"There's so much pollution in the air now that if it weren't for our lungs there'd be no place to put it all." Robert Orben
Announcements
Carl Hiaasen to headline Feathers & Friends Gala in February Celebrated author, columnist, reporter, and environmentalist Carl Hiaasen is the featured speaker at the Collier County Audubon Society's Feathers & Friends Gala on February 9, 2012. The event is co-hosted by Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.
Tickets are available now. Click HERE for more information.
Hawk Watch Location Sanibel Lighthouse, 112 Periwinkle Way, Sanibel, Florida
Audubon of Southwest Florida invites you to join us for a morning hawk watch led by birder extraordinaire Vince McGrath. This is the 8th year Vince has volunteered his services, and you will have a great time even if the hawks don‛t cooperate!
When: Sunday, October 23rd, 2011 8:00 a.m.; Meet at the Sanibel Lighthouse Parking Lot
You‛ll Probably Want to Bring: Camera, field glasses (binoculars), sunscreen (and possibly your morning coffee). Dress appropriately for the weather, birdwatching is an outdoor activity.
Quiet children are welcome
More information about this event or membership in Audubon of Southwest Florida, visit Audubon of Southwest Florida on Facebook or our website www.audubonswfl.org
A $5 donation would be appreciated for this event.
http://www.lighthousefriends.com/
Of interest to all
South Florida Audubon Society's first membership meeting of the 2011-2012 season: The September meeting kicked off the season at Fern Forest with a brief "History of the "Mayan Culture" spanning from Belize to Guatemala with Elston Chavarria as presenter.
The theme of the meetings has been upgraded this season with the offering of door prizes, raffles and refreshments at each meeting to show our appreciation to our loyal members who attend the meetings and contribute to the volunteer efforts that make SFAS the environmental group in South Florida.
Long-time member Lila Schwartz won the first ever door prize, a nice pair of binoculars for her birding adventures, and a pound of imported Colombian coffee donated by Mr. Chavarria was won by Linda Briggs.
Due to a scheduling conflict at Ann Kolb Nature Center, the October meeting will be held at the Secret Woods Nature Center, at 2701 W State Road 84, between I95 and US 441. This is a one-time only schedule change and the meetings will return to the normal alternating locations with the November meeting being at Fern Forest.
I hope to see you all at the October meeting, and please, bring a friend. The meetings are open to the public, and those attending their first meeting with us may wish to join.
Lee neighbors concerned about planned mine across county line in Collier Lee County rules, adopted in 2010 but subject to a pending legal challenge by landowners and mining companies, would prohibit the mine; in Collier, no such prohibition exists and opponents fear Collier County won't be as sensitive to concerns about the mine's effect on the environment, neighbors and truck traffic. ...
Alico is proposing to excavate rock from about half the site, which also will be used for rock crushing, washing and sorting the mined materials. The mine, which would be in operation for at least 20 years, would generate almost 1,400 truck trips to and from the mine each day.....
Across Corkscrew Road from the proposed mine is the CREW Marsh trails, lined with benches built by the son of Lee County mining opponent Kevin Hill for an Eagle Scout project.
"I'd hate to think of the folks sitting on my son's Eagle Scout project benches and listening to back-up beepers and rock crushing and drag line chains and all that stuff going on within a mile of that operation," Hill told the EAC.
Birds
Fall is the Time to See Raptors on the Move
The best time to see hawks, harriers, eagles, and other raptors is during their fall migration, which is in full swing across the country right now.
Raptors tend to fly known routes—which means folks can count on seeing large numbers of them as they head south.
Hawkwatch: the best places to see hawks The best time to see hawks, harriers, eagles, and their kin is during the fall migration. We've chosen some of the top hawkwatch sites in North America. |
About Hawkwatch Every fall, millions of birds fly south to spend the winter in sunny places with mild climates and plentiful food. Most smaller birds migrate under the cover of darkness, stopping to fuel up on insects or seeds by day and using the stars to guide them at night. Hawks are diurnal migrants; they depend on currents of rising warm air to lift them to high altitudes where they glide on their broad wings without flapping, thereby conserving energy. During these flights, hawks use their keen eyesight to recognize landmarks, follow landforms that provide rising thermals, and steer a course to their ancestral wintering grounds. In some places these migrating hawks gather in huge numbers, and people gather to watch them in the phenomenon known as hawkwatch.
Counting hawks during migration is more than a competitive pursuit for list-oriented birders. The data collected at hawkwatches helps experts monitor the health of various ecosystems. Because hawks are top predators — that is, they occupy the top of the food chain — they're very sensitive to changes that affect prey species. Comparing hawk numbers from year to year reveals trends that offer insight into the well-being of the environment in both the breeding and wintering areas.
But more than simply counting hawks, there's the spectacle of it all. Standing atop a ridge on a crisp autumn day while hundreds of hawks circle and stream past is an unforgettable experience, which helps explain why people return to these sites day after day and hawkwatch programs across the country attract volunteers by the dozens. Visit any hawkwatch site, and you'll find people who came one day out of curiosity and soon became regulars
Butterflies Are Migrating Too Like birds, Monarch butterflies are famous for their annual migrations.
But few people realize that the Monarchs we're encountering now are not necessarily the same ones that fluttered past last spring.
Click here to get the story of this remarkable journey.
Unidentified lark spotted in Ethiopia - David Hoddinott, while leading a birding tour to Ethiopia, had what may prove to be a very significant sighting.
David writes "I travelled to north-eastern Ethiopia with a group on a reconnaissance birding tour, where we visited the remote area of Jijiga, little visited by foreigners, let alone other birders. On seeing the magnificent grasslands to the east of the town we decided to bird an area of suitable habitat to look for Heteromirafra larks. Three known species exist in this aberrant genus of large-headed, small-bodied and short-tailed grassland larks:
Whimbrel's Journey Comes to a Tragic End Audubon's Lake Okeechobee Science Coordinator Dr. Paul Gray reports in with this sad news out of the Caribbean:
Machi was a Whimbrel that researchers at the College of William and Mary had affixed a satellite tracking radio upon. I met her in April of 2010 when they sent her coordinates from her landing in Florida on her return flight from Brazil. To my amazement, I found her in sugar cane fields by Lake Okeechobee and wrote a blog about it. See my photo above.
After that, she returned to the Chesapeake region where she was first captured, and then ventured to the Hudson Bay region for the breeding season. She returned to New Jersey from the arctic on a single 161-hour flight, covering 1850 miles. She fattened up and then took a 113-hour, 2,500 mile flight to Suriname in South America for the winter.
These unimaginable flying feats are probably even more difficult than they sound. Birds must get very fat and heavy, to carry enough fuel. They can't sleep or drink water for days on end. They encounter head winds, rain, even hurricanes at sea.
This spring, Machi flew back to the Hudson Bay region for breeding and back to the Chesapeake this fall for staging. She weathered Hurricane Irene there. She flew south across the Atlantic through tropical storm Maria and ended up on the Island of Guadaloupe, an overseas region of French Republic. Unlike in the United States, Canada and Mexico, on Guadaloupe, hunting shorebirds remains legal. To my great sadness, she was shot by a hunter on September 12.
When we at Audubon work to protect birds in an area, we aren't just protecting our own birds; we are taking care of someone else's birds too. The migrations of Machi were being followed on a daily basis not only by me, but by people from Canada to South America, who all shared her. Migrating birds remind us we are linked.
Audubon Weighs In on Protecting Everglades Snail Kite Habitat In August and September, members of the Lake Okeechobee Aquatic Plant Management team met to discuss plant management, especially in relation to Everglade Snail Kite habitat around Eagle Bay Island. This small region held 75% of the nests found on Okeechobee in 2011 and has a growing exotic floating plant problem. If left untreated, the plants could become dense enough to smother Kite and snail habitat, yet if treated, the collateral impacts could harm remaining Kite habitat. The problem is exacerbated because plants cannot be treated near nests during the nesting season, allowing the plants to become very abundant.
Both meetings had tours of the lake to directly inspect and discuss conditions. Audubon's Dr. Paul Gray accompanied representatives from five agencies and plant control contractors. The August meeting reached the decision to wait to see if storms would raise lake levels, allowing the plants to float out of sensitive zones where they could be treated without collateral impacts. No rain came and the September meeting decided that a mix of efforts should occur.
Certain very sensitive areas, such as cattail nesting stands, will have no treatments at all. No helicopter treatments will be used, rather the more surgical airboat treatments will be used. A few patches of extremely dense (monocultures) exotics will be treated. Elsewhere selective treatments will occur, avoiding emergent plants. Lastly, experimental treatment with a new herbicide will be tried in a small area to measure impacts on non-target species (it is not supposed to have impacts, but will be tested anyway).
Plant managers on Okeechobee are bending over backwards to protect Everglade Snail Kite habitat from collateral impacts, while still keeping exotic plants under reasonable control. I am very grateful for the careful attention they are paying.
In the coming months, Audubon will focus on keeping enough water in Lake Okeechobee to maintain viable Kite habitat, a daunting task considering today's very low levels.
Latest Federal Guidelines Fail to Make Wind Power Bird-Smart, Break Federal Laws, and Rely on Unlikely Voluntary Compliance The Department of the Interior (DOI) has released a revised, third version of its voluntary wind development siting and operational guidelines that fails to ensure that bird deaths at wind farms are minimized, says American Bird Conservancy, the nation's leading bird conservation organization.
Furthermore, the public has been given only ten days to comment. The final opportunity for the public to discuss these guidelines with DOI will be at a federal advisory committee meeting today and tomorrow.
"ABC is very much pro wind energy. America has the potential to create a truly green energy source that does not unduly harm birds, but the Department of the Interior is squandering the opportunity to be 'smart from the start'," said Kelly Fuller, Wind Campaign Coordinator for American Bird Conservancy (ABC), the nation's leading bird conservation organization. "The latest draft of the wind guidelines is not only voluntary, making industry compliance unlikely, but also offers assurances that wind companies won't be prosecuted for illegally killing federally protected birds such as Bald and Golden Eagles. These guidelines set a dangerous precedent for other energy industries to seek the same freedom to break America's wildlife protection laws without repercussions," said Fuller.
"Astonishingly, the current draft of the guidelines allows wind power companies to unilaterally determine whether they are in compliance with the 'guidelines' and, on that basis, to immunize themselves from any prosecution under federal wildlife protection statutes regardless of how many eagles, hawks, warblers, or other protected species they wind up taking. This would be unfathomable as applied to any other energy sector or, for that matter, any other regulatory sphere. This goes way beyond merely being bad policy; it is a flagrant violation of the protective schemes adopted in the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act," said Eric Glitzenstein, a Founding Partner at Meyer, Glitzenstein & Crystal, a Washington, D.C. based public-interest law firm.
One wind power development area in California is already estimated to have killed over 2,000 eagles in what would appear to be significant violations of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. Yet not a single wind energy company has been prosecuted or even charged, and meaningful operational changes have only been implemented in recent years following legal action taken not by the federal government, but by environmental groups.
This version of the wind industry guidelines was issued on September 13, 2011. The Department of the Interior will accept comments on the proposal until September 23, 2011.
"Giving a mere ten days to look over this 130-page package makes it almost impossible for the public to provide a meaningful response," Fuller said.
Recommendations on wind energy were developed over a two-year period by an industry-dominated, 22-member Federal Advisory Committee and forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior in March 2010. Over the next year, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists made a series of changes to those recommendations to improve protection for birds. Those revised guidelines were then published for public comment in February 2011. An overwhelming number of the comments called for the guidelines to be strengthened, not weakened. The guidelines also underwent scientific peer review.
"Right now we have a chance to get wind power right from the start - with little added costs. But if we push these voluntary guidelines forward without making them bird-smart to protect the environment, it may be our children who may ultimately regret our hasty decisions," said Fuller.
A second set of proposed guidelines was then issued by DOI on July 12, 2011, but rather than strengthening the initial draft, it removed many key bird protection elements, reversing recommendations from professional DOI wildlife staff and adding unrealistic wind project approval deadlines that ABC concludes would lead to "rubber-stamping" of wind development.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated that in 2009, the wind industry was killing about 440,000 birds per year, yet has ignored its own estimate. With the Federal Government targeting a 12-fold increase in wind generated electricity by the year 2030, annual bird mortality is expected to increase into the millions absent meaningful changes in the industry. Species of conservation concern appear to be particularly at risk including the Golden Eagle, Greater Sage-Grouse and the endangered Whooping Crane.
More than 60 groups and over 20,000 individuals organized by ABC have called for mandatory standards and bird-smart principles in the siting and operation of wind farms. The coalition represents a broad cross-section of respected national and local groups, as well as scientists, bird lovers, conservationists, and other concerned citizens.
Release of Nihoa Millerbirds on Laysan Island Offers New Hope for Critically Endangered Species In a historic and collaborative effort to save a species from extinction, 24 critically endangered Nihoa Millerbirds were released on Laysan Island in Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument on September 10. The release was the result of many years of research and detailed planning by biologists and resource managers, led by a partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and American Bird Conservancy (ABC).
Millerbirds have been absent from Laysan for nearly 100 years after a closely related subspecies went extinct in the early 20th Century. As part of a decades-long restoration effort, this translocation restores this insect-eating songbird to Laysan's ecosystem.
"This project, which restores Millerbirds to Laysan Island, will reduce the chances that catastrophic events such as hurricanes or the introduction of invasive predators will extirpate the species, since there will be independent populations of Millerbirds on two islands, 650 miles apart," said Loyal Mehrhoff, Field Supervisor for the Pacific Islands Fish and Wildlife Office.
"It is thrilling to see Millerbirds back on Laysan once more, not simply because they have been a missing piece of the island's native ecosystem for so long, but also because this marks a potential turning point in the recovery of the species," said George Wallace, ABC's Vice President for Oceans and Islands. "It is hard to imagine a project of this complexity going any more smoothly. From the capture of birds on Nihoa, the three-day trip to Laysan, and finally the release of birds. We have subsequently re-sighted all of the radio-tagged birds on Laysan and several of the others; all are looking healthy and behaving normally – a very encouraging sign for the future," he said.
Biologists from FWS and ABC, avian husbandry experts, and a wildlife veterinarian took special care to ensure the safe transport and arrival of the Millerbirds at Laysan after their three-day voyage from Nihoa.
The birds were kept in specially designed cages for 6 days between their capture on Nihoa and their release on Laysan. Each bird carries a unique combination of colored leg bands to allow identification in the field, and half the birds were fitted with temporary radio transmitters so that their locations can be determined during their first three weeks in their new home. Biologists will remain on Laysan for the next year to monitor the birds' movements and behaviors, including, the team hopes, their first nesting attempts.
"Translocation is an important tool for the conservation of endangered island birds, and the Millerbird translocation stands on the shoulders of previous efforts," said Holly Freifeld, biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service. "This project also breaks a lot of new ground, and has been a model of teamwork and innovation for the past five years. Twenty-two people – the Millerbird team, the crew of the M/V Searcher, and the FWS restoration team on Laysan – worked very hard and with high energy and spirits to make this trip a success."
The Millerbird, which weighs less than an ounce, is a lively brown song bird that forages for insects among low shrubs and bunch-grasses. On Laysan, the Millerbird joins other endangered species, such as the Laysan Finch, Laysan Duck, Hawaiian monk seal, and several plant species, as well as millions of nesting seabirds.
At 1,023 acres Laysan is the second largest of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and is located in the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, approximately 790 miles northwest of Honolulu.
As a co-manager of the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, the FWS is proud to lead this project in collaboration with American Bird Conservancy. We are grateful for the support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation through their Hawai'i Forest Bird Keystone Initiative, the University of New Brunswick, University of Hawai'i, Pacific Rim Conservation, the USGS National Wildlife Health Research Center, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Invasive species
Giant snails invade Miami subdivision, spur local alert The silent, slithery invasion of an army of Giant African Snails in a southwest Miami subdivision has federal and state agricultural officials launching a time-consuming expensive counter-attack to remove the large slimy creatures.
"It's us against the snails," said Richard Gaskalla, director of plant industry at the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
The snails, of the species Achatina fulica, can grow up to 10 inches long and four inches wide and are considered one of the most damaging land snails in the world. They eat at least 500 different types of plants, lay about 1,200 eggs a year, and can carry a strain of non-fatal meningitis. Prolific breeders, they contain both female and male reproductive organs and live as long as nine years.
They can be particularly devastating to agricultural areas and ecosystems and result in trade bans. Hailing from Eastern Africa, the snails are only allowed into the United States with special permits and for scientific research.
Florida Panthers
Will Central Florida's forests help panthers rebound? A deer hunter pleaded guilty last month to killing a Florida panther in woods not far from Atlanta, 500 miles from the animal's birthplace.
Earlier this year, wildlife officers body-bagged a panther in the Black Hammock of Seminole County, nearly 200 miles from where all wild Florida panthers are born. The big predator had been dismembered, decapitated and riddled by a shotgun.
In both cases, conservationists were dismayed and angered — but also encouraged.
It's hard for them to fathom how a human could deliberately kill such a rare animal. But there's little debate that the panther, with a population now of at least 100, must eventually re-inhabit vast spaces beyond its crowded South Florida refuge if it is to outlast the threat of extinction. And so the two cases — the second of which is still unsolved — give wildlife experts hope.
"To think they are making it up to Seminole County, and there's confirmation that one, at least, that made it all the way to Georgia, is really inspiring, really exciting, but kind of a roller coaster," said Laurie Macdonald, Florida director for the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife.
"It's a real up-and-down of feeling, inspired and hopeful, and feeling like, 'Give these guys a break,' " Macdonald said.
According to one state expert, about 10 Florida panthers are roaming north of South Florida's cypress swamps and forests at any given time. All are thought to be males, because no females have been documented outside the region since the 1970s.
The 2008 killing by the hunter in Georgia was quickly solved by authorities, though there was an initial mystery as to that panther's origins.
No one has been arrested for the killing in east Seminole County, and the case is an especially grim story of backwoods criminality that warns of the potential perils that lie ahead as Florida panthers multiply and spread out.
It was in early March that biologists had made plaster casts of fresh panther tracks in the new Charles H. Bronson State Forest near the St. Johns River. They were perhaps the best hard evidence yet of a panther in east Central Florida.
News of that extraordinary find spread quickly among experts. But subsequent events would reinforce their longstanding concern that, although places such as the Bronson forest may be ready for panthers, the rest of the Orlando area is not.
Two weeks after the tracks were discovered, a landscaping crew came upon a panther carcass being feasted on by vultures in a ditch not far from the state forest. Although nervous about grabbing a federally protected species, the crew heaved the animal into a trailer, explaining later to officers that they intended to dump it in the woods so it would rot and in time they could retrieve the bones.
"There ain't no way one person was loading that cat," one of them told investigators, aware that they weren't manhandling a smaller bobcat but an animal that can grow to 160 pounds. "That [profanity] cat was huge."
Wildlife officers got to the panther five days later, in a wooded lot 5 miles from the ditch. They noted that, in addition to its heading being missing, its spinal cord had been cut and its right paw was gone; leg bones had been severed partly with a saw and then broken.
A truck driver living nearby alerted authorities to the carcass but later admitted to having removed the head as a trophy. But the identity of the person who had shot the panther in the first place was, and still is, a mystery.
Endangered Species
Gulf Shrimpers Snagging Imperiled Sea Turtles According to federal documents, shrimp boat nets in the Gulf of Mexico are still scooping up endangered sea turtles along with their catch, according to the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). A device called a "turtle excluder" has been designed to keep turtles out of the fishing gear. But NWF chief biologist, Dr. Doug Inkley, says many shrimpers are violating the law by using them improperly - or are not using them at all.
"It's lax in many areas, and it needs to be enforced. Those sea turtle excluder devices are very effective at keeping turtles from getting caught in shrimp trawler nets while allowing the catch of shrimp to be very effective."
The turtle excluder devices are metal grids that allow the sea turtles to push their way out. But shrimp boat captains complain when the turtles free themselves, some of their catch is also lost. NWF says one federal document rated the status of gulf sea turtles as "poor."
In one Louisiana port where shrimp boats were boarded, only three out of 29 vessels were using the turtle excluders, which are supposed to be mandatory, Inkley says.
"A lot of people still resist the idea of using these turtle excluder devices and deny they are really having an impact on sea turtles. The fact of the matter is, science has shown - we know."
He acknowledges that the Gulf Coast disaster put a lot of stress on communities and ecosystems, but says that is no excuse for not following the law, especially when failure to do so is putting sea turtles at risk.
Increased Protections for Pacific Loggerhead Sea Turtles: after a four-year battle, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project finally won enhanced and desperately needed protections for Pacific loggerhead sea turtles last week. On Friday, September 16, the Obama Administration designated the Pacific loggerhead sea turtle as endangered under the Endangered Species Act in response to our legal petition. We are very grateful for the support of our members and activists as we waged a difficult campaign to achieve the endangered status ruling, which was delayed unnecessarily by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). For more information about the ruling, visit www.seaturtles.org.
Of course, this victory is bittersweet. The ruling recognizes a difficult truth: Pacific loggerheads need increased protections immediately to reverse their decline toward extinction. But, thankfully, it gives STRP more legal tools for our work. Already, thanks to the endangered status ruling, NMFS must immediately re-evaluate the deadly Hawaiian longline fishery, which is currently allowed to kill or harm 17 of the rare Pacific loggerhead sea turtles each year.
Now STRP will ramp up our efforts to protect the magnificent, endangered Pacific loggerhead sea turtle until we can happily take this species off the endangered list. Unfortunately, the government ignored the science and caved to DC fisheries lobbyists when it failed to list Atlantic loggerheads as endangered. We will continue to fight for the future of loggerhead sea turtles throughout their population range, no matter what their official designation.
Florida's Loggerhead sea turtles won't be added to list of endangered species Loggerhead sea turtles that nest in Southwest Florida will not be added to the U.S. list of endangered species, according to a decision announced Friday.
After years of study and back-and-forth, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined the turtles should stay at threatened species status.
The agencies define a threatened species as one that is not currently in danger of extinction but is likely to become so in the foreseeable future; an endangered species is currently in danger of extinction.
Loggerheads that nest in Southwest Florida are part of the Northwest Atlantic population, which is large and widespread. Mature adults are estimated to number more than 60,000. Nesting trends are stabilizing after years of decline, scientists determined.
In 2010, the agencies proposed to list the Northwest Atlantic population as endangered but flip-flopped after getting new nesting data and taking public input.
Three conservation groups — Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Turtle Island Restoration Network — petitioned the U.S. government to list the Northwest Atlantic and North Pacific loggerhead population as endangered in 2007.
Oceana called Friday's decision "bittersweet" to move the North Pacific population onto the list of endangered species but leave the Northwest Atlantic population at its current threatened status.
The group said the U.S. government folded because of political pressure and said the decision leaves the Northwest Atlantic population at risk.
Florida beaches, which host the largest nesting population of loggerheads in the Northwest Atlantic, have seen a 25 percent decline in nesting since 1998.
Oceana blames commercial fishing practices and loss of habitat for pushing loggerheads toward extinction; the group says sea level rise from climate change threatens to make the situation worse.
Florida's Mangroves There are more than 50 species of mangroves found throughout the world; three species are native to Florida.
Native plants are native for a reason. Not just because they can adapt to the various elements that they are exposed to, but because the role they play in the environment enables other plants and animals to survive and thrive.
Florida's mangroves are one of these important native species. Without them, who knows how Florida would be defined. Mangroves are a key stabilization force for our shorelines. They serve as storm buffers, protect water quality by filtering the water, and provide roosting and nest sites for birds and nursery grounds for a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates. Mangroves also provide detritus – leaves and other vegetative materials that drop into the water and feed tiny crabs, snails and fish.
Mangroves are so important to Florida's environment that they even have their own special day, October 1, as recognized in Governor Rick Scott's Florida Mangroves Day proclamation.
The nearly 500,000 acres of mangrove forests throughout the state consist of three different varieties – red, white and black. The red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) is most common and is usually found in and around salt water. It is easily identified by its reddish roots and is often referred to as the "walking tree" because of the way its prop roots arch up out of the water and seemingly appearing to be walking. Its seeds, called propagules, resemble small green cigars.
The black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) is found on slightly higher elevations than the red and is easily identified by the finger-like projections that protrude from the soil around its trunk called pneumatophores. White mangroves (Laguncularia racemosa), identified by their elliptical and light yellow green leaves, typically occupy a zone above the high tide mark and inland of the other mangroves.
Because mangroves are so important to our environment, Florida has strict regulations and guidelines pertaining to the trimming of many mangroves. In 1996, DEP was directed to oversee the trimming and alteration of mangroves under the Mangrove Trimming and Preservation Act. Only specific professions can be qualified to trim mangroves, i.e., professional wetland scientists, certified arborists and ecologists, and persons that DEP authorizes.
A Rare Treat on Little St. George Island For the first time in 21 years of sea turtle monitoring on Little St. George Island, an endangered leatherback sea turtle nest was recorded. And if that wasn't enough excitement for staff from the Apalachicola National Estuarine Research Reserve (ANERR) who monitor the island, 31 hatchlings successfully broke out of their shells and made their way to the water.
Generally, even as leatherback nesting has increased in the Florida peninsula during the past decade, less than 10 nests per year were recorded on Panhandle beaches, so even a single leatherback nest is cause for excitement.
Since 1990, ANERR staff has monitored the nine-mile uninhabited island for turtle nesting activity. A typical season averages about 70 nests with 99 percent loggerhead and one percent green sea turtle; this year 129 nests were recorded.
Megan Lamb, Environmental Cooperative Science Center Coordinator at ANERR, who has been among the beach monitoring staff for the past eight years said, "It's always exciting when a sea turtle nest hatches successfully, but the rest of the ANERR research staff and I were very proud that our first leatherback nest did so well!"
Florida gets federal grants to support habitat conservation for endangered species including scrub
jay Last month the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced $53 million in grants given to 17 states for habitat conservation planning for endangered species. Florida's grants will benefit the Florida scrub jay and three endangered plant species.
The Florida grants allow states to work with conservation groups and private landowners to create conservation plans to ensure the survival of endangered species. They're possible because of the Endangered Species Act. Through the Habitat Conservation Land Acquisition Grants Program the money will benefit three endangered plant species in St. Joseph Bay State Buffer Preserve in Gulf County and the scrub jay in Lake Wales Ridge State Forest. According to Brad Gruver with the Habitat Species Conservation Commission, the Habitat Conservation Plans will be very successful in Florida.
"Several of them were HCP Planning Assistance Grants. Those are grants that allow us to ask money through to a local entity, typically a county government and develop and habitat conservation plan. A habitat conservation plan is an agreement between the local entity, the state Fish and Wildlife agency and the federal Fish and Wildlife agency that they will do a certain amount of habitat and species conservation. The planning assistance grants allow them to pull together the expertise they need and the documents they need so that the agencies are comfortable that we're getting some net conservation benefit out of this whole thing."
Michael Jenkins is a plant conservation biologist with the Florida Division of Forestry. He says they applied for these federal funds because of state budget cuts.
"The state, when we first had this proposed, and this has gone through Florida Forever, it was a very highly ranked project. However, funding for Florida Forever was cut recently when Governor Scott had taken the funding. So we actually did not have state confirmation of that either. So there are two major hurdles we have to jump. Now I will tell you that this particular parcel is within the North Florida Greenway which is land used for military buffering. So it's being put into this year's budget. Again it's a very highly ranked project. So in terms of the state of Florida it's being proposed now in this fiscal year's budget."
Despite these federal grants, Florida conservation groups are still facing major challenges ahead. Jenkins says establishing the Habitat Conservation Plans can be difficult.
"Now in this particular amount of time a lot has happened. It is a long process and things change within year to year. So we have two major hurdles. One is reaffirming St. Joe's commitment to sell the land, this could be the case with this project, the St. Joe company has not really responded to us in their willingness to sell the land. Then the second hurdle is getting the state to put matching funds back in, so we have two major things that we have to do there."
Jenkins with the Florida Endangered and Threatened Plant Conservation Program is optimistic that the acquisition and protection of the land will save vital habitat for endangered species throughout Florida.
Everglades and Water Quality Issues
Protecting Florida's Watershed Throughout the United States, including Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico, there are more than 2,250 watersheds – the area of land where all of the water that is under it or drains off of it goes into the same place. They come in all shapes and sizes, such as streams, estuaries, wetlands and the ocean.
We all live near watersheds. For example, in Tallahassee, there's the Apalachee Bay-St. Marks and the lower Ochlockonee watersheds. In the Jacksonville area is the lower St. Johns watershed; Orlando has the Kissimmee watershed; Ft. Myers, the Caloosahatchee and Big Cypress Swamp; and of course, the Everglades is the watershed for West Palm Beach. Watersheds cross over county, state and national boundaries.
Since watersheds encompass everything that drains downstream, it's essential that we protect all the waters along the way. With proper watershed management, we can reduce the pollutants that end up in watersheds and protect the quality of our waters-which can include drinking water. Having a watershed management plan is a must.
Recently, the University of Florida (UF) became the latest Center of Excellence for Watershed Management in the south, designated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Region 4. DEP representatives joined the EPA and UF in signing a Memorandum of Understanding, under which UF will work with local stakeholders to recognize watershed-based problems and work together to find sustainable solutions. The designation comes with many benefits for UF, including technical assistance and grant support from EPA.
"We can achieve much more collectively, when we combine and leverage our resources, than as stand-alone organizations working independently," said Drew Bartlett, director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Environmental Assessment and Restoration. "This designation will lead to enhanced opportunities for collaboration between the University of Florida and DEP with many mutual benefits. The University of Florida's activities in watershed management, research and education will help assist DEP and local communities in identifying watershed issues and working toward solutions to improve water quality in their watersheds."
E. coli detected in Vero Beach water well The city's water and sewer department said while there is no immediate health risk, it has detected E. coli in one of its wells.
The sample was taken before any treatment or disinfection, which the city water undergoes before it is sent to customers.
City officials said residents do not have to boil water or take any corrective action. If people have specific health concerns, however, they should consult their doctor.
The city has posted additional information on its Web site at www.covb.org and in advertisements to the public. The E. coli was found in a routine sample taken Sept. 25. The well where the microbes were found was shut down and five repeat samples were collected and are being tested by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
According to the city's Web site, E. coli are microbes whose presence indicates that the water maybe contaminated with human or animal waste. These microbes can cause short-term health effects, such as diarrhea, cramps, nausea, headaches and other symptoms. They can pose a special risk for infants, young children, some of the elderly and people with severely compromised immune systems.
Jefferson County approves landmark ordinance protecting Wacissa River from water bottlers Citizens in North Florida marked a pivotal victory earlier this month with the adoption of a law designed to ensure the Wacissa River and surrounding public waters are protected from private water bottling interests for generations to come.
On Sept. 15, the Jefferson County Commission voted unanimously to approve the Aquifer Protection Ordinance, which requires four out of five county commissioners to approve any consumptive use permits requested by companies seeking to withdraw water for commercial use. Previously, the authority to issue such permits resided with laypeople at the Suwannee River Water Management District, with no accountability to the local community.
This latest development comes on the heels of Nestlé Waters North America announcing in May that the Swiss-based multinational corporation — the nation's largest water bottler, with a 36 percent market share — was abandoning its plans to establish a 1.5 million-gallon-per-day load station along the Wacissa River that would have served as a supplemental source of spring water for its Deer Park and Zephyrhills brands, which are currently bottled 40 miles away at Madison Blue Springs.
Nestlé claims testing demonstrated that the spring water at Wacissa was not up to their standards, but the community group Friends of the Wacissa, which formed after news broke that Nestlé had established test wells last fall through a secret agreement with a private landowner, is convinced it was their vigorous organizing and outreach that ultimately convinced Nestlé to leave.
"What I heard is that initially, the reports from Nestlé were all thumbs up, 98 percent pure, it was a real motherload of water, and that's what really got us motivated," says Tommy Thompson, a history teacher at Deer Lake Middle School in Tallahassee and a founding member of Friends of the Wacissa. "It was all thumbs up, green light, here we come, and it was only after there was this community uproar that they discovered that the water wasn't really up to their standards."
Although he is a resident of Leon County, Thompson says that he, like many others who lived outside of Jefferson County, would travel to monthly organizational meetings in Monticello to address what was recognized early on as a regional issue whose impact would resonate far beyond Wacissa.
"Without hesitation, I can say that I feel it was the community's collaborative effort to influence our local government to reflect what we wanted," says Thompson. "As a social studies teacher, I think this is a perfect example of how things are supposed to work at the grassroots level, when the community stands up and voices their opinion and the government responds appropriately to what the people are saying. I teach this every day, and this is the way it's supposed to work."
Although the Jefferson County ordinance may represent a small step toward protecting public waters from private interests, the move follows a national trend of communities pushing back against water bottlers and Nestlé in particular. The company has earned a notorious track record for backroom dealing and empty promises of economic stimulus, environmental stewardship and job creation.
"Companies like Nestlé are really working to try to convince us that the only place to get safe drinking water is from a $4 plastic bottle, and it really builds a huge market here in the U.S. to cast a doubt on our public water system," says Kristin Urquiza, director for Corporate Accountability International's Think Outside the Bottle campaign. "As a result, it's really created something that 30 years ago didn't even exist."
"When it comes down to how they actually get access to the rights of water, there have been a lot of examples of these backroom deals that go very quickly through either a particular city councilor, or a particular individual such as in Wacissa," Urquiza says. "There was a piece of land where it seemed like Nestlé had gained access through a private stakeholder. And because they are the world's largest bottler they have for all intents and purposes compared to small communities like Wacissa unlimited resources to look through, get a lay of the land, and create a strategy to promise jobs that don't actually pan out, or economic stimulus that doesn't actually pan out to what the community wants."
Wildlife and Habitat
Wanted: Public help in mapping fox squirrel sites If you have seen a big squirrel with a long, bushy, fox-like tail, Florida wildlife biologists need your help.
What you saw was a Florida fox squirrel, and biologists with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) are asking you to go online and record your sighting of this creature twice the size of an ordinary squirrel. Fox squirrels often have distinctive, masked faces with a black head and white nose and ears but, there are wide variations in coloration - from tan to gray or black.
You can use the FWC's Google map application at https://public.myfwc.com/hsc/foxsquirrel/GetLatLong.aspx to enter the location where you spotted the fox squirrel. Your squirrel sighting will be logged automatically and assigned a specific latitude and longitude.
"The fox squirrel survey is a wonderful opportunity for children and adults to become amateur naturalists and get involved in conserving Florida's wildlife. We will learn more about where the Florida fox squirrels are by asking the public to go online and report their sightings of fox squirrels," said FWC wildlife biologist Courtney Hooker.
The fox squirrel survey is part of a research project by the FWC and the University of Florida Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation. It combines the latest in online-mapping technology with the public's enthusiasm about sharing their wildlife observations. The fox squirrel survey began in August, and data will be collected through at least January 2012. So far about 600 sightings of fox squirrels have been logged online.
Fox squirrels have been observed throughout Florida in open woods, pine and cypress stands and mangrove swamps, but knowledge about their distribution is limited. Fox squirrels spend more time on the ground than in trees and often escape their enemies by running rather than climbing. Their favorite food is pine seed.
The Sherman's fox squirrel is found in the pine forests of central and northeast Florida and is classified as a state species of special concern. The Big Cypress fox squirrel is a state-threatened species in southwest Florida. The Southeastern fox squirrel lives in the Panhandle. All of Florida's fox squirrels are protected from hunting.
Photos: Go to MyFWC.com/News
and click on the headline for this story.
For more information about fox squirrels, visit the "Species Profiles" area
Global Warming and Climate Change
Two ice shelves that existed before Canada was settled by Europeans diminished significantly this summer, one nearly disappearing altogether, Canadian scientists say in newly published research.
The loss is important as a marker of global warming, returning the Canadian Arctic to conditions that date back thousands of years, scientists say. Floating icebergs that have broken free as a result pose a risk to offshore oil facilities and potentially to shipping lanes. The breaking apart of the ice shelves also reduces the environment that supports microbial life and changes the look of Canada's coastline.
Luke Copland is an associate professor in the geography department at the University of Ottawa who co-authored the research published on Carleton University's website. He said the Serson Ice Shelf shrank from 79.15 square miles (205 square kilometers) to two remnant sections five years ago, and was further diminished this past summer.
Copland said the shelf went from a 16-square-mile (42-square-kilometer) floating glacier tongue to 9.65 square miles (25 square kilometers), and the second section from 13.51 square miles (35 square kilometers) to 2 square miles (7 square kilometers), off Ellesmere Island's northern coastline.
This past summer, Ward Hunt Ice Shelf's central area disintegrated into drifting ice masses, leaving two separate ice shelves measuring 87.65 and 28.75 square miles (227 and 74 square kilometers) respectively, reduced from 131.7 square miles (340 square kilometers) the previous year.
"It has dramatically broken apart in two separate areas and there's nothing in between now but water," said Copland.
Copland said those two losses are significant, especially since the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf has always been the biggest, the farthest north and the one scientists thought might have been the most stable.
"Recent (ice shelf) loss has been very rapid, and goes hand-in-hand with the rapid sea ice decline we have seen in this decade and the increasing warmth and extensive melt in the Arctic regions," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado, remarking on the research.
Copland, who uses satellite imagery and who has conducted field work in the Arctic every May for the past five years, said since the end of July, pieces equaling one and a half times the size of Manhattan Island have broken off. Co-researcher Derek Mueller, an assistant professor at Carleton University's geography and environmental studies department, said the loss this past summer equals up to three billion tons. Copland said their findings have not yet been peer reviewed since the research is new, but a number of scientists contacted by The Associated Press reviewed the findings, agreeing the loss in volume of ice shelves is significant.
Scambos said the loss of the Arctic shelves is significant because they are old and their rapid loss underscores the severity of the warming trend scientists see now relative to past fluctuations such as the Medieval Warm Period or the warmer times in the pre-Current Era (B.C.).
Ice shelves, which began forming at least 4,500 years ago, are much thicker than sea ice, which is typically less than a few feet (meters) thick and survives up to several years.
Canada has the most extensive ice shelves in the Arctic along the northern coast of Ellesmere Island. These floating ice masses are typically 131 feet (40 meters) thick (equivalent to a 10-story building), but can be as much as 328 feet (100 meters) thick. They thickened over time via snow and sea ice accumulation, along with glacier inflow in certain places.
The northern coast of Ellesmere Island contains the last remaining ice shelves in Canada, with an estimated area of 402 square miles (1,043 square kilometers), said Mueller.
Between 1906 and 1982, there has been a 90 percent reduction in the areal extent of ice shelves along the entire coastline, according to data published by W.F. Vincent at Quebec's Laval University. The former extensive "Ellesmere Island Ice Sheet" was reduced to six smaller, separate ice shelves: Serson, Petersen, Milne, Ayles, Ward Hunt and Markham. In 2005, the Ayles Ice Shelf whittled almost completely away, as did the Markham Ice Shelf in 2008 and the Serson this year.
"The impact is significant and yet only a piece of the ongoing and accelerating response to warming of the Arctic," said Dr. Robert Bindschadler, emeritus scientist at the Hydrospheric and Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.
Bindschadler said the loss is an indication of another threshold being passed, as well as the likely acceleration of buttressed glaciers able to flow faster into the ocean, which accelerates their contribution to global sea level.
Copland said mean winter temperatures have risen by about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) per decade for the past five to six decades on northern Ellesmere Island.
Scientist left speechless as vast glacier turns to water The before and after photographs, which left a Welsh scientist who led the 24-month project "speechless", reveal the worrying effects of climate change in an area previously thought too cold to be much affected.
Dr Alun Hubbard, a reader at Aberystwyth University's Centre for Glaciology, returned from the Petermann Glacier in north-west Greenland a month ago, but did not see the stark images documenting the changes until this week.
He said: "Although I knew what to expect in terms of ice loss from satellite imagery, I was still completely unprepared for the gob-smacking scale of the break-up, which rendered me speechless.
"It was just incredible to see. This glacier is huge, 20km across, 1,000m high. It's like looking into the Grand Canyon full of ice and coming back two years later to find it's full of water".
See the photos and Read more
Energy
Florida Energy Summit The 2011 Florida Energy Summit, hosted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) October 26 through 28 in Orlando, will be a gathering place where stakeholders assemble to help create and advance policy to further the development of the state's energy industry. The Summit will attract leaders from the energy development, energy provider, agricultural, government, academic and financial communities.
For the past five years DACS hosted the Farm to Fuel Summit. In 2011, the Florida Legislature moved the responsibilities of the Florida Energy and Climate Commission to DACS, creating the Department's Office of Energy. With the new addition of the Office of Energy, DACS is expanding its role in the energy sector. As such, the Farm to Fuel Summit has been expanded to the Florida Energy Summit in order to encompass not only agricultural based fuels, but also all renewable energy and conservation activities in the state.
The primary duties of the Office of Energy are to administer any state and federal energy incentive programs, to promote the development and use of renewable energy resources, to promote energy conservation in all energy sectors and to provide assistance to other state agencies, counties, municipalities and regional planning agencies to further and promote their energy planning activities.
Drilling off Keys to begin by December A giant, semi-submersible oil rig en route from Singapore will probably be drilling in the Florida Straits between Key West and Cuba in mid-December. The rig could arrive earlier, but Repsol, the Spanish oil company, wants to wait until after hurricane season ends before it begins drilling.
This latest report on the progress of the Italian-made Scarabeo 9 oil rig comes from Lee Hunt, the chief executive of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, who just returned from a trip to Cuba last week as part of a joint delegation with the environmental group, the Environmental Defense Fund.
Hunt also said that Repsol plans on having one well drilled by the end of the year.
Along with Hunt, the fact-finding delegation included William Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator and co-chair of the White House task force investigating the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Richard Sears, former vice president of deepwater drilling for Royal Dutch Shell, and Dan Whittle, a senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund.
Their goal was to learn how committed the Cuban government is to operating offshore oil and natural-gas rigs safely and responsibly, and to find out the best way for American companies with oil-spill expertise to work with Cuba, despite a 50-year-old economic embargo by the United States.
"We're shooting ourselves in the foot by not working together," Whittle said in an interview this week. "There was a lot of speculation in the past about if Cuba will in fact begin drilling. Well, now we know Cuba is moving forward as quickly as it can."
Because of the embargo, Repsol would have to rely on companies from the United Kingdom, Norway and Brazil for help if the Scarabeo 9 caused a spill, Whittle said.
Whittle and the rest of the group met with senior officials in Cuba's Ministry of Basic Industry, which regulates the country's energy, geology and mining and basic chemistry sectors. They also met with officials from the Ministry of Environment, as well as senior members of CUPET, Cuba's state-run petroleum company.
Land Conservation
Group to buy land for conservation A conservation group wants to help the county's environmental protection efforts by purchasing some land parcels identified as prime conservation land in public plans.
Treasured Lands Foundation is convening a cross section of community representatives to identify and acquire property for permanent preservation.
At its helm is executive director Chuck Barrowclough, who headed the county's environment conservation program for five years.
"This is basically recognition that with the change in the economic environment, the government was probably not going to be able to foster the land-acquisition program," Mr. Barrowclough said.
One of their major efforts is the acquisition of Mount Olympia, the last 28-acre track at the north end of Jonathan Dickinson Park, north of the Hobe Sound Wildlife Refuge and south of Zeus Park.
Martin County officials intended to purchase the property, but never closed the deal.
The tanked deal meant the land almost went to a property developer, who proposed building 83 houses on the site.
"There was such an outcry from the Zeus Park community that my board directed me to see what we can do," Mr. Barrowclough said.
The group reached an agreement with the property owner, who allowed them four years to raise the $1.7 million needed for the acquisition, provided the foundation used the land for conservation.
To achieve its goal, the Treasured Lands Foundation created a committee to head its fundraising project, and will approach community partners in upcoming months for support.
Aiding the effort are members of the board of directors. On the board are: Scott Turnbull of Crary Buchanan; Bill West of First Peoples Bank; Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, mayor of Sewall's Point; Chappy Young, a surveyor who led U.S. Sugar's recent Everglades restoration effort; Barbara Birdsey, founder of the animal protection groups Pegasus Foundation and Caring Fields and Laura Hasse, formerly of Martin County's Parks and Recreation Department.
The late town manager of Jupiter Island, Joe Connolly, was an original board member.
In addition to the land acquisition project, the foundation also leads tours of Barley Barber Swamp, Florida Power & Light's 400-acre nature preserve in Indiantown.
The group also preserved and managed Simpson Island in the Indian River Lagoon, and oversaw the installation of 106 cypress trees in the southern addition of Halpatiokee Park.
The foundation also provides scholarships to children from low-income families to allow them to attend summer camps through the parks department.
Kennecott begins drilling nickel, copper mine near Marquette, Michigan Kennecott Eagle Minerals Co. has begun drilling a nickel and copper mine in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
Spokeswoman Deb Muchmore said Friday the company recently conducted the initial blasting and drilling of bedrock at the site in northwestern Marquette County. She said it will take about a year to drill a mile-long underground tunnel.
The opening is about 260 feet west of Eagle Rock, an outcrop that is considered sacred by the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community. The company has promised to protect the rock, which is surrounded by trees and fenced off from the industrial site.
Opponents are challenging in court the state Department of Environmental Quality's decision to issue permits for the mine. An Ingham County judge refused this month to delay blasting until she rules on the lawsuit.
New 460 acre 'Jubilee' forest to be created in UK's East Midlands The Woodland Trust has unveiled plans to create a vast 460-acre publicly-accessible flagship wood as a national symbol to celebrate The Queen's Diamond Jubilee.
The trust hopes the ambitious project will give people across the UK access to the wonders of woodland, while creating a natural historical monument that will enable wildlife to thrive. The flagship woodland will be created as the pinnacle of the trust's biggest ever tree-planting campaign: Jubilee Woods, which will see the planting of six million trees to create hundreds of new woods UK wide.
"'We are the least wooded country in Europe"
Located in the heart of The National Forest in Leicestershire, the Diamond Wood will offer easy access for ten million people, create valuable new habitat for the nation's best-loved species and become the largest continuous block of woodland owned by a single organization in The National Forest.
The trust has launched a £3.3 million fundraising appeal to acquire the site. Diamond Wood will create a living legacy for The Queen's Diamond Jubilee and add to the trust's commitment to double native woodland cover by 2050.
Sue Holden, chief executive of the Woodland Trust, said: "we need help to create woodland for the nation, to give everyone access to the beauty of the natural world and create a legacy for the Queen's Jubilee."
Read more international wildlife news
Air Quality
Watch for smoke in the west; U.S. Sugar to begin cane harvest This season's Florida sugar cane harvest is expected to launch Saturday as U.S. Sugar Corp. begins mechanically cutting fields of cane.
Its Clewiston Sugar Factory will start processing the first railcars of cane Saturday as well, said Judy Sanchez, senior director of corporate communications and public affairs.
Combined, U.S. Sugar, Florida Crystals Corp., headquartered in West Palm Beach, and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, Belle Glade, are forecast to produce 1.63 million tons of sugar, up from 1.43 million tons last season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said.
Harvesting and processing run 24 hours a day during the season, which runs through April. Fields are burned immediately before harvest to rid the cane of dead leaves and other debris.
This crop has been hampered by extreme drought, a drought that was exacerbated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers deliberate flushing of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee, Sanchez said.
"With the weather roller coaster that we've been on the past several years, it's getting harder to remember what a normal crop was like," Sanchez said.
"Summer rains have helped some with its recovery, but we've lost tens of millions of dollars of sugar and energy production form this cane crop," Sanchez said. "The smaller crops of the last few years are especially painful given that sugar prices have been running higher than average due to more global demand and weather issues in Brazil and India."
U.S. Sugar expects to harvest about 6.2 million tons of sugar cane. The Clewiston refinery is projecting a record-breaking year, anticipated to produce 750,000 tons of refined sugar.
In 2010-2011, during a season with devastating freezes, U.S. Sugar produced 5.67 million tons of cane that yielded 594,000 tons of raw sugar, Sanchez said.
Last season, U.S. Sugar imported 90,000 tons of foreign raw sugar for refining. The 2010-2011 crop also produced more than 36 million gallons of molasses and 210,000 megawatt hours of electric power.
Florida Crystals expects to start its harvest Oct. 18, and the Cooperative is scheduled to begin Nov. 2.
Palm Beach County accounts for about 75 percent of commercial sugar cane acreage in Florida, according to the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The rest is grown in Hendry, Glades and Martin counties.
Tampa Bay Florida's Second-Smoggiest Area An environmental group has named Tampa Bay as the second-smoggiest metro area in Florida. The study comes on the heels of a retreat by the Obama Administration on toughening clean air standards.
The report by Environment Florida shows that people in the Tampa Bay area were exposed to more bad air days than any other place in the state, except Pensacola. It comes on the heels of two straight days of high ozone advisories last week, when anyone with respiratory problems - and the very old and young - were told to stay indoors.
The federal EPA was set to toughen clean air standards, which would have increased the number of ozone advisory days to eight days during the past year. Paul Rolfe is with Environment Florida.
"But rather than acting decisively to protect our kids from dangerous air pollution," Rolfe said at a press conference at Tampa's Ballast Point Park, "President Obama chose to kick the can down the road and abandon any strengthening of this standard until 2013. Florida's kids, senior citizens and those with respiratory problems will suffer as a consequence of the president's decision."
Critics of toughening regulation say it could lead to job losses in places such as electric utilities, which generate most of the air pollution in Florida.
Bondi joins lawsuit challenging EPA rule on interstate air pollution Attorney General Pam Bondi joined a Nebraska lawsuit Friday that challenges an Environmental Protection Agency rule requiring 27 states to reduce power plant emissions that lead to air pollution in other states.
The EPA finalized the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule on July 6, replacing a similarly named 2005 policy. It goes into effect in January barring action by the courts. Republicans in Congress have made reducing environmental regulations a priority recently, saying they kill jobs.
State leaders argue the rule is unrealistic and creates a headache for states and businesses strained by tight budgets. Bondi is concerned the rule does not give states the chance to reduce emissions on their own, uses "questionable methodologies and modeling" in assesing how other states are affected by interstate air pollution, and disproportionately affects Florida. "Once again the EPA has imposed costly regulations on Florida based on a flawed process and without first working cooperatively with our state," Bondi said in a statement. "We will continue to protect Florida consumers and businesses from unnecessary and costly federal regulation."
Nebraska and Florida are joined on the petition for review by five states: Texas, Alabama, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia. The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. Kansas filed its own lawsuit earlier this week.
To comply with the rule, Nebraskan power producers would need to retrofit coal plants to control 1 percent of emissions that travel upwind to Wisconsin, according to a news release from the state's Attorney General's office.
Nebraska officials claimed implementing the policy would cost two state utilities more than $60 million. Those costs would likely lead to higher utility bills for Nebraska energy consumers, especially those in agriculture.
In Memoriam
Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai, the first African woman recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, died after a long struggle with cancer. She was 71 and a tireless pioneer and advocate for freedom, self-sustenance, and for what she called our "beautiful blue planet."
Claude Kirk, who became Florida's first Republican governor of the 20th century even though he never held prior public office, died September 28, 2011. He was 85.
He successfully urged passage of Florida's first green bond issue which brought many popular state parks into our system, he supported the acquisition of the Big Cypress, he fought for more water to be delivered to Everglades National Park.
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