedule called for a much more significant ramping up than what we're seeing in this budget," said Sean McMahon, National Audubon Society's assistant director for government relations. The president's $2.23 trillion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would set aside $158 million in the Army Corps of Engineers' budget and $22 million in the Interior Department budget for Everglades restoration.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Commentary: When will our leaders stop melting?
The debate over how much development should be allowed on Lee County land set aside to protect our water supply will soon be heating up in Bonita Springs. Let's hope city officials can stand up to the heat. First, a little background is in order. Back in 1989, Lee County set aside tens of thousands of acres, most of it in southeast Lee County, and declared the land a Density Reduction Groundwater Resource area. That's a planner's term for property that should be protected from heavy development so the land could soak up water, recharging the aquifers and, as a side benefit, cut down on flooding. To do that, development was limited to one home per 10 acres. Still development, of course, but a long way from the sort of plow-it-all-down, build-a-few-homes-per-acre-and-plant-a-palm-tree-in-each-yard type of building that already was beginning to define much of the rest of Southwest Florida.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

04-February-03

Corps submits Everglades replumbing plan to federal officials
Plans for the replumbing of Southern Golden Gate Estates are in the hands of federal officials in Washington, D.C., the latest but certainly not the last step in a massive public works project to restore water flow to the Everglades. Regional representatives from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have revamped their plan to address the water-flow needs for Everglades restoration while protecting nearby landowners from flooding. A U.S. Army Corps official in Jacksonville said he's hoping for a speedy response from his superiors in the nation's capital, which could result in a final draft being available for public comment by April 1. "We hope we can get all their changes incorporated in a couple of weeks and then have it released to the public," said Carl Overstreet, Army Corps project manager for Southern Golden Gate Estates. "But we don't have a hard date for it."
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

State's third and final survey finds more than 3,000 manatees
More than 3,000 West Indian manatees were counted during the state's third and final survey for 2003. The Florida Marine Research Institute, an arm of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, released numbers Monday that showed there are at least 3,029 manatees in Florida. The institute conducts counts each winter when weather conditions are optimal. During colder winter months, manatees tend to congregate in warm- water rivers and streams and around artificial sources of warm water like the Florida Power and Light plant on the Caloosahatchee River in Fort Myers. The most recent count was about 100 shy of a higher manatee count performed earlier in January when 3,113 sea cows were tallied. The state tries to conduct multiple counts each year and uses the highest total as the official count for the year. All three counts for 2003 took place in January.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Environmentalists to fight water permit
Florida environmental groups have formed a coalition to protect water supplies in the upcoming Legislative session. The groups say bills could be introduced to reserve water for future growth and development, leading to private control of the state's water supply at the expense of lakes and rivers and the fish and wildlife that depend on them. "We need to make sure the environment has a voice in this debate," Eric Draper, policy director for Audubon of Florida, said Monday during a news conference. He said development interests are pushing for such legislation but none has yet been filed. The environmentalists said they are concerned that if state law is changed, industries could get permits for more water than they need.
Copyright © 2003 Tallahassee Democrat / Associated Press All rights reserved.

Related Link,

Associated Industries of Florida
Voluntary association created for the purpose of overseeing the state economy

Everglades budget includes key cutback
President Bush's fiscal budget for 2004 would spend $256 million for Everglades restoration by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior, a $12 million increase from last year. The Interior Department's $111.8 million Everglades restoration budget, however, eliminates the land acquisition assistance money for the area which is designed to help the state purchase environmentally sensitive property. Sean McMahon, a lobbyist for the National Audubon Society, said that the removal of land acquisition for Florida was a bad move. "The land acquisition assistance is especially important now due to dramatically escalating real estate prices," McMahon said. "Now is not the time to be cutting that." The Big Cypress Reserve, which did not receive money from the Interior Department last year, would get $40 million.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

03-February-03

Farmland Protection Program
The Farmland Protection Program (FPP) provides matching funds to help purchase development rights to keep productive farm and ranchland in agricultural uses. Working through existing programs, USDA partners with State, tribal, or local governments and non-governmental organizations to acquire conservation easements or other interests in land from landowners. USDA provides up to 50 percent of the fair market easement value. To qualify, farmland must: be part of a pending offer from a State, tribe, or local farmland protection program; be privately owned; have a conservation plan for highly erodible land; be large enough to sustain agricultural production; be accessible to markets for what the land produces; have adequate infrastructure and agricultural support services; and have surrounding parcels of land that can support long-term agricultural production. Read more . . .
Copyright © 2003 US Department of Agriculture All rights reserved.

Photos

A Tri-colored Heron seen during an Audubon Society of the
Everglades tour of the Wakodahatchee Wetlands.

Seven wood storks rest in a dead slash pine tree at Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area. These birds are federal and state endangered species that inhabit marshes, cypress swamps and mangrove swamps. Wood storks are an indicator species of the Everglades Ecosystem, and the health of the Everglades can be measured by the ability of the wood stork to successfully breed in the Everglades. These birds have a unique feeding behavior called tactolocation, or grope feeding. A foraging wood stork wades through the water with its beak immersed and partially open. When it touches prey, it snaps its mandibles shut, raises its head and swallows what it has caught. They also regularly stir the water with their feet, a behavior which seems to startle hiding prey into the mouth of the wood stork. This technique allows the birds to feed at night, in muddy water, or in dense vegetation. The main reason they are endangered is because their habitat has been destroyed by development.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Related Links,

Royal Palm Beach Pines Natural Area

Wakodahatchee Wetlands

Editorial: State owes the Glades money for water plant
For anyone who has a conscience, it should be simple. Residents of towns on Lake Okeechobee's southern shore have unsafe drinking water. Actions by the state have helped to make the water unsafe. The towns can't afford to build a plant to provide safe water. So the state should help to build the plant.Simple, however, doesn't always work in Tallahassee, especially when most of the people at risk are poor, often overlooked and don't contribute to political campaigns. Last year, after Palm Beach County requested $10 million toward a $30 million treatment plant to serve Pahokee, South Bay and Belle Glade, the Legislature refused. Last week, the legislative delegation and county commission made the same request, but they again ranked the project second behind restoration of Lake Worth Lagoon, so there's a good chance that Glades residents will get stiffed again.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Environmental groups push for cruise ship studies

A plume of sediment is stirred
from the harbor bottom as
a cruise ship begins to dock
at Mallory Square. Environmental
groups are calling for studies
of the impacts of cruise ships
on the marine environment.
ROB O'NEAL/The Citizen

Cruise ships are a hot topic. Every person who lives and works in Key West has a stake in understanding the environmental impact of cruise ships -- and the thousands of passengers they carry -- on the fragile marine environment of the Florida Keys. The problem is, no one -- not city officials or scientists -- currently has conclusive data in hand about the environmental impact of a big ship as it moves into Key West Harbor. And no one knows for sure what impact the hundreds of thousands of passengers have on the wastewater and water systems of Key West. Thousands of cruise-ship passengers stroll up and down Duval street on a daily basis in an effort to experience Key West. And members of the public, especially those in environmental groups, are expressing concern, even anxiety. One question asked is: Why has the city not studied the social and environmental impacts of cruise ships on Key West?
Copyright © 2003 Keys News / Key West Citizen All rights reserved.

It's not your imagination!
More people today are escaping South Florida's frenzied pace
You're impatient, trapped in traffic on I-95. You're irate, battling hordes of people. You're discouraged, watching concrete cover every bit of land. Face it. South Florida, once your own little chunk of paradise, is one big, crowded rat race. So with home prices sky-high and interest rates so low, you sell, take the money and scoot. You pack up the family and head out to a saner, softer part of Florida. "It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance," says Michelle Nugent, 39, whose family of five moved from a tiny house in Wilton Manors to a sprawling, historic home in Fort Myers. "When we visited Fort Lauderdale recently, I realized even more why we left. The traffic. The congestion. After we moved, my 10-year-old even noticed the difference. She said, 'Look, Mommy, there's not so many buildings here.'"
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

Bush plan siphons trust funds
His budget would shift $577-million in documentary stamp taxes earmarked for environmental and affordable-housing programs.
In public, Gov. Jeb Bush is touting the millions he plans to spend on the Everglades next year even though money is tight. But quietly -- so quietly that even some of his own top environmental officials didn't know it -- Bush has proposed taking away one of the most reliable sources of funding for dozens of state environmental programs next year. Some key state functions could end up on financially shaky ground, including those managing park lands, cleaning up hazardous waste spills and funneling money to communities to build housing for the needy. For years, those programs and many others have been funded by a tax on loans and real estate transactions called documentary stamps.
Copyright © 2003 St. Petersburg Times All rights reserved.

Editorial: Time to count pros and cons of cruise ships
A typical cruise ship disgorges the equivalent of a city block's population upon Key West. Four cruise ships a day unloads the equivalent of four city blocks' worth. This is a big surprise to guests of downtown resorts who step outside their premium accommodations to discover a crowd literally as dense as on New York's 42nd Street in its heyday. It is now such an unpleasant experience for everyone that the time has come for a closer look at the pros and cons of multiple cruise ship arrivals here, six days a week. On the plus side is the $8-per-passenger fee the city gets paid for each disembarkation. On the minus side is the fact that we could be charging much more per passenger -- up to $20 and still be competitive with Bermuda and the Caribbean -- thereby increasing earnings while actually lessening the number of arrivals. On the plus side of a burgeoning cruise-ship business is that we get a healthy share of the Caribbean tourism pie.
Copyright © 2003 Keys News / Key West Citizen All rights reserved.

Managers grapple with level of Lake Okeechobee
Despite the dry weather here, forecasters say the weather phenomenon known as El Nino will bring more rain.
As the discharges from Lake Okeechobee continue to flow east to the Treasure Coast, water managers say they're doing all they can to control the rainfall of an abnormally wet winter. But it sure doesn't seem that wet. Only 0.26 inches of rain fell in Stuart in January, according to David Smith, the county's Skywarn coordinator who tracks storms. The National Weather Service in Melbourne recorded only 1.25 inches of rain for Fort Pierce and 1.81 inches for Vero Beach in January. And as lawns begin to brown, Martin County officials have announced the weather has been cool and dry enough to stop issuing burn permits -- not exactly what happens during abnormally wet winters. "It has been dry here," said Bart Hagemeyer, a meteorologist with the weather service.
Copyright © 2003 TCPalm All rights reserved.

Related Article,

February 2, 2003
Proposed underground storage sites for lake progressing

02-February-03

Natural enemy enlisted against melaleuca
With the pop of a vial, researchers sicced the boreioglycaspis melaleucae -- or psyllid for short -- on one of Florida's most noxious pest plants. Ken Gioeli of the University of Florida Extension Service rubber-banded the vials to a handful of melaleuca saplings behind his offices on Picos Road. The self-proclaimed lover of insects said being the first to unleash the psyllids in St. Lucie County was a real coup. "I've got contacts," he said last week. About 8,000 psyllids -- aphid-like insects from Australia with toxic saliva -- were released in roughly six areas in South Florida starting in March. The psyllid is a natural enemy of the melaleuca, an Australian native that has swarmed over 400,000 acres since it was brought to Florida in the late 1800s. Researchers hope the bug will slow the tree's unbridled ability to germinate. Psyllid larvae cover the tree with tufts of cottony wax, suppressing the melaleuca's growth.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Environmentalists, farmers differ on pollution limit
Phosphorus in the Everglades is not a sexy subject. So environmentalists resorted to images of bathing-suit clad Bo Derek -- star of the movie 10 -- at their annual Everglades conference last month to make a point. "Keep America's Everglades a perfect 10," said T-shirts and signs. The slogan refers to their preferred pollution limit for the Everglades: 10 parts per billion of phosphorus. But you won't hear the same rhetoric from the lips of farmers, whose fields send loads of that pollutant to the marsh, or water managers in charge of the state's $867 million Everglades cleanup. They don't agree. Phosphorus, a component of fertilizer, can be a good thing -- it grows flowers and bright green lawns. Yet inside the naturally nutrient-deprived Everglades, phosphorus is a powerful pollutant, throwing water chemistry way out of whack.
Copyright © 2003 Sun-Sentinel All rights reserved.

Editorial: Urban sprawl
Is power line a precursor?
Environmentalists are rightfully at attention over plans for a Florida Power & Light power line from Fort Myers to Naples. They want to make sure that sensitive lands already purchased with public funds remain protected from the ravages of clearing. They understand, better than some who believe even known bald eagle nests are fair game for manipulation, that important natural habitat has to be set aside. Their concern is more sharply defined in the context of what they fear may come next, after the power line. That is a road — the as yet elusive alignment for Collier Boulevard/State Road 951 as it traverses the Collier-Lee frontier. Such a road may serve as the launch pad for further urban-style development to the east. That has to be handled with care. All eyes ought to be peeled as talks about the power line proceed.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

Proposed underground storage sites for lake progressing
Despite criticism by river advocates, scientists hope the Aquifer Storage and Recovery units will solve some of the Lake Okeechobee water release problems.
With bids for construction to be sent out this week, state scientists say they have made progress toward building underground water storage sites that will hold Lake Okeechobee releases before they reach the St. Lucie River. But even as studies are completed and new tests are being readied, local river advocates still haven't embraced the new technology. "The weather comes in droughts and floods. In order to smooth that out, we need a system with more storage to handle that," said Paul Gray, a scientist with Audubon of Florida and a member of the Rivers Coalition. The proposed wells, known as Aquifer Storage and Recovery units, could be the answer, state scientists said.
Copyright © 2003 TCPalm All rights reserved.

Related Article,

February 3, 2003
Managers grapple with level of Lake Okeechobee

01-February-03

Water Management Districts Succeed by Building Partnerships
Florida League of Cities
Quality Cities magazine
Florida's regional approach to water management - based on a holistic, interconnected ecosystem perspective - has served the state's people and resources well since its inception in 1972. Because water transcends county and city political lines, the five water management districts were created along natural watershed boundaries with policy development and oversight by appointed, not elected, governing boards. People recognize and respect city and county borders. Water does not. That is why our institution of regional water management continues to e viewed as a model for other areas of the country. Water has our first 30 years of experience taught us? Read More...

Lagoon restoration plan OK postponed
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has postponed final approval of the Indian River Lagoon restoration plan, and people who had hoped the $1 billion project would be on the congressional agenda this year now fear that won't happen. The plan, which is part of the $8.4 billion formula to restore the Everglades, was to have been signed Friday by corps commander Lt. Gen. Robert Flowers in Washington. But the report is still under review. "They're not holding this up for spelling errors," said Dave Unsell, regional project manager for the South Florida Water Management District. "It's got to be fairly significant because they've had six months to review it." Unsell said the corps is supposed to finish looking at the plan by the end of February. Restoration plans call for reservoirs and wetlands in Martin and St. Lucie counties that will reduce and filter storm water flowing into the lagoon and the St. Lucie River.
Copyright © 2003 Palm Beach Post All rights reserved.

Senator blocking lagoon projects
The committee chairman won't allow debate on $1 billion in water-quality projects until he gets a report.
A powerful U.S. senator is forcing top federal water managers to re-evaluate $1 billion worth of Treasure Coast water-quality projects, jeopardizing what once seemed to be secured funding, water management scientists said Friday. Rivers Coalition members learned top officials with the Army Corps of Engineers in Washington will not complete final paperwork for the Indian River Lagoon Feasibility Study plan the first of $8 billion worth of statewide Everglades restoration projects until a number of yet-to-be-released questions are answered. Those questions, expected to be sent to local scientists in the next few weeks, should address the concerns of Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Copyright © 2003 Stuart News - TC Palm All rights reserved.

Why the Mercury Falls
Heavy-metal rains may trace to oxidants, including smog
In the mid-1980s, some researchers in the northern Midwest, Canada, and Scandinavia began reporting alarming concentrations of mercury in freshwater fish. Curious about Florida's largemouth bass and other finned delicacies, state scientists there began assaying lake fish. Thomas Atkeson, then a Florida state wildlife biologist, recalls that most of the fish he examined fell just under the limit then recommended by the Food and Drug Administration. "We were scratching our heads as to whether this was a big deal," he recalls, until his team reached the Everglades. In these wetlands, mercury contamination of fish routinely averaged more than twice the concentrations seen elsewhere in the state. Indeed, their mercury values were among the highest ever reported for U.S. freshwater fish. Read More...
Copyright © 2003 Science News Weekly All rights reserved.

Land purchase, acquisition plan pleases Estero Bay preserve supporters
A recent state land purchase coupled with a second land acquisition that could be finalized within the next few months has local preserve managers and supporters seeing the finish line in a long race to purchase environmentally sensitive land around Estero Bay. The Department of Environmental Protection paid $875,000 for a 364-acre property known as the Stafile/Haywood land in the northeast section of the Estero Bay Buffer Preserve. The state agency could close on a nearby 700-acre parcel on March 25. Funds for the purchases come from a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service grant and Florida Forever, a state land preservation program that has an annual budget of $105 million. Preserve manager Heather Stafford said the two purchases, which would total more than 1,000 acres if both go through, means the end of the land-buying days near the bay could come soon.
Copyright © 2003 Naples News All rights reserved.

6 G.O.P. Senators Oppose Bush Alaska Drilling Plan
Six moderate Republican senators may have sounded the death knell today for President Bush's proposal to drill for oil in Alaska. In a letter to Republican leaders, the senators said they opposed inserting into the pending budget bill to finance the government any language that would give oil companies access to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a centerpiece of the president's energy policy. The measure could be attached to the budget bill because extending drilling rights in the refuge would bring in some revenue. "Because the opening of the Arctic Refuge to drilling raises a host of policy concerns, including serious environmental ramifications, we do not believe this issue should be injected in the budget process," the letter said. "We believe that the Arctic refuge should be preserved and that the budgetary effects of oil leases in the refuge are incidental when considering the profound negative impact of drilling in the Arctic refuge."
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

Editorial: Environment Fits in Political Strategy
President Bush's prominent mentions of clean air, healthy forests and pollution-free cars in his State of the Union speech reflect what Republican strategists say is an effort to repair his image on environmental issues. It was no accident, the strategists say, that Mr. Bush made no mention of his more divisive goal to increase drilling in the Alaska wilderness or that his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, told reporters the other day that his boss was following Theodore Roosevelt's tradition of environmentalism. With the possibility of war approaching, the strategists say the president needs to shore up his standing with suburban women and other crucial swing voters who say they are fearful about what they see as an imminent war with Iraq. Those constituencies, recent opinion polls show, are more likely than other voters to say they regard environmental protections as crucial work of government.
Copyright © 2003 NY Times online All rights reserved.

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