South Florida Audubon Society Conservation Report

2012-01-24T11:36:00.001-08:00

"In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness…to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now. Wangari Maathai

Announcements

Mark your calendar. The 15th Annual Great Backyard Bird Count will be held February 17-20, 2012. Discover and help the birds in your community. The GBBC is fun, family-friendly, and educational. It is free and open to all ages and skill levels. Everything you need to know to participate is on the GBBC website at www.birdcount.org including instructions, checklists, FAQ's, and a how-to-video. For the past 5 years Clewiston has been in the Top Ten for the number of birds reported during the count. Students and adults from Belle Glades, Felda, LaBelle and Okeechobee submitted reports in 2011. It is easy to participate in this four day free event. Spend 15 minutes or more each day during the count then enter your tallies on the Great Backyard Bird Count website. If you don't have internet access you may request forms from Margaret England sta5birding@embarqmail.com or call (863) 674-0695 or (863) 517-0202.

Welcome to GBBC - Great Backyard Bird Count www.birdsource.org

Dear Sawgrass Nature Center Supporters, As most of you know, we are hosting our 7th Annual Go Wild In The Park Event on January 28. It is a fun-filled event for adults and children. You can get more info on our website at www.sawgrassnaturecenter.org.

We need you help in publicizing this event to your schools, staff, parents, members, etc. You get the picture. We would greatly appreciate if you could send out, post on social media, post at your place of business, or on your website, our flyer or info about the event. I have attached a full page flyer, mini-flyers (2/page), and small cards. You are welcome to use whatever works best for you. We just want to get the word out to as many people as possible.

We greatly appreciate your help and your continued support of the Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital and we look forward to seeing you at Go Wild In The Park on January 28th.

Sincerely,

Robin Reccasina, Education Director Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital 3000 Sportsplex Drive Coral Springs, FL 33065 954/752-9453 www.sawgrassnaturecenter.org

ENV Magazine is 100% behind Redland Tropical Gardens and their very important mission. I ask that you see the Cover story at www.envmagazine.org then, please assist us with participation (attendance, Lexus raffle and/or a donation)

Port Everglades' Chief Executive Officer Phil Allen will retire this February after nearly 26 years with Broward County including six years at the helm of Port Everglades. [I have had several opportunities to work with Phil Allen with regard to environmental issues within Port Everglades, and found him to be reasonable to work with, respectful of the environment and dedicated to the future of Port Everglades. He will be missed. Hopefully his replacement will be equally environmentally responsible.]

Join Audubon and other wildlife lovers on February 3-5. Wondering what you can do on a cool winter day at one of Florida's gorgeous beaches? The statewide mid-winter shorebird survey window is coming up on the weekend of February 3-5, 2012.

This is an annual survey administered by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission through the network of Shorebird Partnerships on the Florida Gulf and Atlantic coasts.

Audubon staff and chapter members are active in many of the Partnerships, which meet as a group semi-annually. The statewide shorebird surveys are conducted each year in early February to provide a long-term record of winter abundance and coastal distributions of state and federally listed Snowy and Piping plovers.

All beach-dependent birds and waterbirds are counted annually because many of them – like Red Knots – are birds that are declining throughout their North American or western hemisphere ranges. Data collected during these surveys is important not only to land managers and wildlife agencies in Florida but to researchers studying range-wide causes of population declines.

Of interest to all

Read Audubon's Restore Magazine

Read Audubon's Center for Birds of Prey Newsletter

Those wishing to take Eco tours can visit Natural Habitat Adventures, where tours can be found to accommodate any taste and budget

Birds

Wood Storks - Mission Accomplished? In response to the recent threats to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to downlist the endangered Wood Stork to threatened status, the Audubon Wood Stork Research Team are calling attention to stark omissions in the media's coverage and public dialogue on this important issue.

Wood Storks are a system-wide indicator species for the multi-billion dollar Everglades Restoration effort and its nesting remains decimated there due to wetland destruction. Thus, Wood Storks have moved in big numbers to many smaller colonies in Georgia and South Carolina, which Audubon scientists agree may meet the numeric prescription for downlisting.

However, nesting totals in the stork's historic home in the Everglades tells a far more troubling story. There has been no new nesting in four of the past five years at the nation's largest Wood Stork colony at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, located in the Western Everglades.

This raises serious questions about whether the Wood Stork can recover as a species without longterm restoration of its historic Everglades home. This and other questions about long term sustainability of the new small northern colonies must be answered before any claim of "mission accomplished", which has been the tone of many recent news accounts.

Good News for a Bad-luck Bird - First photos of petrel chick renew hope for endangered seabird Ithaca, NY--Friday the 13th is turning out to be a lucky day for a Caribbean seabird whose eerie night-time calls have long haunted visitors to its cliff top breeding grounds. Today a crew of researchers is launching an expedition to search for additional nesting sites in the Dominican Republic. The expedition caps a headline year for the endangered Black-capped Petrel. First, scientists working in Haiti obtained the first-ever photos of a chick—a fist-sized ball of gray fluff that was discovered at a nest inside a mountaintop cave. Then the International Black-capped Petrel Conservation Group brought together participants from 12 countries to produce the first comprehensive conservation action plan for the species.

The Black-capped Petrel is known as the diablotín, or "little devil" in Spanish, probably because of its spooky cries. Best estimates suggest that fewer than 2,000 breeding Black-capped Petrel pairs remain. The crow-sized birds nest only in the Caribbean but feed as far away as Gulf Stream waters off the Mid-Atlantic United States.

"Finding this nest shows both that gems of biodiversity are yet to be found in Haiti, despite its environmental and economic troubles, and that there's still time to save rare species if we act swiftly," said James Goetz, a Cornell Lab of Ornithology graduate student who has helped lead the project.

The nest, containing a single egg and an incubating adult petrel, was discovered on March 3, 2011, by Jairo Arache of Grupo Jaragua. On return visits in April, May, and June researchers photographed but did not handle the growing chick as it waited for its parents to return with food. An automatic camera showed that adults visited the nest for an average of 80 minutes every couple of nights, typically between 9 p.m. and midnight.

Additional info

10 Places to See Bald Eagles This Winter

January is National Bald Eagle Watch Month--celebrate by visiting one of these top eagle-watching spots (Updated 1/3/12) 01-10-2011 // NWF staff.

Throngs of bald eagles from Alaska and Canada have always shifted south in winter. In recent years, as the species continues to recover from its brush with extinction, those numbers are increasing steadily. From Maryland's Chesapeake Bay to Washington Skagit River, dozens, even hundreds, of the birds congregate each winter along waters in every state except Hawaii. Here are some of the best places in the country to see them:

1. KLAMATH BASIN, on the California-Oregon border, hosts the largest concentration of wintering bald eagles in the Lower 48. As many as 1,000 eagles occupy the refuge complex during the peak months of January and February. Many of the birds are visible from the Lower Klamath and Tule Lake auto tours. Call the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge at (530) 667-2231, or visit the refuge online at http://klamathbasinrefuges.fws.gov .

2. UPPER SKAGIT RIVER WATERSHED in Northwest Washington draws hundreds of eagles to tens of thousands of dead and dying salmon at the end of the spawning season. Eagle numbers peak in late December and early January. Contact the Bald Eagle Interpretive Center in mid-December through mid-February at (360) 853-7077, or (360) 853-7283 during the rest of the year. Information is also available at www.skagiteagle.org .

3. UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER is jam-packed with bald eagles in winter, and some of the best views are available below the locks and dams. Visit Nelson Dewey State Park in Cassville, Wisconsin, in December through February. Contact the park at (608) 725-5374, and find out more about Cassville's eagles at www.cassville.org/nelsondewey.html .

4. MISSOURI'S SQUAW CREEK NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE is festooned with bald eagles in November and December, when the waterfowl population peaks. Many eagles perch along the main auto loop. Contact the refuge at (800) 877-8339, or visit http://midwest.fws.gov/SquawCreek .

5. WOLF LODGE BAY within Lake Coeur d'Alene in Idaho is frequented by dozens of migratory bald eagles when the kokanee salmon start to spawn. The eagles begin arriving in November, and the largest concentrations generally occur in late December and early January. Contact the Bureau of Land Management at (208) 769-5000. For an online brochure including a map of eagle viewing sites, see http://www.sandpoint.com/lifestyle/fall06/baldeagles.asp .

6. QUABBIN RESERVOIR in Massachusetts is one of the Northeast's best-known winter eagle lookouts. Bald eagles were introduced there in the 1980s. Today, year-round resident eagles are joined by dozens more in winter, with numbers peaking in February. Contact the visitor center at (413) 323-7221.

7. KARL E. MUNDT NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE in South Dakota hosts anywhere from 50 to 200 bald eagles in winter. The birds begin to arrive in late October. Numbers peak in December and January. Contact the refuge at (605) 487-7603, or visit http://www.fws.gov/lakeandes/mundt/ .

8. NEW YORK'S HUDSON RIVER AND SULLIVAN COUNTY provide abundant opportunities to see congregations of wintering bald eagles less than a two-hour drive from midtown Manhattan. Contact the Hudson River Foundation, (212) HUDSON or visit www.hudsonriver.org. For information about Sullivan County's eagles, call The Eagle Institute at (845) 557-6162, or visit www.eagleinstitute.org .

9. BLACKWATER NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE in Maryland is a place to see abundant eagles not only in winter, but also throughout the rest of the year. The refuge hosts a healthy breeding population of bald eagles and high concentrations of wintering eagles drawn by migratory waterfowl each winter. Contact the refuge at (410) 228-2677 or see http://blackwater.fws.gov .

10. OKLAHOMA'S RIVER AND RESERVOIRS host large numbers of bald eagles each winter. Some of the best public viewing is available at three sites: Kaw Lake near Ponca City, Salt Plains Lake near Enid and the Keystone Reservoir on the confluence of the Cimarron and Arkansas Rivers on the west side of Tulsa. Contact the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation at (405) 521-4616, or visit http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/birds/okbald/winter.htm .

Before You Go: Eagle Etiquette

When you head out to see eagles, keep in mind that human presence can stress the birds and cause them to waste precious energy that they need to survive. To avoid being disruptive, follow these basic tips:

Stay in or near your vehicle at roadside viewing areas
Move quickly and quietly to observation blinds, where you will be safely hidden from the birds' view
Avoid making loud noises, such as yelling, slamming car doors and honking horns
Use binoculars or a spotting scope to view the birds from a comfortable distance
Never attempt to make an eagle fly Source: The Eagle Institute

Invasive species

Several dangerous snakes are being banned from sale and import to the United States in an attempt to stem an invasion that is affecting native life in the Florida Everglades.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a rule Tuesday morning against the importation and interstate trade of four large exotic snakes - Burmese pythons, northern and southern African rock pythons and the yellow anaconda. Salazar was joined by Nelson and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.

Burmese and rock pythons began turning up in the Everglades in large numbers a few years ago, released by irresponsible pet owners or from escaped from pet stores and importers during hurricanes.

Help halt the release of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys A private company called Oxitec wants to release potentially harmful genetically engineered mosquitoes in the Florida Keys as early as late spring of this year, in what would be the first-ever U.S. release of these engineered bugs.

There are too many unanswered questions about the ecological and health impacts of these mosquitoes. State and federal agencies have yet to fully study them and there are no laws on the books to properly regulate the release of these bugs into the wild. Furthermore, we found that Oxitec was concealing evidence from the public about how many of its engineered mosquitoes could survive.

An outpouring of public opposition from Floridians is our best shot at stopping Oxitec's plans.

Please take action now

Florida Panthers

Dear Friends,

After a year which saw a record 24 Florida panthers killed by auto collision, intraspecific aggression (panther on panther fights to the death), illegal shootings, wildfire, and "unknown causes", 2012 has gotten off to a rough start for Florida's state animal - and the only large cat which remains east of the Mississippi River. In just the first 2 weeks of the year, a total of 4 Florida panthers have died - two on highways, one in a territorial fight with another panther just outside a new housing development, and one by apparent infection. For a species which resides on just 5 percent of its former range (estimated to be shrinking by 1 percent per year) and has a maximum population of 160 individuals - this is not a good sign of things to come.

You can help. The new director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Dan Ashe, is currently touring south Florida along with Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar. Positive announcements are being made on banning the import of invasive snake species, supporting Everglades restoration, and investing hundreds of millions of dollars to protect ranch lands in central Florida. With Director Ashe's attention firmly on the Sunshine State, now is a perfect time to ask him to take the steps necessary to the recovery of Florida's great cat. As always - individual emails will carry much more weight than a form letter.

Director Ashe's email is: dan_ashe@fws.gov

There is an underscore _ between dan and ashe.

Here are two suggestions from South Florida Wildlands Association for you to consider sending to Director Ashe.

1. Designate "critical habitat" for the panther immediately.

In February of 2010, in response to a petition by a coalition of environmental organizations, FWS chose to deny the Florida panther "critical habitat" protection under the Endangered Species Act - in spite of numerous documented benefits to species recovery. Thus, while the panther itself is currently protected, its habitat is not. In their denial, the service cited both the need to have "cooperative" relationships with area landowners as well as a "technicality" - the panther was protected under the Endangered Species Act in 1973 before the requirement to provide critical habitat designation for any endangered animal was mandated by a 1978 amendment to the Act.

Just since the 2010 decision, ten new development projects have been approved by FWS in panther habitat (since 1984, FWS has approved 143 individual projects - a near perfect record). The ten recent projects include the typical mosaic of usages now common throughout south Florida: expanded agricultural operations; a waste to energy plant; a golf course community; a parking lot for off-road vehicles; a road widening project; and a limestone mine.

In each case, after acknowledging "adverse impacts to the Florida panther and Florida panther habitat", the service has concluded, "Critical habitat has not been designated for the Florida panther, and therefore, will not be affected".

For a look at what one of these projects actually looks like on the ground, this video was shot 2 weeks ago at mile marker 51 of Interstate 75. It shows the massive new parking lot being constructed in the heart of primary panther habitat in the Big Cypress National Preserve Addition Lands. A popular hiking trail now lies buried somewhere beneath it. When completed, the project will provide parking for some of the 650 recreational motor vehicles which FWS has also approved in this highly sensitive area.
http://m1e.net/c?121296117-1HoQ70S3M42Tg%407155690-OEQhasp.P0d.Y

2. Move immediately to expand the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge.

As mentioned above, Director Ashe will be making an announcement today to protect 150,000 acres of ranch lands in central Florida through a combination of land purchases and conservation easements. He will be requesting a 700 million dollar authorization from congress to accomplish that.

While we appreciate the intent of the "Headwaters of the Everglades" project, South Florida Wildlands Association (SFWA) believes that, given the current plight of the panther, a re-prioritization is absolutely essential. At least a half dozen properties essential to the panther - and totaling approximately the same acreage as would be included in the Headwaters project - have been on the books for a decade as unfinished "Florida Forever" projects (the State of Florida's conservation land acquisition program). These include a property to the north of the Big Cypress Addition Lands (bought up by Florida Power and Light just this past June and now slated to become the biggest fossil fuel power plant in the country - the Hendry County Clean Energy Center - if we and our allies are unsuccessful in stopping the project). Another piece of privately owned land borders the Caloosahatchee River and has been identified as the last piece of undeveloped property which panthers (so far only males) use to leave the confines of south Florida. While SFWA and other environmental organizations are working hard to bring this key corridor under conservation protection, the "for sale" sign remains.

Time is of the essence. These lands and others adjacent to them are on the Florida Growth Machine's chopping block now. Allowing them to be developed will likely deal a fatal blow to the panther's chances of recovery. If protected they would form a completely contiguous corridor of conservation lands and habitat which would stretch from the Caloosahatchee River to the southern tip of Everglades National Park. They have been extensively studied for their conservation importance and, with the sole exception of the land recently purchased by Florida Power and Light, have owners willing to provide protection without added development (we are still hoping Florida Power and Light will come around on this as well). This is not an opportunity we want to miss.

Please send an email to Director Ashe now. Ask him to reconsider the decision of his agency and designate critical habitat for the panther immediately. And ask him to use the power of the federal government to acquire lands necessary to the survival of Florida's great cat by expanding the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge with already identified, essential acquisitions. Once again, Director Ashe's email address is: dan_ashe@fws.gov

The National Park Service's own comments on the construction of the parking lot and motorized recreational access point described above are well worth a read. Written in 1994, they are a fitting summary of what we (and the panther) stand to lose:

"The odds for the long-term survival of the Florida panther in the wild are not good. The-human population in the region continues to increase, resulting in urban growth and expansion of the regional highway network into former panther habitat. The demand and use of panther habitat for outdoor recreation has also increased and will continue to do so.Any action that decreases the wilderness qualities of the Everglades region impacts this species. The existing threats to the panther are interrelated and cannot be separated. The primary threat to the Florida panther has been human encroachment into panther habitat."

Eloquent words. Now is the time to follow them and make true protection of Florida panther habitat - along with the hundreds of species of plants and animals which share it - a reality.

Best regards,

Matt Schwartz Executive Director South Florida Wildlands Association P.O. Box 30211Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33303 954-634-7173

Endangered Species

Bat death toll reaches 6 million in USA White-nose syndrome has killed some 6 million bats and is still spreading.

January 2012. On the verge of another season of winter hibernating bat surveys, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists and partners estimate that at least 5.7 million to 6.7 million bats have now died from white-nose syndrome. Biologists expect the disease to continue to spread.

100% mortality rates

White-nose syndrome (WNS) is decimating bat populations across eastern North America, with mortality rates reaching up to 100 percent at many sites. First documented in New York in 2006, the disease has spread quickly into 16 states and four Canadian provinces. Bats with WNS exhibit unusual behavior during cold winter months, including flying outside during the day and clustering near the entrances of caves and mines where they hibernate. Bats have been found sick and dying in unprecedented numbers near these hibernacula.

Natural pest control

"This startling new information illustrates the severity of the threat that white-nose syndrome poses for bats, as well as the scope of the problem facing our nation. Bats provide tremendous value to the U.S. economy as natural pest control for American farms and forests every year, while playing an essential role in helping to control insects that can spread disease to people," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. "We are working closely with our partners to understand the spread of this deadly disease and minimize its impacts to affected bat species."

Estimating the total number of bat deaths has been a difficult challenge for biologists. Although consistent population counts for federally listed endangered bats, like the Indiana bat, have been a priority for state and federal biologists, establishing population counts of once "common" bat species, like little brown bats, was historically not the primary focus of seasonal bat population counts.

White-nose syndrome

"White-nose syndrome has spread quickly through bat populations in eastern North America, and has caused significant mortality in many colonies," said National WNS Coordinator, Dr. Jeremy Coleman, "Many bats were lost before we were able to establish pre-white-nose syndrome population estimates."

More than 140 partners, including tribal, state and federal biologists and bat researchers convened in Carlisle, Pennsylvania for the 2012 Northeast Bat Working Group (NEBWG) meeting last week to discuss challenges facing bat research, management and conservation. Coordinating with wildlife officials in Canada, the group discussed population-level impacts to hibernating bats and developed the estimate of bats lost to WNS.

In addition to the lack of population data for many bat species, there has also been a lack of consistency in how bat population data was reported among agencies. As part of the May 2011 national WNS response plan, which was developed by the Service in partnership with a team of federal, state, tribal, and NGO scientists, agencies are addressing this by establishing methods for consistent data collection.

The National Plan for Assisting States, Federal Agencies and Tribes in Managing White-Nose Syndrome in Bats provides a framework for the coordination and management of the national WNS investigation response, and the Service leads an extensive network of partners in implementing the plan.

The Service serves as the primary resource for up-to-date information and recommendations for all partners, such as important decontamination protocols for cave researchers and visitors and a cave access advisory that requests a voluntary moratorium on activities in caves in affected states to minimize the potential spread of WNS.

In addition to developing science-based protocols and guidance for land management agencies and other partners to minimize the spread of WNS, the Service has funded numerous research projects to support and assess management recommendations and improve our basic understanding of the dynamics of the disease.

Record number of manatees this week in Broward County A record number of manatees were counted Tuesday in Broward County, as near-perfect conditions made it easier for biologists to see the endangered mammals from the air.

A helicopter survey found 1,192 manatees, the vast majority in the cooling lakes of a Florida Power & Light plant west of Fort Lauderdale Hollywood-International Airport.

Power plants suck in water to cool their turbines, discharging warm water that attracts manatees. The animals can't tolerate cold and flock to the plants when the temperature drops. But there's no food around the power plants, so when the temperature warms, the hungry manatees head up the Intracoastal Waterway to the seagrass beds of Palm Beach County and points farther north.

By the power plant near the airport, biologists counted 947 manatees. Another 129 were around the FPL plant at Port Everglades and most of the rest in travel corridors such as the Intracoastal Waterway and the New River.

Pat Quinn, Broward County's manatee coordinator, said the next few days will be hazardous for manatees, as they swim through the busy boating traffic of the New River and Intracoastal Waterway. He urged boaters to be extra careful.

You can see live webcams of manatees around the state here

Manatee Cams at Blue Spring State Park! One of the most educational and uplifting things undertaken in 2011 by the Save the Manatee Club was the installation of webcams at Blue Spring State Park. It is amazing to watch endangered manatees, including mother and calf pairs, playing in the spring run. And this is just the beginning of the excitement surrounding the webcams there. They give us the opportunity to reach literally millions of people around the globe with our conservation message.

Support for the webcams was made possible by a donation to Save the Manatee Club as a memorial gift in honor of the late Mrs. Norma Norton, a Florida resident who cared deeply for manatees. Mrs. Norton's love for manatees will inspire so many people from all walks of life through Internet and webcam technology. People everywhere will get to know manatees and come to love them, as Mrs. Norton did.

I know you'll be as thrilled as I am to watch manatees on our webcams. Click here to see the manatees live at Blue Spring. In addition, you can read the latest manatee reports from Wayne Hartley, our Manatee Specialist and former Park Ranger and Principal Investigator for manatee research conducted at Blue Spring State Park, and see other manatee videos from the Blue Spring webcams.

A motion sensor camera the Conservancy helped place in China got pictures of a giant panda eating meat! Pandas are vegetarians, right? Well, new findings by Conservancy scientists suggest the issue isn't as black and white (or, er, as green and blood red) as once thought.

Motion sensor cameras were set up this summer in the soon-to-be established Motianling County Land Trust Reserve in northern Sichuan by The Nature Conservancy, Peking University and local government partners. In November they captured images of a giant panda consuming the carcass of a takin, a Himalayan goat-antelope. These photos provide visual confirmation that pandas at least occasionally eat meat in addition to their customary staple of bamboo leaves.

While this isn't news to scientists — evidence in feces has shown that pandas do sometimes eat meat — very few photos exist of a panda actually consuming it.

But the panda's no killer; scientists confirmed that the takin had died of natural causes several days before it was discovered by the panda. "These images show that there is still so much we don't know about their behavior," says Zhao Peng, the Motianling project lead for the Conservancy. "They really are an incredible species."

Everglades and Water Quality Issues

Weed-Eating Fish Keep Flood Control Canals Clear Grass carp are effective biocontrols of invasive aquatic plants.

More than 11,000 fish slid down a chute and into the North New River Canal in late December in a continuing South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) effort to use environmentally friendly biocontrols that keep flood control canals clear of invasive weeds.

"Managing 1,600 miles of flood control canals requires a specialized and ongoing maintenance program to ensure they operate as designed to protect South Florida's residents," said Tommy Strowd, Director of the SFWMD's Operations, Maintenance and Construction Division. "The fish are a natural means to maintain some of the canals and achieve our flood control mission."

The carp, which are farm-raised in Arkansas, serve as highly effective biological controls by eating aquatic vegetation including hydrilla, a rapidly growing invasive plant. Overgrowth of these plants slows water flow and can clog SFWMD structures in canals that must be kept clear for flood control purposes.

Dense hydrilla growth also lowers dissolved oxygen concentrations that are critical to aquatic life. In addition, the invasive plant acts as a breeding ground for mosquitoes and can hamper recreational activities such as boating and fishing, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), a District partner in the grass carp management effort.

Utilizing the hungry fish to keep canals clear significantly reduces or eliminates the need for specially approved herbicides or labor-intensive mechanical means such as a tow boat.

Over a two-year timeframe, about 59,000 fish are being introduced to canals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The grass carp are stocked in strategic canal locations so they cannot enter natural areas, even though the fish are sterile and do not reproduce. Since 2007, the District has invested close to $300,000 in the grass carp program.

Residents also play a role in protecting South Florida's environment from invasive species. One of the primary ways that invasive species — both plant and animal — end up in the natural environment is when they are thrown out or released by people who no longer want them. For example, emptying a tropical aquarium full of live but non-native aquatic plants can have serious consequences for the environment.

Additional information on the District's efforts to control exotic invasive species is available at www.sfwmd.gov .

Drought's return to South Florida may be imminent If you thought last year was dry, this dry season is leaving that record-busting parchfest in the dust.

And that could push Palm Beach County back into official drought territory next month, forecasters warned Monday.

"We could be there as early as mid- to late February," said Barry Baxter, meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Miami. "We are drier than last year."

Only 2.23 inches of rain have fallen at Palm Beach International Airport since Nov. 1, compared with 9.8 inches normally and 3.07 inches at this point last year.

That means 27 percent less rain than last year's dry season, which was the stingiest on record going back at least eight decades.

The dry conditions bring a heightened risk of brush fires and the prospect of tighter watering restrictions.

For now, the South Florida Water Management District has declared a water shortage warning to "encourage continued vigilance and voluntary water conservation."

Under the district's year-round watering policy, residents and businesses with an odd-numbered street address may water lawns and landscapes before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays.

Others may water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Some local ordinances may vary.

Eight inches of rain in a wet October marked a promising start to the dry season. Lake Okeechobee and underground reservoirs are in better shape than they were last year at this time, Baxter said, but the advantage is drying up.

As early as Thursday, the area could earn a "D0," or "abnormally dry" designation, the last stop before "D1," or the start of formal drought conditions, Baxter said.

Conditions in the Pacific Ocean known as La Niña mean a high-pressure system has tended to hover over Florida and deflect moisture-bearing fronts, Baxter said. Things are likely to stay drier than usual through May, he said.

"The risk of wildfires will be increasing as we go through the dry season," Baxter said.

On Jan. 3, Lake Okeechobee stood at 13.65 feet above sea level, more than a foot below its historical average for that day but a foot above the previous year's 12.43. The lake serves as a water reserve important for agriculture as well as residents.

On Monday, the lake level was 13.44 feet, according to the water management district's website.

In December, the Army Corps of Engineers released water from Lake Okeechobee to shore up the Caloosahatchee Estuary. At the time, the lake was at 13.78 feet above sea level and had been stable for many weeks, the corps said.

The year before, the lake stood at 12.52 feet, compared with a historical average of 14.73 feet for that time.

There's not much relief in the forecast. A 20 percent chance of rain Wednesday night in the greater West Palm Beach area represents the most significant chance in the seven-day forecast.

Dry Season Continues with Below-Average December Rainfall Water conservation remains essential to protect public water supplies.

December rainfall from Orlando to the Florida Keys was about half of the average for the month, South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) meteorologists reported. As in November, the dry conditions did not significantly impact regional water supplies, which are at adequate levels.

"December is a naturally dry time in South Florida," said SFWMD Meteorologist Geoff Shaughnessy. "Also, evapotranspiration — the amount of water lost from lakes, streams and vegetation — is at its lowest average in December and January, when temperatures are cooler and sunlight is shorter."

A forecast of below-average rainfall remains in place for the rest of the dry season. A water shortage warning remains in place for the entire 16-county District to encourage water conservation practices.

In December, a total of 0.90 inches of rain fell across the District, representing about half of the average for that time of year, or a deficit of 0.99 inches. A majority of the region received below-average rainfall for the month, with the largest deficits over the Upper Kissimmee and southwestern regions.

Unlike the water supply impacts from record dry conditions in 2010, water levels so far this dry season have been receding slowly. Lake Okeechobee stood at 13.66 feet NGVD on January 1, about a foot below its historical average for that time of year. The 730-square-mile lake, which serves as a backup water supply for South Florida, received a major boost from October rains and remains above its water shortage management zone.

SFWMD Installs Deep Exploratory Wells in Central Florida Test wells will help evaluate the aquifer 2,700 feet below ground

To support and sustain the water supply in Central Florida, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is drilling test wells up to 2,700 feet deep in previously unexplored portions of the Lower Floridan Aquifer.

"The Lower Floridan Aquifer in this area is largely uncharted territory, and its potential for boosting regional supplies is not yet known," said Terrie Bates, Director of the SFWMD Water Resources Division. "This could be a significant and viable alternative source to meet water needs in future years."

The SFWMD Governing Board has approved a contract for additional well drilling and testing, a continuation of an overall exploratory program initiated in 2011. Drilling sites include locations in Osceola and Polk counties.

Traditional water supplies, especially from shallow aquifers, are limited in many parts of the region. Alternative water sources, such as the deep Lower Floridan Aquifer, are being explored for potential use to meet future public water supply demands.

Data from the wells will be provided to the Central Florida Water Initiative — a partnership of utilities; stakeholders; and the South Florida, Southwest Florida and St. Johns River water management districts. The goal of the initiative is to gather additional information on alternative water supply that will potentially increase regional water supplies and improve the ability to protect natural systems.

The drilling operation is a meticulous, time-consuming effort. When drilling half a mile below ground, it takes 50 minutes for the excavated rock to reach the surface.

Lower Floridan Aquifer

In Florida, much of the public water supply comes from groundwater. Florida's aquifers, which supply more than 8 billion gallons of water each day, are among the most productive in the world.

The Floridan Aquifer System is the main source of groundwater in the Kissimmee Basin. It is comprised of multiple layers of rocks overlain by unconsolidated sediments. Some of these rock layers are porous and hold water, while others impede its movement.
The permeable zones of the Upper Floridan aquifers are the main portions used for water supply. Much less is known about the deeper portions of the aquifer.

Research currently under way on the Lower Floridan will help determine the aquifer's depth, water quality and other factors that will help identify its potential, long-term sustainability as a water resource.

By compiling and evaluating data from the test wells, the SFWMD and partner agencies will have a clearer picture of how the Lower Floridan Aquifer operates and how to better manage and protect the region's water.

Judge offers qualified praise for state Glades efforts A Miami federal judge on Thursday commended Gov. Rick Scott for stepping in with a proposal to bust open a legal logjam that for two decades has hampered efforts to stem the flow of pollution into the Everglades.

But the praise from U.S. District Judge Alan Gold was delivered in a cautious tone and included a message that might be summed up by that familiar line from Jerry Maguire: Show me the money.

Gold, who has issued a series of rulings blasting the "glacial delay'' in the federally mandated clean-up, urged state and federal environmental managers negotiating a new Everglades clean-up strategy to come back with a firm plan for both protecting the marsh and - just as important - paying for projects that could easily approach $1 billion or more.

While he said he was encouraged by ongoing talks to resolve two long-running federal lawsuits over farm, ranch and yard pollution poisoning the River of Grass, he cautioned that without a firm financial commitment from water managers and the state, "what we're doing is going around in circles, again.''

The public, he said, deserves "clear answers to these hard questions.... We ought to be about to state clearly what we can and cannot do.''

Christopher Kise, a Tallahassee attorney representing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, tried to reassure the judge, saying that over the past six months there had been "exceptional'' progress in negotiating a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and other federal agencies.

"There is good reason for all of us to be encouraged,'' Kise said. "Are we there today? No. Can we get there in short order? Yes.''

Thursday's hearing was a status conference on progress toward implementing an EPA-designed clean-up plan that Gold approved last April in a lawsuit originally brought in 2005 by the Miccosukee Tribe and the environmental groups Friends of the Everglades.
The EPA plan calls for a massive, $1.5 billion expansion of the network of artificial marshes the state uses to scrub phosphorus, a nutrient that is a prime ingredient in fertilizer, from water flowing into the Everglades. In October, Scott went to Washington to unveil a counter-proposal the state argues can be done quicker and cheaper but will still meet the super-clean water quality standards needed to protect native plants in the Everglades.

Four federal agencies, in a November letter, raised concerns that the state's plan fell short and that it called for "significantly smaller" pollution treatment marshes and pushed back the cleanup deadline to 2022 - two years later than the EPA plan.

But negotiations have heated up over the past few months. Though details have been sketchy, Kise and water managers said the initial plan has significantly changed, with land swaps on the table to expand treatment marshes and discussions to impose additional fertilizer restrictions on farmers.

Gold also pressed the state and EPA to nail down a realistic payment plan, citing a financial report issued Wednesday by Fitch Ratings. The rating agency downgraded the credit standing of the South Florida Water Management District, which bankrolls most Everglades restoration projects, largely because Scott and the Florida Legislature last ordered the state's water districts to reduce their property tax rates by nearly a third.

Kise and Melissa Meeker, the district's executive director, said the governor was committed to finding a way to pay for work that would end the decades of litigation and "get on with the business of restoring the Everglades.''

Paul Schwiep, an attorney for the Friends of the Everglades, said he was skeptical about the state plan, saying it might amount to just another delay tactic - offered only at "the point of a sword'' when the judge threatened to strip authority over Everglades cleanup and hand it to the EPA.

Gold echoed those concerns, saying he was also "uneasy'' about EPA's progress in implementing its plan. The federal agency, he noted, has not scheduled a required public hearing on its plans until after he had scheduled a status hearing - timing that he said seemed "more than coincidence.''

The judge also warned that his "patience was pretty worn'' for legal maneuvers intended to delay cleanup and that he, and the public, would be watching the negotiations closely.

Ethan Shenkman, a deputy assistant attorney general representing the EPA, said he believed the state was negotiating in good faith to resolve the clean-up litigation.

"EPA is not interested in just an empty exercise that will have no other result than delay,'' Shenkman said.

By CURTIS MORGAN Cmorgan@Miamiherald.com

Judge's patience wearing thin on Everglades cleanup Empty exercise or signs of progress? Those were the two conflicting assessments of what happened last week in U.S. District Judge Alan Gold's Miami courtroom.

Gold has taken over the long and litigious case involving Everglades cleanup, which has been stalled in court and out of court for more than two decades. The Miccosukee Indian Tribe filed the suit in 2004, saying the state and feds weren't enforcing the Clean Water Act.

Christopher Kise, a Tallahassee attorney representing the state's interests in the case, tried to reassure Gold, according to reports by Miami Herald

"There is good reason for all of us to be encouraged," Kise told the court, adding: "Are we there today? No. Can we get there in short order? Yes."

Last week's hearing was yet another baby step forward and who knows how many steps backward that have hampered efforts to stop pollution and restore the wetlands and water quality in the River of Grass.

Last year, the EPA in Washington proposed a $1.5 billion restoration plan focused on expanding huge, manmade, buffering marshes used to filter phosphorous from the water before it flows into the Everglades.

Then Gov. Rick Scott entered the fray, urging a less-costly alternative, which he's asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to press in negotiations between Tallahassee and Washington. At last week's hearing, Gold signaled to all parties engaged in those talks to come up with a plan -- and, more importantly -- a way to pay for it.

As the judge duly noted, a financial report issued last week by Fitch Ratings downgraded the credit standing of the South Florida Water Management District, which pays for most Everglades restoration projects.

Why the downgrade? Well, because last year the governor and the Florida Legislature ordered the state's water districts to reduce property taxes by nearly a third.

With the history of promises made and broken, Gold appeared to be skeptical.

As Morgan reported, Gold told the parties appearing in his courtroom that the public deserves "clear answers to these hard questions. We ought to be able to state clearly what we can and cannot do."

That seems like a pretty open and transparent test for the state to meet. And until they do, Everglades cleanup remains stalled and all the rhetoric heard last week merely an empty exercise.

Researcher fears the unknown in Georgia-Pacific effluent Environmentalists and researchers have long felt fear when confronted with a proposed pipeline that will carry waste away from a Palatka paper mill and into the St. Johns River. For at least one scientist, it's a fear of the unknown.

The St. Johns Riverkeeper, the independent watchdog agency for the lower river basin, worries that the effluent might contain cancer-causing dioxins — a claim backed up by scientific research. But others, like Lucinda Sonnenberg, a researcher at Jacksonville University, are more concerned with what else might be in the water.

Because Georgia-Pacific could not meet color and conductivity standards in Rice Creek, where it has discharged its waste for the last 65 years, the company was ordered to construct a pipeline from its Palatka mill into the St. Johns River, the idea being that the pollution would be somewhat diluted.

Sonnenberg has spent a lot of time examining the effluent coming out of Georgia-Pacific's Palatka mill, and was contracted by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to review the company's efforts to improve its effluent so that it could continue to be discharged into Rice Creek.

"What concerns me outside of my work with the DEP is the other contaminants whose source we don't know," Sonnenberg says.

"According to the DEP, at some point … dioxin in fish in Rice Creek was an issue," says Sonnenberg. "I would venture to speak for my colleagues at the DEP, that there have certainly been concerns with dioxins in the past. Otherwise, I'm not sure what the impetus was of the department to instigate additional studies."

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection admits that, historically, "dioxin was a part of [Georgia-Pacific]'s waste stream" but says that it was "fixed with new technologies."

"[The company] upgraded their bleaching sequence in 2001 to replace elemental chlorine with chlorine dioxide," says Dee Ann Miller, a spokesperson for the department. "This conversion to a much more protective method of pulp treatment is considered to be one of the best methods to address dioxin in pulp and paper mill discharges. Improvements have been seen in fish tissue sampling for dioxin and the Florida Department of Health reviewed fish tissue samples collected and analyzed from Rice Creek and the St. Johns River and determined the levels found do not constitute a potential health hazard."

Studying dioxins can prove difficult, though — especially with the state's regulatory climate. Sonnenberg tells of one instance in which a study found that there were levels of dioxins in the wastewater that exceeded the permit limit established by the state, but the study, though conducted by the EPA, was not an EPA-approved method for testing dioxins.

"Here's where the crux is: We have this really weird anomaly in our dioxin regulations," she says. "The water quality standard concentration is 1,000 times less than the lowest level that we can measure. Or put another way, the lowest level that we can measure is 1,000 times higher than the water quality standard. … So you can have two things that are absolutely true but can be found, nonsensically, to be contrary to each other."

Wildlife and Habitat

Putting Farmland on a Fertilizer Diet The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a document recently that got no attention on the nightly news, or almost anywhere, really. Its title, I'm sure you'll agree, is a snooze: National Nutrient Management Standard.

Yet this document represents the agency's best attempt to solve one of the country's - and the world's - really huge environmental problems: The nitrogen and phosphorus that pollute waterways.

There's a simple reason why this problem is so big, and so hard to solve. Farmers have to feed their fields, before those fields can feed us. Without fertilizer, harvests would dwindle. But lakes, estuaries, and coastal waters lie downstream from highly fertilized farmland, and now they are choking to death on too much nutrition.....

So around the world, environmentalists and scientists are mobilizing to fight the plague of over-nutrition. That's where the new USDA document comes in. It lays out a host of steps that farmers can take - and will have to take, if they get funding from certain USDA programs - to minimize the spread of nutrients outside farm fields.

Essentially, it involves putting farmland on a sensible diet. Only feed the land as much as it really needs. And don't apply fertilizer, including manure, when the crops don't need it. Also, try to capture and store any excess nutrients. For instance, grow wintertime "cover crops" that can trap free nitrogen before it leaches into groundwater....

Restoring the Everglades Together the federal government and state of Florida are transforming this area into an ecological gem, where the endangered Florida panther and other native plants and animals may once again thrive. Overland water flows will benefit the coastal estuaries and surrounding parks and wildlife preserves, and will recharge the aquifer. The short video story explains the transformation in more detail.

This project involves the restoration of natural water flow across 85 square miles in western Collier County that were drained in the early 1960s in anticipation of extensive residential development. This subsequent development dramatically altered the natural landscape, changing a healthy wetland ecosystem into a distressed environment. Wetlands will be restored in Picayune Strand (Southern Golden Gate Estates) and in adjacent public lands by reducing over-drainage, while restoring a natural and beneficial sheetflow of water to the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge. The refined project includes 83 miles of canal plugs, 227 miles of road removal, and the addition of pump stations (3) and spreader swales to aid in rehydration of the wetlands.

Protection levees are planned for adjacent private properties impacted by the project along with maintenance of flood protection for the Northern Golden Gate Estates residential area. The project significantly increases the size and improves major wetland ecosystems in adjacent lands including the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, and Collier Seminole State Park; benefiting threatened and endangered species such as the Florida panther and the red cockaded woodpecker. Water quality and large salinity fluctuation, caused by freshwater flowing from the Faka-Union Canal into the estuaries, will also be improved. In addition, the project provides public access and recreational opportunities.

US Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District, and its partners are working hard to restore the treasured Everglades ecosystem. Check out these videos to learn more.

http://www.evergladesplan.org/facts_info/videos.aspx#top

Bristol Bay is an economic engine for Alaska. The bay –referred to as America's Fish Basket – is home to a fishing industry that produces almost 40 percent of the wild-caught seafood eaten in the United States, including salmon and halibut. With good tasting fish comes a plethora of jobs.

The Bristol Bay fishing industry creates more than 12,000 jobs for fishermen and processors – those who harvest the fish from Alaska's frigid bay – who live in the state year-round or just during fishing season. And it creates jobs for people nationwide who have a connection to the industry, such as those who:

Produce bait and gear for the fishermen to use when harvesting fish
Build the boats used by fishermen
Buy the fish, then sell it to retailers
Sell the fish at restaurants or grocery stores

Add up all of these jobs – as well as other revenue, like dollars generated through the sale of boats and the fish itself – and the annual value of Bristol Bay's fisheries is almost $5.4 billion dollars. This was found in a recent WWF study assessing the five commercial fisheries in Bristol Bay and its adjacent waterways.

The figure would be even higher if we could put a dollar value on the other benefits of the bay, including biodiversity, recreation, scenic amenities and social and cultural significance.

Even without these benefits factored in, the value of the bay's fisheries over 40 years ($216 billion) far exceeds the U.S. government's estimated value of oil and gas development in the region over the same time period ($7.7 billion), as noted in the study.

Global Warming and Climate Change

Protecting 10 Vulnerable Ecosystems from Climate Change Climate change is the largest threat that our natural heritage has ever faced. The effects of climate disruption are already being felt on even our most pristine landscapes. Setting aside areas where development is restricted is no longer enough — we must now actively work to create resilient habitats where plants, animals, and people are able to survive and thrive on a warmer planet.

Visit here and click on the images to learn more

Birds and Butterflies are adapting slowly to climate change For the past 20 years, the climate in Europe has been getting warmer. Species of bird and butterfly which thrive in cool temperatures therefore need to move further north. However, they have difficulty adapting to the warmer climate quickly enough, as shown by new research published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

Åke Lindström is Professor of Animal Ecology at Lund University, Sweden. Together with other European researchers he has looked at 20 years' worth of data on birds, butterflies and summer temperatures. During this period, Europe has become warmer and set temperatures have shifted northwards by 250 km. Bird and butterfly communities have not moved at the same rate.

"Both butterflies and birds respond to climate change, but not fast enough to keep up with an increasingly warm climate. We don't know what the long-term ecological effects of this will be", says Åke Lindström.

Butterflies have adapted more quickly to the changing temperatures and have moved on average 114 km north, whereas birds have only moved 37 km. A likely reason is that butterflies have much shorter lifespans and therefore adapt more quickly to climate change. Because birds like to return to the same breeding ground as in previous years, there is also greater inertia in the bird system.

"A worrying aspect of this is if birds fall out of step with butterflies, because caterpillars and insects in general represent an important source of food for many birds", says Åke Lindström.

Sweden shows the strongest trends with regard to birds; however, there is no corresponding Swedish data for butterflies. For the study, the birds have been divided into 'cold' and 'warm' species, i.e. birds that thrive in slightly cooler or warmer temperatures. For example, chaffinches and reed buntings are 'colder' species and blackcaps and goldfinches 'warmer' species. In general, the researchers have observed that 'warm' birds are on the increase and 'cold' birds are in decline. When new species are seen in an area and others disappear, it is more often 'warm' species that arrive and 'cold' species that disappear.

Åke Lindström said "Over the past 50 years the main factors affecting bird and butterfly numbers and distribution have been agriculture, forestry and urbanization. Climate change is now emerging as an increasingly important factor in the development of biodiversity. For Sweden, this will probably mean more species of bird in the long run; many new species are already arriving from the continent."

Åke Lindström works among other things on the projects BECC (Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in a Changing Climate) and CanMove (Centre for Animal Movement Research) at Lund University in Sweden. The study is a joint European project with data from 20 years and seven countries (Spain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the UK, Finland and the Czech Republic). The Swedish data covers birds and temperatures and has been gathered on behalf of the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

The Broward County Climate Change Task Force was created in 2008 to develop recommendations for the Board of County Commissioners on mitigation and adaptation strategies to reduce climate change impacts to the county. The Broward Climate Change Action Plan (Action Plan) was developed in 2010 through analysis of climate science, community participation, and the recommendations of the Task Force. A series of recommendations were created with the analysis of three main types of information: sea level rise projections, greenhouse gas emissions and sources, and a coastal vulnerability assessment.

The Action Plan recommends the county to:

Create an Office of Sustainability/Climate Program
Support a regional collaborative climate action plan
Collaborate on joint legislative policies with neighboring counties
Amend the county's comprehensive plan
Support Everglades restoration and enhance the urban ecosystem
Incorporate climate change adaptation into public infrastructure planning
Protect water resources
Improve modeling, monitoring, and mappings
Amend zoning and building regulations
Create a functional mass transportation system
Develop renewable and alternative energy program
Increase recycling and promote zero waste
Support marketing and incentives in energy conservation for low income households
Provide climate change community outreach and education on mitigation and adaptation strategies

Other Broward County climate change initiatives include:

Green effort to reduce greenhouse gases in Broward county government operations.
School Conservation and Climate Change Challenge program (the C3 Challenge).
A climate change leadership summit to develop regional collaboration with the neighboring counties in south Florida including Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Monroe counties. The result of the summit was a climate compact ratified by all four Counties in January 2010.
Carbon footprint training for municipalities in the county and the launch of a website to provide climate and energy program-related resources for municipalities.

Project Outcomes and Conclusions

Broward County has been successful in catalyzing and initiating a climate program for the region. Through the recommendations of the Broward County Climate Change Task Force and the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Leadership Summit recommendations, Broward County is in the position to partner in the development of a regional climate change action plan in south Florida with adjacent counties Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, and Monroe.

Energy

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam wants lawmakers to develop a comprehensive energy policy for Florida — a topic they've shelved for several years.

Putnam is pushing 11 proposals that he says will start the state on a path to energy diversity by reducing its dependency on natural gas.

But he's moving with caution.

The last person to push for energy reform in Florida was former Gov. Charlie Crist. Crist called for sweeping reform in 2007 when attacking climate change was more politically popular. A year after he left office, Crist's policies lie dormant in statutes or have been repealed.

Putnam said in an interview that his approach is "more market-oriented, more modest."

"I think it reflects better capability of new technologies rather than what we think they might one day be," Putnam said.

Highlights include: allowing utilities to charge ratepayers for the cost of developing 75 megawatts or 1 percent of their generating capacity from renewable energy; allowing utilities to enter into approved financing projects with renewable energy companies, something they can already do with publicly owned solid waste facilities; and reviving $16 million in tax breaks for investments in renewable energy technology and production.

Putnam acknowledges his platform isn't earth-shattering. Still, several renewable energy supporters said they're grateful someone is starting to shoulder the cause for energy diversity and conservation.

"We would always like to see more aggressive efforts to move the needle faster," said Susan Glickman of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "But it was a pleasant change to have a statewide leader starting that conversation."

Cuba: Oil Exploration Could Boost Economy But Threaten Florida The arrival of a deep water rig to explore for oil off Cuba's northern coast raises the prospect of huge revenues that could revive Cuba's command economy and undermine U.S. sanctions. It may also lead to huge oil spills that could affect the Florida coast.

Cuba's offshore oil development plans are a consequence of U.S. sanctions that bar American oil companies from exploring for oil in Cuban waters. To get around the sanctions, Havana has engaged non-American firms to build an oil rig using less than 10 percent U.S. technology, which prevents Cuba from using a blow-out protector that might avoid an oil spill similar to the $40 billion BP Deepwater Horizon disaster of 2010.

Land Conservation

Secretary of Interior Announces Establishment of Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area As part of President Obama's America's Great Outdoors initiative, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today accepted a 10-acre donation of land in south-central Florida to officially establish the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area, conserving one of the last remaining grassland and longleaf pine savanna landscapes in eastern North America.

The land, donated by The Nature Conservancy, is part of the Hatchineha Ranch south of Kissimmee and provides valuable habitat for a wide variety of wildlife including bald eagles, swallow-tailed kites and gopher tortoises.

"The Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area is an example of the 21st century approach to conservation envisioned by President Obama when he unveiled his America's Great Outdoors initiative last year," Salazar said. "Working in close partnership with landowners, we are bolstering ongoing efforts to conserve the Everglades in the Kissimmee Valley, while ensuring the area's ranching and farming heritage remains strong."

The new refuge and conservation area is the 556th unit of the National Wildlife Refuge System managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

If fully realized, the refuge and conservation area will span 150,000 acres north of Lake Okeechobee. Two-thirds of the acreage, or 100,000 acres, will be protected through conservation easements purchased from willing sellers. With easements, private landowners would retain ownership of their land, as well as the right to work the land to raise cattle or crops. The easements would ensure the land could not be developed.

Wildlife Conservation Commission and other state agencies, conservation organizations, user groups, Native American Tribes and federal agencies [cooperated] in the creation of the new refuge and conservation area.

"The refuge and conservation area supports the Fish and Wildlife Service's emphasis on strategic habitat conservation at a landscape level by building on the large number of ongoing conservation efforts in the Kissimmee River Valley," Service Director Dan Ashe said. "One of the criteria to consider for all acquisitions, whether through easements or purchase of fee title, is whether the acquisition will connect existing conservation lands and create habitat corridors for plants and animals."

For more information: EvergladesHeadwaters@fws.gov

http://www.fws.gov/southeast/evergladesheadwaters/

Charlie Pelizza, Refuge Manager, 772.581.5557

A Thousand Miles of Florida Splendor Captured in 100 Days Many folks have explored Florida's vast wilderness and shared their experiences along the way. But on Tuesday, a photographer, a bear biologist, a conservationist and a filmmaker began a journey of 1,000 miles to bring awareness to the need for a statewide network of connected natural areas throughout Florida.

Photographer Carlton Ward Jr., biologist Joe Guthrie, conservationist Mallory Lykes Dimmitt and documentary filmmaker Elam Stoltzfus began their Florida Wildlife Corridor Expedition in Everglades National Park and will travel for 100 days to reach their final destination – the Okefenokee National Forest in southern Georgia.

All along the journey, the group will document the diverse habitats – watersheds, forests, farms and ranches – over which they travel. The message they hope to get out is the need to preserve Florida's forests, waterbodies and wildlife habitats as a way of ensuring clean air, water and protection for many of Florida's wildlife species, including the threatened Florida black bear and endangered Florida panther.

The 1,000-mile expedition route will take the team through and around many ecosystems and well-known landmarks, such as Babcock Ranch, Kissimmee Chain of Lakes and the St. Johns River. Reporters, politicians, landowners and other guests will join the team at various points throughout the journey.

Interested followers can tag along on the 1,000-mile trek with the team as they explore migration corridors, learn about the farming and ranching communities and discover potential eco-tourism opportunities along the way.

To track their 100-day adventure and experience the journey virtually, follow the team on the Florida Expedition website or Facebook and read about their adventures on Twitter.

Grand Canyon Victory: New mining ban at last! We're happy to report the Interior Department has announced a prohibition on mining at the Grand Canyon and the surrounding watersheds for the next 20 years.

New mining claims will be prohibited across more than 1 million acres of public lands making up Grand Canyon National Park's watershed, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Jan. 9.

Development of valid mining claims staked before the ban will continue to be permitted, but the recent decision will prevent additional mining development from further threatening the magnificent lands in the Grand Canyon watershed.

Further mining would industrialize the iconic wild lands flanking the park with:

new roads
mines
exploration drilling
power lines
truck traffic

All of this industrial activity threatens to damage wildlife habitat and world-class hunting grounds.

The Grand Canyon's watershed is a complex groundwater flow system that extends miles north and south of the National Park's boundary. If contaminated by uranium mining, those aquifers would be impossible to clean up—a point acknowledged by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.

The aquifers feed the Grand Canyon's springs and creeks, which provide haven for up to 500 times more species than adjacent uplands — including threatened, endangered and even endemic species found only in Grand Canyon National Park.

By industrializing the Grand Canyon region and risking permanent pollution of its soil and water resources, uranium mining would also threaten the Southwest's robust tourism economy — for which Grand Canyon National Park is the primary economic engine.

The outdoor recreation business in Arizona annually supports 82,000 jobs, generates almost $350 million in state tax revenue, and stimulates about $5 billion in retail sales and services. Rafting companies, outfitters, gear manufacturers, hotels and restaurants all benefit tremendously from the Grand Canyon's unpolluted water, air and vistas.

The Interior Department's decision on this ban reinforces the role the agency should play in managing our public lands by evaluating the various uses in the region and safeguarding fragile lands from permanent damage.

In Memoriam

Dave Gaillard with Defenders of Wildlife

Mike Tyner of Ventana Wildlife Society

It is with great sadness that we say goodbye to Dave and Mike, two conservationists who truly made a difference for our wildlife and wild places. They left this world too early, but made it a better place for all.

Warren Baxter Ballard Jr, Wildlife Society member

2011-12-20T05:07:00.000-08:00

"Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth, seeking

choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will provide a sustainable future, eliminate pollution,

poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life and foster peaceful progress in the human adventure."

John McConnell, founder of International Earth Day

Announcements

See A Manatee?

- Call Promptly

The days are getting cooler, and Eastern Seaboard and Gulf of Mexico residents are asked to report

sightings of endangered manatees to their local Marine Mammal Stranding Network.

Stranding network phone numbers are posted at the following link:

www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/networks.htm

Feathers & Friends Gala

Public EventAnyone can see and join this event

· By Collier County Audubon Society

•

When

Thursday, February 9, 2012

•

Time

10:30am until 1:30pm

Description

Come out and support Collier County Audubon Society and Corkscrew Swamp

Sanctuary by attending our Feathers & Friends Gala 2012. With keynote speaker,

award winning author, Carl Hiaasen, hors d'oeuvres and dinner, it's an evening not

to be missed!

Victory for Endangered Species Act

Our win to defend the Endangered Species Act against weakening amendments was a strong bright spot in

this past year's legislative calendar. A true David and Goliath fight, the House vote that swung our way

signaled a hopeful sign that we could muster bipartisan support for some of our most cherished conservation

values.

The attack came in the form of language buried in the Interior Appropriations bill that would have prevented

the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from spending money to provide safety net protections of the Act to 260

critcally imperiled species. The so-called Extinction Rider was removed through an amendment offered by

long-time environmental champion Norm Dicks (D-WA), which passed by a bipartisan vote of 222-202. It

was a good victory but it won't be the last fight we see to protect the ESA from attacks. Already the House is

looking for other ways to weaken this cornerstone law to protect our most vulnerable birds, wildlife and

plants

Florida Panthers

Hendry panther in go slow zone

http://www.eco-voice.org/node/12441

Elizabeth Fleming

Working in Defenders' Florida office, panthers tend to be on my mind more often than not. But though

I've worked over 7 years to help bring the big cat to recovery, I've never actually seen one in the wild.

Until now.

This Tuesday, I was driving along the Four Sections road in Okaloacoochee Slough State Forest.

Accompanied by wildlife ecologist and expert wildlife tracker Sue Morse and longtime Defenders

supporter Barbara Long, we were coming to the close of a busy few days, having hosted a successful

Big Cats of North America presentation and a weekend workshop to train Panther Citizen Assistance

Taskforce volunteers to help Defenders respond to reports about panthers. We were driving in the area's

prime panther habitat. It was almost 5pm, the witching hour for animal activity. Lots of deer were out

foraging and the three of us had our eyes peeled for movement along the side of the road.

Suddenly, a panther bounded in front of our car. Uncollared, the cat was a beautiful tawny color,

probably a female or young male. It wasn't moving very fast, but its three leaps across the road lasted

only seconds- I barely had enough time to shout "Panther!" to my companions before it disappeared

from sight. I was speechless, and without the two of them with me, I might have been convinced I

made the whole thing up.

Our brief encounter with the cat couldn't have been more timely. Before our welcome interruption, we'd

been on our way to the Hendry County Board of County Commissioners meeting, where

Commissioners were voting to designate 5.25 miles of CR 832/Keri Road as a slow speed nighttime

panther zone.......

Endangered Species

Sightings of black bears up in Florida; wildlife officials debate plan

Wildlife officials are trying to figure out how to deal with a burgeoning population of bears in Florida.

The F

lorida Times-Union reports sightings of bears have been on an uptick. The state received more

than 4,000 calls reporting bears last year, up nearly fourfold from a decade earlier.

A rebound in the American black bear population has been recorded since the animal was listed as

threatened in the 1970s.

The state is now proposing a new plan to manage the bear population. The Fish and Wildlife

Commission is accepting online suggestions on its proposal through Jan. 10.

In a series of public meetings on the plan, some have called for allowing the hunting of black bears, but

the proposal does not include such language.

Everglades and Water Supply Issues

NBC's Chuck Todd to headline Everglades summit

On January 17th and 18th, 2012 the Everglades

Foundation will be hosting a first of its kind event in Tallahassee, Florida. The Everglades Water

Supply Summit will be filled with informative, thought-provoking events designed to build momentum

towards the restoration of a national treasure and to secure Florida's water supply.

Moderator for the event is NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Chuck Todd. A Florida

native, Todd, also is NBC’s political director as well as host of the morning MSNBC show, The Daily

Rundown. Todd also appears frequently on the NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, and other programs

as a political analyst. Before joining NBC, Todd was editor-in-chief of The Hotline.

“We are thrilled that Chuck is joining us for this historic event,” said Paul Tudor Jones, II, chairman of

the Everglades Foundation. “He is an important and thoughtful voice in our nation’s political

discourse.”

The Water Supply Summit will also feature a performance by singer Gavin Degraw, at The Moon, on

the evening of January 17.

Our sense of urgency has never been greater. In 2011, Florida suffered from one of the worst drought’s

in the state’s history. It was the third drought in ten years and meteorologists are predicting another

drought in 2012.

Lack of rain has sparked wildfires across the state. Destructive algae blooms harmed the

Caloosahatchee River and the economy that depends on the river. The city of West Palm Beach and the

Town of Palm Beach were within days of running out of water. In Palm Beach County a war over

scarce water supplies is looming. And those are just some examples of the extraordinary, ongoing

damage caused by the drought.

During the Water Supply Summit, we will focus on the need to provide a secure and reliable water

supply for the 7 million Floridians who depend on the Everglades ecosystem as their main source of

fresh drinking water.

We will exam long overdue remedies – storing rainwater, cleaning it, and supplying it those who need

it. We will renew the call to restore the Everglades not only as a critical supplier of our water but as

crucial part of Florida’s economic wellbeing.

Our Tallahassee Water Supply Summit follows the successful 2010 America’s Everglades Summit in

Washington, D.C. That summit featured top state and federal leaders, as well as hundreds of supporters

of the Everglades. Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw hosted a discussion on the challenges

facing Everglades Restoration.

“The success of our Washington Summit told us that legislators and policy leaders are eager to

participate in discussions about how to improve and enhance our fresh water supply,” said Kirk

Fordham, Everglades Foundation CEO. “We look forward to bringing that discussion to Tallahassee at

a time when legislators will be in session making critical decisions about the future of Everglades

restoration.”

Jones said the Water Supply Summit is a unique opportunity for Gov. Rick Scott and Florida

lawmakers to discuss with business leaders and concerned Floridians possible solutions to our growing

water crisis.

“Anytime you can bring together people who care deeply about Florida’s economy, the Everglades and

the future of our water supply, you create an opportunity to find answers that will work,” said Jones.

The Water Supply Summit will also be a high-energy, entertaining, multi-media event, said Jerry

Karnas, Everglades Foundation communications director.

“Our approach is to enlighten, educate and entertain,” said Karnas. “We’re particularly excited about

having singer, songwriter Gavin Degraw, perform at The Water Supply Summit. Degraw’s albums have

topped the charts and he will bring excitement and energy to the summit.”

Everglades restoration is worth it

In November, the Everglades Coalition held 25 meetings with

Florida elected officials in five counties throughout the state for the Coalition's first Everglades

Education Week.

Representatives from the Coalition's 54 organizations discussed the importance of continuing the

momentum for investing in Everglades restoration, building up to the 27th annual Everglades Coalition

Conference, Everglades Restoration: Worth Every Penny, which will be hosted on Hutchinson Island

Jan. 5-8.

During the past three years, Everglades restoration projects have generated 10,500 jobs with more than

442,000 jobs expected to be created over the next several decades in tourism, real estate and

commercial and recreational fishing industries. Now, more than 10 years after the original

Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was adopted by Congress, restoration projects are well

under way and Floridians are reaping the benefits.

* Restoration replenishes and protects the drinking water supply for Floridians and supplies water for

agriculture, recreation and commerce.

* Everglades National Park generates more than $165 million in visitor spending each year.

* For every dollar invested in Everglades restoration, $4 is generated in economic benefits to the

public.

* America's Everglades is recognized as one of the world's most unique and spectacular natural

wonders.

Florida lawmakers must support and maximize our investment in the Everglades. Each time we turn

dirt on an Everglades restoration project we are creating jobs and fulfilling a promise to protect our

national parks, wildlife and family memories for our children and grandchildren to enjoy.

Dawn Shirreffs, co-chair, National Everglades Coalition, Hollywood

Julie Hill-Gabriel, co-chair, State Everglades Coalition, Miami

Seven Florida Republicans Balked at $1 Trillion Federal Spending Bill

The $1 trillion omnibus

spending bill passed the U.S. House Friday without the help of seven Florida representatives.

Conservatives assailed the measure, which passed 296-121, for a variety of reasons.

Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, noted that the bill spends $31.6 billion more than the House-passed

budget plan and nearly $10 billion more than the bipartisan Budget Control Act agreed to in August.

"Too many in Washington still do not take seriously $1.4 trillion annual budget deficits, adding billions

of dollars each and every day to our nation's $15 trillion national debt. This bill failed to exercise the

restraint needed to get our own budget in order.

"The decision to abandon the 72-hour requirement for this 1,217-page bill and rush through a stack of

spending bills that should have been subjected to thorough review is disappointing," Posey said.

Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Tallahassee, said the "megabus" H.R. 2055 did not go nearly far enough in

scaling back the excesses of Washington.

"If you want to get out of a hole, you've got to stop digging. Fixing this fiscal mess is going to take

game-changing spending cuts, a balanced budget, and common sense regulatory policies that create an

environment for job creation and economic growth," Southerland said.

Rep. David Rivera, R-Miami, voted against the budget bill after congressional negotiators, bowing to a

veto threat, eliminated restrictions on Cuba travel.

"Today, President Barack Obama reaffirmed his allegiance to Fidel and Raul Castro and confirmed his

status as the Castro brothers' best ally and chief lobbyist in Washington," Rivera charged.

"My vote against this budget is intended to demonstrate my willingness to continue fighting the Obama

administration's policy of appeasement and unilateral concessions toward the Castro regime."

The four other Florida Republicans voting against the measure were Sandy Adams, R-Orlando; Connie

Mack, R-Naples; Dennis Ross, R-Tampa; and Cliff Stearns, R-Ocala.

Florida's Ranchlands Helping to Preserve Landscapes, Protect and Improve Waters

Leaders of

the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the South Florida Water Management District and

the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services recently marked the expansion of an

innovative, cost-saving land management strategy with the signing of partnership agreements with

eight Florida ranchers.

Read more

Land Conservation

Bill would create alternative review option for larger developments

A bill filed last week by the

chairman of the Senate Committee on Community Affairs would create an alternative review process

supported by developers for certain large development projects that remain subject to state review.

State law since 1972 has designated larger developments as "developments of regional impact" that are

subject to reviews by state agencies and planning councils. Developers for many years have sought

changes to the DRI processes to eliminate what they considered to be duplicative or burdensome

regulation.

The Committee on Community Affairs, in an interim report published in November, recommended

keeping the DRI process despite recent changes in growth management law that substantially reduced

state oversight of local growth management decisions.

In 2009, SB 360, signed by then-Gov. Charlie Crist, eliminated the DRI process in designated "dense

urban land use areas." More than half of Florida's 411 cities and eight of Florida's larger counties

qualified for the exemption in 2009.

This year, SB 1180 by Sen. Mike Bennett, R-Bradenton and committee chairman, would allow local

governments in cities and counties still subject to the DRI process to direct those larger developments

into an alternative "coordinated review" process.

State agencies still would comment on projects without their having to go through the DRI process,

said Linda Loomis Shelley, an attorney representing the Association of Florida Community Developers.

She said the bill, which her association supports, would allow local governments that remain subject to

the DRI process to provide faster approval when they are competing for projects.

"The local government can say, 'No'; we don't change that," said Shelley, a former Department of

Community Affairs secretary. "They can say, 'Yes.' It is not a mandate."

She noted that mining and industrial projects already were exempted from the process in 2011 by the

Legislature when it made other changes to the growth management laws. Bennett could not be reached

for comment.

The Florida Regional Councils Association has not had time to review the legislation. But Brian Teeple,

the association's vice chairman and chief executive officer of the Northeast Florida Regional Council,

said the local governments he works with tell him they like having the additional review now.

"Linda must operate in different parts of the state than Northeast Florida," Teeple said. "By and large

the local governments in my region which are not [exempt as Dense Urban Land Areas] like the DRI

process. It gives them the opportunity to have someone else do the heavy lifting with very large

projects they are less able to deal with."

SB 1180 also allows changes to DRIs without further review by state agencies and regional planning

councils if they do not reduce open space or increase the amount of traffic to and from the

development.

The bill also restricts reviewing agencies to recommendations or comments regarding a proposed

development which are consistent with the statutes, rules or adopted local ordinances that are

applicable to all developments in the jurisdiction where the proposed development is located.

Energy

Florida bill pushes drilling in old wells

A bill sponsored by a Naples state representative would give a

tax break to companies that go back to drill in abandoned oil wells or drill new wells in fields that are

more than 30 years old.

Rep. Matt Hudson, R-Naples, said his bill seeks to boost production, revenue and jobs for the state. The

bill targets oil fields in Southwest Florida and the Panhandle.

“What we do is create a new category of oil called mature oil, and in doing so we allow for

rejuvenation of wells that were previously capped,” as well as new wells drilled in “mature” fields,

Hudson said. Instead of exploring elsewhere, companies can go to fields where they know oil exists, he

said. The remaining oil is harder to extract, so the tax break would save companies money by helping

offset the drilling cost.

House Bill 87 would apply to oil fields that were discovered before 1981 and wells that would begin

producing oil after July 1, 2012.

That would include fields in which all wells are abandoned or plugged; fields that have some active and

abandoned or plugged wells; and fields where new wells are being drilled, as long as all the fields were

discovered before 1981, Hudson said.

The bill cleared its first hurdle Tuesday with a 10-4 approval by the House Energy & Utilities

Subcommittee. The bill has been forwarded to the Finance and Tax Committee.

Natural gas stations on horizon

Natural gas fueling stations could open to the public within the next

12 months in Lee County, possibly helping businesses, car owners and companies with large fleets of

vehicles save money.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20111218/NEWS01/312180030/Natural-gas-stations-horizon

Panel warns of ongoing hazards posed by offshore drilling

A new report issued by The National

Academy of Engineering

, a government-created nonprofit, concludes that the lack of regulation and

ineffective safety management practices that led to BP’s catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico

have not been fully remedied — leaving communities in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and

Louisiana potentially vulnerable to another oil spill.

The blowout and explosion of BP’s Macondo well killed 11 workers and led to the largest oil spill in

U.S. history.

According to National Academy’s Deepwater Horizon Committee, “companies involved in offshore

drilling should take a ‘system safety’ approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every

level of operation — from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function

‘under all foreseeable conditions.’” In addition, according to the report, “an enhanced regulatory

approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points

during drilling operations.”

Some of the report recommendations:

•

Expanding the formal education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling to ensure

that they can properly implement system safety.

•

Establishing guidelines so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible

risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process.

•

Testing cemented and mechanical barriers designed to contain the flow of hydrocarbons in

wells, to ensure that they are effective (and subjecting those tests to independent reviews).

Read more

New Framework for Bird-friendly Energy Transmission

This year, Audubon led an effort to foster better planning of electric power facilities by helping ensure that

power producers, power grid planners, and state regulators would have the information they need in order to

avoid environmentally sensitive lands. A year ago there were no concrete plans to develop the needed

geospatial planning tools that could help this to happen. Today, that work is underway and on track for

completion late in 2012, and Audubon is providing regular input as this work progresses. To ensure a more

robust wildlife information base, we have brought the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies on board to

help ensure that the best information from each affected state is incorporated. Together, we will be tracking

and guiding the development of this new planning tool throughout the coming year.

Global Warming and Climate Change

South Florida Dry Season Begins With a Dry November

Below-average rainfall marked the first month of

South Florida's dry season. November's sparse rainfall had minimal impact on regional water supplies, however,

because record October rains replenished resources from Orlando to the Florida Keys, including Lake

Okeechobee.

"The short-term water supply outlook is favorable, and the next few months of typically cooler weather means we

lose less water to evaporation," said Susan Sylvester, SFWMD Chief of the Water Control Operations Bureau.

"But we still have a forecast of below-average rainfall for the rest of the dry season, so we must remain cautious.

For water managers, this means continuing to store as much water as possible. For residents, this means

continuing good water conservation practices."

A total of 0.75 inches of rain fell across the 16-county District in November, representing 32 percent of the

average for that time of year, or a deficit of 1.61 inches. All areas of the region were below average for the month,

with the largest deficits along the east coast.

Lake Okeechobee stood at 13.81 feet NGVD at the beginning of December, about a foot below its historical

average for that time of year. The 730-square-mile lake, which serves as a backup water supply for South Florida,

also received a major boost from October rains, rising about 2.5 feet since September 30. This moved the lake

above its water shortage management zone.

In response to these improved regional water resource conditions, the SFWMD Governing Board in October

rescinded water shortage orders for South Florida, many of which had been in place since March of this year.

South Florida's plan for rising sea levels likely to affect transportation, water supply and low-lying

development

The first draft of a regional plan to alleviate the impacts of climate change includes 102

recommendations for South Florida governments to consider.

"If we are able to take action and we are able to implement the regional climate plan, it gives us the opportunity to

change our future," said Nancy Gassman, a Broward County natural resource administrator who was among the

speakers last week in Key Largo at the two-day conference in which the Southeast Regional Action Plan was

unveiled.

The conference, the Third Annual Regional Climate Summit, is part of a collaborative effort of Palm Beach,

Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties to prepare jointly for the effects global warming will have on lowlying

South Florida.

The four counties are projecting that warming seas and melting polar ice caps will lead to 3 to 7 inches of sea

level rise by 2030 -- on top of the 9 inches the sea is measured to have risen in the past century. The counties

project 9 to 24 inches of sea level rise by 2060.

Rising waters would imperil local communities, threaten Florida's underground freshwater supply, make farmland

vulnerable and impact animal and plant life.

Monroe, with its narrow chain of islands, is the most vulnerable of the four counties. Without steps to protect

buildings and land, just 1 foot of sea level rise would cause an estimated $2 billion in property damage, according

to data compiled in development of the action plan.

Three of Monroe's four hospitals, 65 percent of its schools and 71 percent of its emergency shelters are on

properties in which some spots would be below sea level under a rise of 1 foot, according to the plan.

Aside from rising seas, climate change is believed to exacerbate the frequency of extreme weather, including

droughts and cold fronts, which in turn imperil water supply, fish and cash crops.

The 102 recommendations in the Southeast Florida Regional Action Plan deal with everything from transportation

and water delivery to protecting wildlife habitat and providing public outreach. All the recommendations are

suggested for implementation within a five-year period.

Some, such as the recommendation that South Florida governments advocate for full funding and implementation

of Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, are likely to strike the public as routine.

But others, if implemented by South Florida's four counties and 108 municipalities would be sure to make waves.

The plan calls for regional coordination on issues as divergent as road construction, public transit, habitat

protection and water management, all with an eye toward preparing those systems for a day when seas are higher,

droughts more frequent and weather more extreme.

It suggests new standards for roads, bridges and other transportation infrastructure in vulnerable areas. It also

recommends strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions through well-coordinated public transit and

highway connectors.

One set of suggestions that would surely draw interest in the Keys relates to a proposal that local governments

designate low-lying regions as "Adaptation Action Areas" in their comprehensive land-use plans. Undeveloped

portions of such areas should then be targeted for conservation, according to the plan, while building codes should

be revised in order to discourage new development or post-disaster redevelopment.

In addition, building codes should encourage development in designated vicinities outside the Adaptation Action

Areas, the plan recommends.

Monroe County Commissioner Sylvia Murphy, who was among those in attendance at the Murray E. Nelson

Government and Cultural Center in Key Largo last Friday for the unveiling of the plan, said she needs to give the

recommendations a full vetting before she knows if she could support them in full.

But Murphy added that she expects to be behind at least 75 percent of the plan.

"I will no longer be here when it gets to where people are having to leave their homes, etc.," she said of sea level

rise. "But I do care about my kids and grandkids. I would like to set a firm foundation for them to work from so

they don't say, 'Grandma didn't do anything.'"

Islamorada Councilman Ted Blackburn, who also attended the conference, expressed a similar sentiment.

"I think there are concepts within the plan that if we don't look at and we don't adopt, the impact on the village 20

years from now would be significantly different than they would be if we begin to prepare what this plan is

talking about," Blackburn said. He added that sea level rise should also be considered by the Village Council as it

selects a sewer contractor, a decision scheduled for this week.

Now that is has been released, the draft Regional Action Plan will undergo a 60-day review period. Once

subsequent changes are made, the plan will go before the boards of county commissioners in Palm Beach,

Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe for formal approval. It could also be considered by cities and towns

throughout the region.

Air Quality

Clean Air and Climate: Cleaner Skies Ahead?

EPA will announce this week final standards to control mercury and other air toxics. Mercury, acid gases and

other pollutants are common by products of coal-burning power plants. This is good news for fish-eating

birds, pregnant women and children susceptible to these contaminants. Virtually every state in the lower 48

has some restrictions on fishing in mercury-contaminated waters.

Two climate-related decisions are also worth noting: the recent delay announced by the White House for the

Keystone tar sands pipeline is good news in the battle to move away from dirty fossil fuels. Many believe the

delay will create an insurmountable financial burden for the pipeline developers. Tar sands mining also

decimates Canada’s boreal forest, key breeding habitat for many of our songbirds.

In January 2012, EPA is expected to roll out its proposed rule to curtail carbon pollution from new coal fired

power plants. This is our best shot at taking a bite out of greenhouse gas pollution and working toward

climate change solutions, given Congress’ unwillingness to pass meaningful legislation. Audubon is

optimistic that this rule and a later one expected to address existing power plants will reduce carbon dioxide

and other pollutants. It can only mean cleaner skies and a step in the right direction for climate change

solutions, but it will take your help to get there!

2011-11-21T10:09:00.001-08:00

Environmental degradation, overpopulation, refugees, narcotics, terrorism, world crime movements, and organized crime are worldwide problems that don't stop at a nation's borders. Warren Christopher

Announcements

BIRDING EVENTS South Florida Audubon Society provided guides for monthly birding field trips from September to April.

12/3 Deerfield Island bird walk-reservations required, contact Quiet Rivers Park to book reservation, Call 954-357-5100
12/10 Plantation Preserve, 8 a.m.
12/17 Annual Christmas Bird Count
1/12-16 Everglades Birding Festival with special guest James Currie of Birding Adventures TV
1/25-31 Space Coast Birding Festival, Titusville
2/18-20 Florida Adventure Getaway weekend - Merritt Island, 3 Lakes and much more
3/28-31 Big "O" Birding Festival

SFAS Annual December Holiday Party, Thursday, December 15, 2011 – 7:30 p.m. This membership meeting only will be held at Anne Kolb Nature Center – EXHIBIT HALL, not in the usual Mangrove Hall

Presenter: Dan Warren, Founder and President, One Village Planet

Topic: Environmental overview and observations of climate change in Columbia, Ecuador, Haiti and Ghana and their impact on South Florida.

Suit against National Park Service South Florida Wildlands Association joins the Sierra Club, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), Florida Biodiversity Project, and Wilderness Watch in a legal action challenging the National Park Service decision to open the Addition Lands of the Big Cypress National Preserve to motorized recreation. Download the full press release here.

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-5Jo1HjyS.xi5E%406955263-/NM9FyN3rMB9I

Complaint filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida (Fort Meyers Division):

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-Jhi9qZvm7D.OI%406955264-xM5B0nNp2V2mc

Dear Friends,

As readers of these occasional emails are aware, almost a year ago today the National Park Service (NPS) released their Final General Management Plan for the 146,000 acre Addition Lands of the Big Cypress National Preserve. While the world famous Ft. Lauderdale Beach creates Broward County's eastern border, the Addition Lands form Broward County's "other shore". The Everglades proper ends here, and the once vast Big Cypress Swamp - "the Western Everglades" - begins, little more than a 45 minute drive on I-75 from downtown Ft. Lauderdale. But unlike the hotels, bars, restaurants and t-shirt shops which line State Road A1A, the Addition Lands contain some of the wildest, most unique and most biodiverse land in the entire continental United States. Small changes in elevation in a limestone base, formed when all of south Florida was a shallow sea, have created a subtle and complex combination of landscapes containing pinelands, prairies, marshes, hardwood hammocks and
cypress sloughs found nowhere else on earth. Species diversity - flora and fauna - goes off the scale.

In response to the decision by the NPS to open up this rare and beautiful piece of land to public motorized recreation for the first time in its history, South Florida Wildlands Association has made the difficult and painful choice to join four other local and national environmental organizations in challenging the agency in court. We are aware that tempers will once again flare in this latest "battle of Big Cypress" and there will be those who will believe that our decision is "selfish" - why can't we just live and let live? Our motivation is simple. At a time when numerous proposed projects threaten to industrialize and degrade one of America's most unique ecosystems (e.g. massive powerlines across the eastern edge of Everglades National Park, two new nuclear reactors on the shores of Biscayne Bay and adjacent to Biscayne National Park, the Hendry County Clean Energy Center - the largest fossil fuel plant in the United States - in primary Florida panther habitat just a
few miles north of the Big Cypress National Preserve, a new "inland port" on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee in the northern Everglades, etc.) a piece of land owned and acquired by the American people for the purpose of natural resource protection, that remains remarkably intact and contains the full range of species diversity that Florida was once famous for, that is currently open to all on foot in a preserve where the majority of units remain open to motorized use (and show the impacts), should not be compromised.

Those who wish to delve more deeply into this issue can open some of the links which follow. As always, feel free to contact us by phone or email with questions or comments - or for more information about how you can help on the variety of conservation projects South Florida Wildlands Association is currently engaged in.

Best regards,

Matt Schwartz
Executive Director
South Florida Wildlands Association
P.O. Box 30211
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33303
954-634-7173
www.southfloridawild.org

Location map of the Big Cypress National Preserve and other units of the National Park Service in south Florida:

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-dAeXNJz0oOTt2%406955265-3daP0bHccf9Oo

Map of motorized and non-motorized units of the Big Cypress National Preserve. Dark areas are currently non-motorized. The Addition Lands are the triangular area in the northeast section of the preserve. As the NPS plan has not yet been implemented, the Addition is also currently closed to motor vehicles.

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-dWw/8JSEJfGVU%406955266-j4c8gg8IfF4II

Some photos of a (very wet) 6 mile Addition Lands "swampwalk" taken October 29, 2011:

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-5cYNQzueUhOKI%406955267-jaiu9rasKQirE

South Florida Wildlands Association comments to the National Park Service on the General Management Plan for the Addition Lands:

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-gG8ld1dv7eO6A%406955268-0FBk9cayphzMg

Article on the Addition Lands originally appearing in the Miami Herald:

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-GpNKjCzNqLIiA%406955269-6/m0KqhcqiMRY

Off-highway vehicle registrations in Florida. Of the nearly 250,000 registered vehicles, NPS intends to open the Addition Lands to a maximum of 650 vehicle owners for motorized recreation.

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-Mh8MyQ8AaYfig%406955270-ZycFd9890lti6

The National Park Service decision being challenged in this litigation. Chapters 3 and 4 lay out the numerous natural resource impacts NPS researchers expect from their "preferred alternative":

http://m1e.net/c?82320038-XZ2f4KiJKmKNk%406955271-rDKgy1er3Qm1E

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations in order to participate in County programs, services, and activities must contact the Special Populations Section at 954-357-8170 or TTY 954-537-2844 at least ten (10) business days prior to the scheduled meeting or event to request an accommodation.

Sunday, November 20

Long Key Natural Area & Nature Center

3501 S.W. 130th Ave., Davie 33330

954-357-8797

10 a.m. – Butterfly Walk & Larval Garden Tour
11 a.m. – Imperiled Butterflies Presentation by Alana Edwards
1 p.m. – Butterfly Gardening Presentation by Sandy Granson
2 p.m. – Off-trail Butterfly Trek
3 p.m. – Butterflies: Timeless Subjects of the Visual Arts Presentation by

Stephen Baig
5:30 p.m. – Butterfly Exhibit Opening Reception

Children's Crafts and Activities – $3
Butterfly Photo Exhibit Admission – $1

The exhibit combines macro-photography with interpretive information to foster appreciation of our area's unique and complex ecosystem. Approximately a hundred butterfly species, or about half of all that occur in Florida, have been found in subtropical South Florida, approximately 80 of which are represented in the exhibit. Most of these are uncommon to rare, with about two dozen listed by the state as imperiled.

The exhibit comes to us from the Miami Blue Chapter of the North American Butterfly Association (NABA), made possible in part by a grant from South Florida National Parks Trust. The photos are by Jamie Bernard, Linda Cooper, Ron Nuehring, Bill Perry, Hank Poor, Holly Salvato, Jim Spencer, Mickey Wheeler, and Michelle Wisniewski.

Find Yourself – At a Broward County Park

STA 5 Birding Tour Schedule

November 12
November 26
December 3
December 17
December 31: Christmas Bird Count

Hendry-Glades Audubon will lead escorted tours to Stormwater Treatment Area 5 (STA-5) south of Clewiston this season. Tours are open to anyone, but participants must register to reserve a space on the trips. To sign up contact: Margaret England, at sta5birding@embarqmail.com or 863-674-0695. Include your name and contact information including an emergency cell number for the tour day.

Audubon's Charles Lee Honored by Marine Resources Council The membership of the Marine Resources Council has awarded Charles Lee the Stan Blum Award for Lifetime Achievement in protecting the marine resources of Florida. Stan Blum was a nationally known conservationist and longtime board member of the Marine Resources Council (MRC). The Stan Blum Award is MRC's highest award and the Membership of the MRC has not forgotten the many times Charles Lee has come to bat to protect our local waters, the Indian River Lagoon. His contribution to the protection of the Wekiva River, North Key Largo, the Disney Wilderness Preserve and his support for Land acquisition programs like Preservation 2000 and Florida Forever were all cited as reasons for this award.

Congratulations Charles you are an inspiration for Conservationists throughout the state!

Of interest to all

Keystone pipeline decision delayed In a win for the environment and the battle to control global warming, the Obama Administration decided today to delay a decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. This afternoon, the State Department confirmed that a decision on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline will be postponed so that it can "undertake an in-depth assessment of potential alternative routes in Nebraska."

In a statement, the department said it is "reasonable to expect" that the extended review process "could be completed as early as the first quarter of 2013." The delay, however, could be a fatal blow to this project that would have facilitated the development of the world's dirtiest oil from Canada's tar sands and threatened drinking water and the environment along 1,700 miles of the pipeline's route through farms, over ranches, and across towns from the Canadian border to coastal Louisiana.

This is a significant victory for the thousands of people across the country who spoke out against this damaging project and for all of us working to curtail climate change. Thank you for your continued support of Audubon and our efforts to protect the environment for future generations.

Birds

Barn Swallows from North America are breeding in South America The familiar fork-tailed Barn Swallow is the most widely distributed and abundant swallow in the world. It nests across Canada, throughout most of the United States, and in northern Mexico and much of Europe and Asia.

Until recently, it was thought only to spend the winter in South America, not to breed there. So it was big news in 1980 when six pairs were found nesting in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, at least 1,000 kilometers south of where most North American swallows winter.

The birds' pioneering behavior was unprecedented, and it sparked hopes that scientists would get to document a rare occurrence: a range expansion and the colonization of a continent.

Three decades later, researchers appear to have gotten their wish.

Not only is the South American breeding population well established — it now includes thousands of pairs — but the increase is occurring without the cascade of genetic changes predicted by evolutionary theory.

Shawn Billerman and colleagues compared the genetic structure of swallows from Argentina and North America and determined that the Argentine population has likely received, and may still be receiving, substantial gene flow from birds of North American origin.

That is, Barn Swallows may be hatching up north, overshooting their South American winter grounds, and then shifting their breeding and molt cycles by six months to settle into an austral breeding pattern.

Recent heavy rainfall in Collier bodes well for wood stork nesting season Rains that saturated portions of Southwest Florida in recent weeks haven't created much of a disruption for the region's abundant wildlife, and it's been good for the endangered wood stork.

Staff members and volunteers at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a long-established roosting spot in northern Collier County near the Lee County line, are ecstatic about the effect the accumulated rain will have for wood storks.

"It's just what I've been waiting for," said Jason Lauritsen, Big Corkscrew assistant director for Audubon of Florida. "I am, for the first time this season, optimistic about nesting."

The recent rains pushed water levels at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and its surrounding area far above average. Now, the wood storks have a chance of nesting here this winter, Lauritsen said.

The birds depend on having just the right amount of water in marshes, cypress sloughs and pine flatwoods to survive.

For now, the current water level is a bit too high, though it is expected to decline — 15 inches to 18 inches of water is deep enough to provide enough small fish for adults and their chicks. It's also shallow enough for the adults to easily wade through to catch food.

The average peak at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary is 37.41 inches deep of water. On Wednesday, the sanctuary reported 38.04 inches of water deep.

During the most recent deluge about 10 days ago, the sanctuary received about 4.5 inches of rain, Lauritsen said.

But some of the localized flooding could encourage storks to nest earlier, he said.

After a period of drought, all of the recent rains might translate into the second time that wood storks have nested at the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary in six years.

"This would be a much-needed nesting event," Lauritsen said. Wood storks' nesting success is an important indicator of wetland health, he added.

Invasive species

Agriculture commissioner talks invasive species with CBS The threat of invasive species has become familiar to Floridians, especially those living near the Everglades.

Invasive species — which are those that have been imported from other parts of the world, often by accident — can be extremely dangerous to local ecosystems. Some estimate their costs to the U.S. economy to be about $120 billion annually. Though species like kudzu and Asian carp are problematic to areas across the country, few places are as plagued with invasives as South Florida.

Trade, international tourism and international cargo all contribute to the proliferation of invasives in Florida, which is home to one of the highest numbers of exotic plant and animal species in the world. In South Florida, approximately 26 percent of all fish, reptiles, birds and mammals are exotic.

Speaking to CBS News, Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam said that the giant African land snail, which can grow up to eight inches long and lay 1,200 eggs a year, is the invasive species currently on his radar.

"With something like the snails we've got the trifecta," said Putnam. "It carries human Meningitis, so people are concerned. It eats 500 different plants, so agriculture's concerned. And it eats houses, so homeowners are very concerned."

The snails, which can eat stucco, have brought together a team of 70, all engaged in the fight against it.

A simple Google search turns up dozens of results for the sale of the snails, though most seem to be in the U.K. But access to exotic pets, which owners often can't properly take care of, is part of the problem.

Though the African land snail has gained notoriety in recent months, perhaps Florida's most infamous invasive species is the Burmese python. Pythons can be purchased at a relatively inexpensive price, but, as is the case with many exotics, they can grow to incredible sizes — in some cases, more than 20 feet long. Those who are ill-equipped to deal with a 20-foot snake might set them loose, as many pet owners in South Florida have done, where they make their mark on a local ecosystem. Last Thursday, workers from the South Florida Water Management District captured and killed a 16-foot-long Burmese Python that had ingested a 76-pound female deer.

The key to keeping a lid on the problem, Putnam told CBS, is educating Floridians about the dangers of invasive species. "Wherever you're coming from, leave all that stuff behind," he said, "because any one of those things can carry the larvae that's going to become the fly that's going to wipe out a $100 billion industry in our state."

According to the Florida Department of Agriculture, the last reported outbreak (and eradication) of the Giant African land snail in Florida occurred in 1966, when a boy smuggled three Giant African land snails into Miami as pets. Seven years after the boy's grandmother released the snails into her garden, more than 18,000 snails were found, which cost the state more than $1 million and took an additional 10 years to successfully eradicate.

Florida Panthers

Panther Depredation: A Serious Threat to Recovering the Species Biologists now estimate there are between 100 and 160 adult breeding Florida panthers in the Greater Everglades south of the Caloosahatchee River, indicating recovery efforts are working! In fact, it is possible that panthers are occupying most suitable habitat available, as evidenced by the number of cats hit by vehicles. As populations are increasing, commercial cattle ranchers, many of whom are partners with Audubon of Florida and Collier County Audubon Society in the Florida Panther Protection Program (FPPP), have begun sounding the alarm about panthers killing calves, worth around $700 - $900 each at market.

Likewise, hobby livestock enthusiasts who leave their pigs, goats and chickens out at night are suffering losses from panthers and other predators. Both situations threaten to make panthers unwelcome as their populations recover. In response to increasing depredation, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, US Fish and Wildlife Service and University of Florida have partnered with two afflicted Collier County ranches to conduct a two-year study on causes of calf losses, which may form the basis for an eventual compensation program for ranchers.

To address hobby livestock losses, these agencies together with Audubon, Defenders of Wildlife, Florida Wildlife Federation, FPPP and several other groups sponsored the first annual Florida Panther Festival on October 29. More than 1000 people attended and learned ways to keep their animals safe and coexist with panthers. Maintaining support by the public and landowners alike is critical to the future of this emblematic species. Without the goodwill of ranchers and communities near the Everglades, panthers have little hope of successfully expanding in other regions of Florida or the Southeast US, which is essential for full recovery.

Development company controls key to Florida panther survival This has not been a great year for Florida panthers. The number killed so far in 2011 is one short of tying the record of 25, with nearly two months left. Four were killed under suspicious circumstances, prompting federal officials to launch a criminal investigation. Meanwhile cattle ranchers and pet owners have complained that panthers have started eating their animals.

So what can be done to save the panther? According to the federal government's top wildlife official, its fate depends on a Miami real estate company known for running 30-minute infomercials that air repeatedly on Spanish-language radio and television.

The reason: That company, American Prime, controls the panthers' only escape route out of South Florida.

"If we give them the pathway, they'll find a way," Dan Ashe, who became director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service four months ago, said in an interview with the Times.

Although they are Florida's state animal, for decades, panthers have been largely confined to the peninsula's southern tip. But development and agriculture have shrunk their remaining habitat. The last time Ashe's agency objected to anything built in panther habitat was 1993.

As the panther population has been squeezed into smaller territory, a few young male panthers have swum across the Caloosahatchee River, heading north into the rest of Florida.

That's why Ashe contends the most crucial thing his agency can do now is to preserve a 1,100-acre parcel in Glades County owned by American Prime. The land is not pristine swamp or forest — it has been used as a ranch and a sod farm — but it's the place where the male panthers have been documented crossing the river.

"We want to preserve a corridor for the panthers to get across the Caloosahatchee," Ashe said.

Federal wildlife officials have long contended that the only way to guarantee a future for the Florida panther is to create more than one colony of them. Ideally, there would be three, each with at least 250 adult cats. Right now there's only one colony of 100-150 panthers.

Some panther advocates contend the federal government should capture a few male and female panthers and relocate them to create a new colony. But federal officials have always shied away from moving panthers to save the species.

"We'd like them to do it themselves," Ashe said.

Although only males have crossed the river so far, "hopefully as the population expands to the south, you'll get exploring females as well," he said.

"We must take this opportunity to secure this property," said Laurie Macdonald of Defenders of Wildlife, a group that has worked with the federal agency on panther issues. "That location is absolutely strategic."

What worries Ashe and others is that the route north is controlled by a company that once wanted to develop that land — panthers or no panthers.

Since the 1970s, American Prime has been touting real estate deals in Cape Coral and other communities in southwest Florida in what was then panther habitat. To sell the land they used infomercials on Spanish-language stations, some repeated 50 times a week.

Company officials did not respond to several calls from the Times about its land on the Caloosahatchee.

Three years ago, American Prime wanted to build 624 homes there — one less than the number that would trigger heightened state scrutiny of its plans — as well as a marina with more than 200 boat slips. Glades County officials were happy to oblige the company's request for a land-use change, despite the warnings of environmental activists about the effect on panthers. One commissioner asked whether the panthers couldn't just be moved elsewhere.

But the proposal ran into objections from the state Department of Community Affairs and other state agencies over its destruction of wetlands, its location in a flood-prone area and other issues. The project stalled.

Now, Ashe said, the owners are willing to work with the Fish and Wildlife Service to ensure panthers continue to have a safe passage. Although Ashe talked openly about the need to preserve the property for panthers, his staff is tight-lipped about the status of the negotiations.

"It's looking kind of bleak," said Amber Crooks of the Conservancy of Southwest Florida, which has been involved in trying to preserve the land. "It's out on the market for development."

The problem, according to Jennifer Hecker of the Conservancy, is money. Funds for buying environmental land are in short supply right now, from both state and federal agencies, she said. But if they don't preserve that land, "it really would doom the panther to eking out its existence on the remainder of its land south of Lake Okeechobee."

Endangered Species

Fla. streamlines tortoise relocation permits Developers will have an easier time getting permits to relocate Florida gopher tortoises from prematurely cleared land inhabited by the threatened reptiles.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission agreed to streamline the permitting process at a meeting Thursday in Key Largo.

The panel's gopher management plan coordinator, Deborah Burr, said the revision balances tortoise conservation with the needs of people.

It will conform with the plan's objective of decreasing tortoise deaths on lands set for development through relocation.

The new permitting process also will help meet another goal of repopulating public conservation lands that have few or no tortoises.

The creatures can live up to 60 years. They once were common in Florida and widely hunted for food.

Now rare, their main threat currently is loss of habitat.

Everglades and Water Quality Issues

Feds: Gov. Scott's Glades plan falls short Good start but it doesn't go far enough, fast enough.

In a nutshell, that sums up the federal government's initial response to an Everglades pollution cleanup plan personally laid out last month by Gov. Rick Scott during a visit to Washington.

Nevertheless, both sides remain upbeat about resolving the long-running legal and political battle over Florida's repeatedly delayed plans to reduce the flow of the damaging nutrient, phosphorus, that pours off farms and yards into the Everglades after every rain storm.

In a meeting Monday with the editorial board of The Miami Herald, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said he was "cautiously optimistic'' that the state would address initial concerns sketched out in a Nov. 10 letter to the governor from four federal agencies involved in Everglades restoration.

Salazar, whose department manages Everglades National Park and other federal lands in the Everglades, said he had discussed the issues personally with Scott, who also was in Miami to attend a round-table on auto insurance fraud.

"I acknowledge and he acknowledged that the dialogue will continue,'' Salazar said.

The governor's office Monday directed questions to the South Florida Water Management District, which released a statement saying the state was pleased with the "collaborative approach.''

"This letter is validation that we are on the right track,'' it said.

But it was also an indication that considerable disagreement remains over how much needs to be done. Under orders from U.S. District Court Judge Alan Gold, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a massive expansion of the artificial marshes the state uses to scrub phosphorus from water flowing into the Everglades.

Scott's plan, according to the letter, calls for "significantly smaller'' cleanup marshes than the EPA plan and also would push back the deadline another two years to 2022. That's on top of earlier delays by the state that had pushed an original 2006 cleanup deadline back by a decade.

The letter, signed by Salazar, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson and top officials for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Justice, also questions the state's technical assumptions and whether the plan would "compromise achievement of water quality goals.'' Gold would likely have to approve any new cleanup plan worked out among the agencies.

Environmentalists also have complained the Scott plan did not impose any new fertilizer restrictions on farmers, relied too much on using public lands for water storage and failed to put to use 27,000 acres of U.S. Sugar land acquired in a controversial land deal backed by former Gov. Charlie Crist.

Salazar called the cleanup dispute "big and complex'' but also the key to all other efforts to revive the Everglades.

South Florida's emergency watering restrictions lifted as heavy October rains bring dramatic boost to water supply

By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel

Drenching October rains and rising water levels convinced South Florida regulators on Thursday to ease drought-triggered watering restrictions on homes and farms from Orlando to the Keys.

That won't trigger big changes for landscape watering in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where twice-a-week watering remains the year-round rule.

But most Palm Beach County homeowners will be allowed to water lawns and gardens up to three times per week as South Florida transitions back to its normal year-round watering rules.

Since March, South Florida has been under emergency watering restrictions that limit landscape watering to a maximum of twice a week in most areas.

Likewise, South Florida golf courses had been required to cut water use 15 percent. Sugar cane growers and other farms south of Lake Okeechobee had to cut water use 45 percent.

On Thursday, the South Florida Water Management District lifted those emergency limits on landscape watering for homes and businesses as well as the irrigation limits on golf courses and growers.

One of the wettest Octobers on record has water levels back to or above normal from the Everglades to Lake Okeechobee, South Florida's primary backup water supply.

Just one year after the driest October in South Florida history kicked off a record-setting drought, now brimming water supplies have the water management district projecting a much more hopeful outlook for the coming winter-to-spring dry season.

"Welcome to Florida," water management district board Member Kevin Powers said. "We vacillate between the two extremes."

That doesn't mean landscape watering rules completely disappear for South Florida homes and businesses.

Now South Florida shifts back to its normal year-round watering rules, which allow watering up to three times per week unless local communities opt for stricter rules.

Broward and Miami-Dade counties have made twice-a-week watering their year-round rule, while Palm Beach County allows watering three times per week.

West Palm Beach, Palm Beach, South Palm Beach and Lake Worth had been under once-a-week watering restrictions during the drought due to heightened concerns about their water supplies. Those cities could opt to keep those limits in place.

After lifting the heightened watering restrictions Thursday, the water management district board did issue a water-shortage warning, encouraging conservation.

Lake Okeechobee rose almost 3 feet during the past month, hitting 13.79 feet above sea level Thursday. The lake is now 1 foot above the water-shortage range.

October rains also have water levels above normal in the Everglades water conservation areas that stretch across western Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties. In addition to providing wildlife habitat, the conservation areas help restock community drinking-water supplies.

"We are kind of topping off the tank heading into the dry season, which is good news," said Terrie Bates, district director of water resources.

Global Warming and Climate Change

What Global Warming? Science-Doubting Florida Lawmakers Move to Kill Cap-and-Trade With the sponsor raising questions about climate-change science, a House panel moved forward Tuesday with repealing a law that could lead to using a "cap and trade" system to limit greenhouse-gas emissions.

The law, pushed through in 2008 by former Gov. Charlie Crist, has never been used to pursue cap and trade — an approach that would provide incentives for businesses, such as electric utilities, to reduce emissions.

But Rep. Scott Plakon, a Longwood Republican sponsoring the repeal bill, described cap-and-trade laws as "government picking winners and losers" and said such laws kill jobs.

"This is government central planning in a place where I don't think it should be," Plakon told the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee, which voted 8-5 along party lines to support the repeal bill (HB 4001).

Plakon, who is chairman of the House Energy & Utilities Subcommittee, said the climate-change science that led to such efforts to reduce emissions has been "called into question." Skeptics contend that scientists have misused information to bolster the idea that man is creating climate change.

But Rep. Dwight Bullard, a Miami Democrat who voted against Plakon's bill, dismissed such arguments, saying only about 8 percent of scientists reject the idea of climate change.

"I tend to go with the other 92 percent who are out there advocating for it, that it is real," Bullard said.

Early in his administration, Crist drew widespread attention for taking steps aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The 2008 law — dubbed the Florida Climate Protection Act — set up a process by which the state Department of Environmental Protection could develop rules for a cap-and-trade system and seek ratification from the Legislature.

Under a cap-and-trade system, the state would set an overall limit on emissions and would set aside certain amounts for businesses such as utilities. If the businesses emit less than they are allowed, they could sell "credits" to other companies that might be over their emission limits.

With no state movement toward such a system, Democrats on the subcommittee Tuesday questioned the need to repeal the law.

"I'm a little confused why we need to repeal something just because it's dormant at this moment," Bullard said.

But Plakon raised the possibility that future lawmakers could enact a cap-and-trade system and said it should be erased from state law. The House bill is only scheduled to go before one more panel, the State Affairs Committee. An identical bill (SB 648) has been filed in the Senate.

Underwater cities: Climate change begins to reshape the urban landscape Dan Kipness, a retired fishing boat captain and a 60-year Miami Beach resident, has a video that offers a glimpse of where this coastal city is headed. In it, cars and trucks kick floodwater into the air as they drive down Miami Beach's streets. This isn't rainwater -- the skies are at least partially sunny and blue. Instead, the waters seeped into the streets from underground storm sewers during high tide.

Kipness says he never saw such flooding until a decade ago, but now sees it up to twice a day during the fall, when tides are especially high. He says he's watched the undersides of $100,000 cars get rusted away by salt water.

This happens, many experts say, because of rising sea levels attributed to the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. We can expect to see more of the same across South Florida in the coming years, as a warming climate accelerates the faraway melting. Researchers are just now beginning to grapple with what this will mean for the inner workings of the city.

Miami is one of the world's most vulnerable cities to rising sea levels from climate change, according to the international Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development. Sea levels have risen nine to 12 inches here in the past century, and are expected to rise up to six more inches by 2030, 12 to 21 inches by 2060 and by three to five feet by 2100.

What will this look like? With a two-foot rise, water would cover 28 percent of South Florida and wetlands would be lost as far from the coast as Homestead, about a 125-mile drive from Key West. Miami would become a barrier island, Hal Wanless, chair of the University of Miami's geology department, told members of the Society of Environmental Journalists, which held its annual conference here last week.

With a four-foot rise, 48 percent of the land in South Florida would be soaked, the Everglades would become an estuary, and two proposed nuclear plants at Turkey Point along the eastern coast would be underwater. At five feet of rise, storm surges would flow in all directions. At six feet, 56 percent of the land would be gone and 73 percent of what's left would be less than two feet above sea level.

"In other words, you wouldn't want to live in it," says Wanless, who co-chairs a science committee for the Miami-Dade County climate change task force.

Energy

Sen. Nelson tries to block Cuba drilling Hoping to discourage oil drilling in Cuban waters near South Florida, Senators Bill Nelson and Robert Menendez introduced a bill that would make it easier for Americans to sue foreign polluters for damages.

The bill would also remove a $75-million liability cap for oil spills that come from foreign waters, and it would allow those who suffer damages to be compensated from an Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.

The bill was inspired by plans to begin drilling in January in waters north of Havana near the Florida Keys. Repsol, a Spanish company, has contracted with Cuba to explore for oil using a giant floating rig.

An oil spill in these waters most likely would be caught in the Gulf Stream, a powerful ocean current that would bring a slick to the South Florida coast and carry it north along the Atlantic Seaboard.

Nelson said the result could devastate American fisherman, coastal communities and tourism. "Our goal here is to hold foreign oil companies liable if they have a spill that reaches U.S. waters," Nelson said.

Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said he hoped that "companies seeking to drill in Cuban waters will think twice once they know they would be fully liable for any damages to the Florida Keys, South Florida beaches, or if the spill reached the Gulf Stream, anywhere up the East Coast."

Land Conservation

Five-Year Survey Shows Wetlands Losses are Slowing, Marking Conservation Gains and Need for Continued Investment in Habitat America's wetlands declined slightly from 2004-2009, underscoring the need for continued conservation and restoration efforts, according to a report issued today by the Department of the Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The findings are consistent with the Service's Status and Trends Wetlands reports from previous decades that reflect a continuous but diminishing decline in wetlands habitat over time.

The report, which represents the most up-to-date, comprehensive assessment of wetland habitats in the United States, documents substantial losses in forested wetlands and coastal wetlands that serve as storm buffers, absorb pollution that would otherwise find its way into the nation's drinking water, and provide vital habitat for fish, wildlife and plants.

"Wetlands are at a tipping point," said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. "While we have made great strides in conserving and restoring wetlands since the 1950s when we were losing an area equal to half the size of Rhode Island each year, we remain on a downward trend that is alarming. This report, and the threats to places like the Mississippi River Delta, should serve as a call to action to renew our focus on conservation and restoration efforts hand in hand with states, tribes and other partners."

"This report offers us a road map for stemming and reversing the decline," said Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. "It documents a number of successes in wetlands conservation, protection and reestablishment, and will be used to help channel our resources to protect wetlands where they are most threatened and reduce further wetland losses."

The net wetland loss was estimated to be 62,300 acres between 2004 and 2009, bringing the nation's total wetlands acreage to just over 110 million acres in the continental United States, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

The rate of gains from reestablishment of wetlands increased by 17 percent from the previous study period (1998 to 2004), but the wetland loss rate increased 140 percent during the same time period. As a consequence, national wetland losses have outpaced gains.

The net loss includes a combination of gains in certain types of wetlands and losses in other types, especially forested wetlands.

"In a five year period, we lost over 630,000 acres of forested wetlands, mostly in the Southeast – an area equal to half a million football fields each year," Director Ashe said. "We should all be concerned about the substantial loss of this diminishing resource, which helps ensure good water quality for local communities and provides vital habitat for a diversity of important wildlife species."

The southeast United States, primarily freshwater wetlands of the Atlantic and Gulf coastal plain, and the Lower Mississippi River experienced the greatest losses. Losses were also observed in the Great Lakes states, the prairie pothole region, and in rapidly developing metropolitan areas nationwide. The reasons for wetland losses are complex and reflect a wide variety of factors, including changes in land use and economic conditions, the impacts of the 2005 hurricane season on the Gulf Coast and climate change impacts.

This report does not draw conclusions regarding the quality or condition of the nation's wetlands. Rather, it provides data regarding trends in wetland extent and type, and it provides information to facilitate ongoing collaborative efforts to assess wetland condition. Further examination of wetland condition on a national level has been initiated by the Environmental Protection Agency in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and other federal, state and Tribal partners.

Wetlands provide a multitude of ecological, economic and social benefits. They provide habitat for fish, wildlife, and a variety of plants. Wetlands are nurseries for many saltwater and freshwater fishes and shellfish of commercial and recreational importance. Wetlands are also important landscape features because they hold and slowly release flood water and snow melt, recharge groundwater, act as filters to cleanse water of impurities, recycle nutrients, and provide recreational opportunities for millions of people.

The report, Status and Trends of Wetlands in the Conterminous United States 2004-2009, is the most recent of the five reports to Congress reporting on the status and trends of wetlands across much of the United States since the mid-1950s.

For more details on the report, visit www.fws.gov/wetlands/StatusAndTrends2009

Air Quality

Coal and Mercury U.S. coal-fired power plants pump more than 48 tons of mercury into the air each year. The Martin Lake Power Plant in Tatum, Texas, spews 2,660 pounds per annum all on its own (it burns lignite, a particularly mercury-heavy form of coal). Compared with the vast amounts of mercury churning out of Asia, the U.S. contribution is fairly small-about 3 percent of the global total. Roughly a third of our emissions settle within our borders, poisoning lakes and waterways. The rest cycles through the atmosphere, with much of it eventually winding up in the world's oceans.

Inorganic mercury isn't easily assimilated into the human body, and if the mercury emitted by power plants stayed in that form, it probably wouldn't have made Gelfond and many others sick. But when inorganic mercury creeps into aquatic sediments and marshes (as well as mid-depths of oceans), bacteria convert it into methylmercury, an organic form that not only is easily assimilated but also accumulates in living tissue as it moves up the food chain: The bigger and older the fish, the more mercury in its meat. It takes only a tiny amount to do serious damage: One-seventieth of a teaspoon can pollute a 20-acre lake to the point where its fish are unsafe to eat. Thousands of tons a year settle in the world's oceans, where they bioaccumulate in carnivorous fish. Forty percent of human mercury exposure comes from a single source-Pacific tuna.

Air Pollution: Bad for Health, But Good for Planet? Cleaning up the air, while good for our lungs, could make global warming worse. That conclusion is underscored by a new study, which looks at the pollutants that go up smokestacks along with carbon dioxide.

These pollutants are called aerosols and they include soot as well as compounds of nitrogen and sulfur and other stuff into the air. Natalie Mahowald, a climate researcher at Cornell University, says so far, scientists have mostly tried to understand what those aerosols do while they're actually in the air.

"There are so many different kinds of aerosols and they have many different sources," she says. "Some warm and some cool. But in the net, humans are emitting a lot of extra aerosols, and they tend to cool for the most part."

As we clean up the aerosols, which we really want to do for public health reasons, we are going to be perhaps causing ourselves more trouble in terms of the climate situation.

The aerosols reflect sunlight back into space, or they stimulate clouds that keep us cool. But it turns out that's not all they do. These aerosols also influence how much carbon dioxide gets drawn out of the air by plants on land and in the sea.

"They can add nutrients, for example, to the oceans or to the land," Mahowald says. "But also while they're in the atmosphere they can change the climate, and so that also can impact the amount of carbon the land or the ocean can take up. So there are quite a few different ways that aerosols can interact."

In an article published in Science magazine, she concludes that those effects add up to quite a bit. At the moment, aerosols are not only helping reduce global warming by cooling the atmosphere, but they're helping reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that stays in the air once we emit it.

That's good news for now — it means the planet isn't heating up quite as fast as it could. But that's bad news looking down the road a little bit. That's because many aerosols make people sick — heart and lung disease in particular. So some nations are now in the process of trying to rein them in.

"As we clean up the aerosols, which we really want to do for public health reasons, we are going to be perhaps causing ourselves more trouble in terms of the climate situation," Mahowald says.

This is not a brand-new idea. For example, other research has found that switching from coal to much cleaner natural gas might not do much to help with global warming because it would also be reducing the pollutants in coal smoke that help offset warming.
Mahowald's results suggest that reducing those pollutants could be an even bigger problem than realized, when you consider that aerosols help remove carbon dioxide from the air by encouraging plant growth. Hard numbers on this effect are highly uncertain at the moment, but this could turn out to be quite significant.

"This is something that's really poorly studied, and I think that the main point of the paper is we've been ignoring this potentially important topic," she says.

And studying it is not easy because the effects aren't well understood. For example, nitrogen can be a fertilizer, but it can stunt plant growth when nitrogen comes out of the air in acid form. Lisa Emberson at the Stockholm Environment Institute and York University in England, who studies these biological cycles, says there are so many subtle effects it's hard to be sure which ones will prove to be the most important.

"I think the take-home message of this paper is we need to understand those interactions far better and we probably need to take action much more quickly than we are doing at the moment," Emberson says.

Right now it seems like we're much more likely to clean up aerosol pollution, while increasing the amount of carbon dioxide in the air. So scientists, unfortunately, may have a chance to see how this inadvertent experiment on our planet starts to play out.

7 Florida facilities run afoul of EPA air quality standards Florida is home to seven air polluters that have been included in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Facility Watch List, according to the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting. The list identifies "high-priority violators" of the Clean Air Act with violations that have gone unresolved for more than 270 days.

The Florida sites listed are the Pinellas County Resource Recovery Facility, the Brevard County Central Disposal Facility in Cocoa, Eager Beaver Trailers in Lake Wales, the Miami-Dade County Resource Recovery Facility in Doral, Motiva Enterprises in Tampa, Tampa Electric Co.'s Big Bend Station in Apollo Beach, and Naval Air Station Jacksonville.

The resource recovery plants in Pinellas and Miami-Dade are two of a dozen such facilities in the state. The Pinellas plant burns 3,000 tons of garbage daily in one of the country's largest waste-to-energy incinerators, generating enough electricity to turn a $20 million annual profit. But state officials fined the county $50,000 last year for excess emissions during a boiler refurbishment. Facility officials say the violation has been resolved.

The piece details how pollution regulators have run into enforcement roadblocks: "The seven polluters demonstrate how toothless, and at times helpless, federal, state and county regulators can be in preventing hazardous emissions from entering the air Floridians breathe."

2011-10-31T18:29:00.001-07:00

It is time we stopped viewing our environment through prisms of profit, politics, geography, or local and personal pride. It is time for us to work together-to accept the truth about our problems in south Florida, and to set about solving them. It is time for us to do all of these things-because you know as well as I that the alternative will be disastrous to our economy as well as to our environment. Reubin Askew
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Audubon releases virtual birds

all over the Internet

'Birding the Net' campaign, timed to the release of Hollywood's The Big Year, will challenge people to find birds throughout the Internet

NEW YORK (October 11, 2011) – Birdwatching hit the Internet in a big way as Audubon launched its groundbreaking social media campaign, Birding the Net, on Oct. 10. Visitors to over 100 websites -- including AOL, Slate, Discovery Channel and more will encounter unexpected avian visitors – each inviting them to find more birds to add to their lists. Timed to build on the release of 20^th Century Fox's The Big Year, the campaign, created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, will bring the excitement of birds and birding to a broad new audience in a new and unexpected way.

"Birds are the best possible ambassadors for the environment, and this will help people see them in a whole new way," said David Yarnold, President & CEO of Audubon. "This is about fun – but it's also about getting more people involved in taking action to protect birds and the planet we share with them. And with this unprecedented use of social media and the web, we're also making it clear that this is not your grandmother's Audubon."
In The Big Year, characters compete to see the most North American birds in one year. Birding the Net brings to the Internet the thrill of the chase found in real-world birding, challenging players to spot dozens of species that will be released from Oct. 10 through Nov. 7. Web surfers will observe virtual birds doing the same things that birds do outdoors: animations of birds will fly across homepages, perch on mastheads, and flock to birdhouses that anyone can install on personal websites and blogs. Clicking on the animated birds on the many participating websites takes players to an Audubon Facebook page to collect and trade "bird cards" which feature recordings of birdsongs, bird facts, and video. The first players to collect all the birds will win prizes, including a voyage to the Galapagos Islands.
"This campaign amazingly combines bird preservation, education and alluring animation in an addictive experience that spreads across the Internet," said Jeff Goodby, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and long-time supporter of Audubon. Says Goodby, "the game turns the cold digital world into a resonant reminder of what we love about the warm and fragrant natural world around us."
All that is required to play is to visit Audubon on Facebook at www.facebook.com/NationalAudubonSociety. The game will go viral, since trading bird cards helps a player's chances of winning; the more Facebook friends that compete in Birding the Net, the more opportunities for trading birds. And for exclusive hints on where to find birds on the Internet, Audubon followers on Twitter (@AudubonSociety) can interact and follow campaign "spokesbirds" @FloridaScrubJay and @RufHummingbird.
In addition to the grand prize voyage for two to the Galapagos Islands courtesy of Lindblad Expeditions, prizes include Canon cameras, Nikon binoculars, gift cards to Woolrich and downloads of the Audubon Birds – A Field Guide to North American Birds mobile app from Green Mountain Digital. All 200 winners also receive one-year membership to Audubon.

About Audubon
Now in its second century, Audubon connects people with birds, nature and the environment that supports us all. Our national network of community-based nature centers, chapters, scientific, education, and advocacy programs engages millions of people from all walks of life in conservation action to protect and restore the natural world. Visit Audubon online at www.audubon.org.
About Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, a unit of the Omnicom Group, is one of the worlds most respected and most awarded advertising agencies. Founded in 1983, the company is based in San Francisco and has over 700 employees serving a broad array of national and international accounts, including Hewlett-Packard, Frito-Lay, Haagen-Dazs, California Milk Processors Board ("got milk?"), Adobe, Sprint, NBA and many others. For more information on GSP, please visit goodbysilverstein.com.

For high-rez images visit ftp://ftp.mprm.com/Audubon

Audubon honors SW Florida bird savior Keith Laakkonen, the town's environmental services coordinator, will be recognized tonight at Audubon of Florida's annual assembly in St. Mary, near Orlando, with the Guy Bradley award, one of its highest honors.

Laakkonen was instrumental in ensuring least terns and snowy plovers, both threatened species, can safely nest on the beach behind the condominiums on Carlos Pointe.

After he negotiated with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, it issued a permit to property owners to rake the beach to remove vegetation. "It was a response to a complex problem," said Laakkonen, 37, a biologist.

The Carlos Pointe and Castle Beach condos are south of the Little Estero Island Critical Wildlife Area, where scientists close a one-mile section by posting "no trespassing" signs from April 1-Aug. 31 for the nesting season.

"These birds have evolved to where they like open beach because vegetation, a lot of times, can hide predators that will come up and take their eggs," Laakkonen said.

The birds began nesting in force on the open beach behind the condos in 2009 since a major storm, which would naturally wash away vegetation in the wildlife area, hasn't hit in years.
The condo owners allowed Laakkonen to close off areas of the beach for the birds.

During nesting season, vegetation grew in the posted areas, and after the season was over, DEP didn't allow property owners to rake the beach anymore because vegetation is an important part of the ecosystem.

Laakkonen, with the help of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and town officials, convinced DEP to issue a one-time beach raking permit in April 2010 and a five-year permit last April.
Read more

Dear Friends of the Environment,
I would like to invite you to the Sawgrass Nature Center's annual "Born To Be Wild" Gala, being held on November 5th at the Coral Springs Country Club (see invitation below). Ticket price includes delicious 60's & 70's inspired Hors D'oeuvres, dinner, drinks and dessert. Our Hippie theme will be a lot of fun and prizes will be given for the best costume so pull out your tie dyed t-shirts, bellbottoms, love beads and join the FUN!

All revenue raised at the gala will be used to fund our environmental education programs and wildlife rehabilitation hospital.

Let me know if you have any questions, hope to see you at the Gala,

Joan Kohl

Reservation Information

$75.00 per person ($65.00 for SNC Members)

Table Sponsor (Admission for 8) $1,000.__________

Ticket cost includes:

Delicious Hors D'oeuvres, Cocktails, Dinner, Dessert & Beverages

Entertainment ~ Silent & Live Auction ~Raffles

Please RSVP by Oct. 24, 2011

*(No tickets will be sold at the door) *
For further information call (954) 752-WILD (9453)

Broward County Commission

NEWS RELEASE

Parks and Recreation Division ▪ 950 N.W. 38^th St., Oakland Park, FL 33309

Phone: 954-357-8100 ▪ Fax: 954-561-5359 ▪ mmills@broward.org www.broward.org/parks

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Date: October 24, 2011 Phone: 954-357-8115
From: Michael Mills E-mail:

Find Volunteer Spirit – At Your Favorite Nature Center

- Help clean and maintain the environment on EcoAction Days -

WHAT: You can help the environment by volunteering to clean natural areas of garbage and invasive plants. Broward County Parks has scheduled EcoAction Days running from October 2011 through May 2012. The workdays are held on the first Saturday of the month at Fern Forest Nature Center in Coconut Creek and Long Key Natural Area & Nature Center in Davie, the second Saturday of the month at Secret Woods Nature Center in Dania Beach, and the third Saturday of the month at the Anne Kolb Nature Center in Hollywood and Deerfield Island Park in Deerfield Beach.

The dates for November are November 5 for Fern Forest and Long Key, November 12 for Secret Woods, and November 19 for Anne Kolb and Deerfield Island. These volunteer workdays run from 9 a.m. to noon except at Deerfield Island, where the time-frame is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Volunteers are asked to bring gloves, a hat, sunscreen, insect repellent, and drinking water. They should also dress appropriately with long pants, closed-toe shoes, and long sleeves. Preregistration is required, and all participants must fill out a workday form before participating. For volunteers under 18, parental signatures are required. Other dates and times can be arranged by contacting the park or nature center of your choice.

            WHERE:        Anne Kolb Nature Center
                                    751 Sheridan St., Hollywood 33019
                                    954-357-5161
                                    Deerfield Island Park
                                    1720 Deerfield Island Park, Deerfield Beach 33441
                                    954-357-5100

Fern Forest Nature Center

201 Lyons Rd. South, Coconut Creek 33063

954-357-5198

                                    Long Key Natural Area & Nature Center
                                    3501 S.W. 130th Ave., Davie 33330
                                    954-357-8797

Secret Woods Nature Center

2701 W. State Rd. 84, Dania Beach 33312

954-357-8884

WHEN: First Saturday of the month (Fern Forest, Long Key)

Second Saturday of the month (Secret Woods)

Third Saturday of the month (Anne Kolb, Deerfield Island)

9 a.m.-noon (except 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Deerfield Island)

WHO: For ages 13 and up.

HOW: Preregistration is required.

For further information, call the park or nature center of your choice. These sites are also accessible from these Broward County Transit Routes #12 (Anne Kolb); #48 and #50 (Deerfield Island); #31 and #42 (Fern Forest); and #6 (Secret Woods).

The 27th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference will be Jan 5-8 at Hutchinson Island Marriott Beach Resort & Marina in Stuart, Florida.

Extended public comment period on Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge EvergladesHeadwatersProposal@fws.gov  The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will extend the public comment period on the proposed Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area in south-central Florida to November 25, 2011.

The proposal has generated significant interest from a variety of stakeholders with roughly 1,500 comments received to date. The extension was requested by local hunting conservation groups and provides an additional opportunity for interested citizens and organizations to submit comments.
The original deadline to submit comments was set for today. A notice of extension will be published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, October 26. It will be available in the Register's 'Reading Room' beginning today.
Written comments may be submitted by:
        Email to
        Fax to 321-861-1276
        Mail to
        Everglades Headwaters Proposal
US Fish and Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 2683
Titusville, FL 32781-2683

Names and addresses should be included with comments, with the understanding that the material is subject to the federal Freedom of Information Act and may be released to the public upon request.

The Service is proposing a 100,000-acre Conservation Area and a 50,000-acre National Wildlife Refuge. This is a voluntary program. The Service would work with willing landowners to purchase full or partial interest in their land. No general tax revenue will be used to purchase lands or conservation easements in this proposal. Funding for this proposal would come from royalties generated by offshore oil and gas exploration and development that are deposited into the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Details about the proposal including its Draft Land Protection Plan, an Environmental Assessment, and maps, are available at: http://www.fws.gov/southeast/evergladesheadwaters .

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals, and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit http://www.fws.gov/

South Florida Association of Environmental Professionals

Annual Conference - November 4, 2011

Kovens Conference Ctr., FIU North Campus

8:00 a.m. Registration

8:30 a.m. Welcome and Recognitions: Jeff Marcus, SFAEP President

8:45 am Keynote Speaker: Terrie Bates, Director, Water Resources Division, South

Florida Water Management District (SFWMD)

9:30 am Break

10:00 a.m. Regulatory Updates and Opportunities for Streamlining

Moderator: Matt Davis, Miami-Dade County Dept. of Permitting,

Environment & Regulatory Affairs (PERA)

Jennifer Smith, Environmental Resources Program Administrator, Florida Department of

Environmental Protection (FDEP)

Anita Bain, Bureau Chief, Environmental Resources Permitting, SFWMD

Megan Clouser, Senior Project Manager, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)

Lee Hefty, Assistant Director of Miami-Dade County, PERA

12:00 pm Lunch: Restaurants within walking distance.

1:15 pm SFAEP Elections and Chapter Business

1:30 pm Permit Application Process from the Applicant's Perspective

Moderator: Jeff Marcus, C3TS

Ken Huntington, VP, RS Environmental Consulting

Eric Summa, USACE, Jacksonville District

Ann Broadwell, Environmental Administrator, FDOT District Four,

John Palenchar, Permits Coordinator, FDOT District Six,

Sandra Lee, Calvin Giordano & Associates

Jose Gonzalez, VP, Flagler Development

Matthew Raffenberg, Florida Power & Light (FP&L)

2:45 pm Break

3:00 pm Wetland Mitigation Discussion and Updates from the Regulatory Agency

Perspective

Moderator David Bogardus, FDOT District Four

Jill King, Environmental Manager, FDEP

Barbara Conmy, Section Leader, Natural Resource Management Unit, SFWMD

Garrett Lips, Regulatory Project Manager, USACE

Brandon Howard, Fisheries Biologist, National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration (NOAA)

4:30 pm Closing Comments

PLEASE JOIN US FOR OUR MONTHLY MEMBERSHIP MEETING

Thursday, NOVEMBER 17, 2011, at Fern Forest @ 7:30 p.m.

Grant Campbell

Director Wildlife Policy and Conservation Chair

South Florida Audubon Society

TOPIC: "PLASTIC: Bane or Boon?"

Learn what plastic is doing to the environment worldwide.

There will be a slide show that will open your eyes and change your ideas about the way we use and dispose of our everyday items, from plastic cutlery to parts of the auto you ride in.

Plastic is Omni-present, but should it be?

Along with our Speaker we are thrilled to have:

FREE DOOR PRIZE

This month will be a drawing for special prizes. A Door Prize ticket will be given to each member and each guest upon signing in. Please don't forget to ask for your FREE DOOR PRIZE ticket when you sign in..

FURTHEST TRAVELER PRIZE

The member who has driven the furthest to the Meeting will be introduced and will receive a three piece water conservation HOME FAUCET AERATOR SET - $13 value

RAFFLE

A RAFFLE will be held - $1 per ticket, or 6 tickets for $5 (such a deal!) Drawing will be held at the end of the meeting. Must be present to accept prize. Lucky winner will receive a Quality coated lens binoculars, professional quality

Proceeds to South Florida Audubon Society general fund

COMPLEMENTARY REFRESHMENTS

Please try to arrive early and enjoy meeting other members, share common interests/experiences, and make new friends.

Our meetings are open to the public and we look forward to seeing our members and new friends.

South Florida Eco-Movie Group presents "Blue Gold"

Secret Woods Nature Center

2701 W State Road 84, Dania Beach, FL (map)

Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

A new documentary, BLUE GOLD, follows the fascinating story of the blue jean, a truly American icon that has evolved into a global phenomenon.

The South Florida Audubon Society, Broward County Environmental Education Council (EEC), and the Green League of Broward have teamed up with the Friends of the Sawgrass Nature Center and are hosting a series of Eco-Movie Events at Secret Woods Nature Center inside Julia Hall.

This event is open to the public and free of charge.

After each movie, a short moderated panel discussion will be held with local topic panelists to discuss ways to make a positive impact in regards to the topic that we have just watched.

* Please note: These movies do not reflect the views or opinions of any one person or organization involved. They are merely chosen by category for everyone to view for the informational content so that they can form their own better educated opinions.

For directions and information about the Secret Woods Nature Center, visit: http://www.broward.org/Parks/SecretWoodsNat

Of interest to allUp to 20 million tons of debris from Japan's tsunami moving toward Hawaii Some 5 to 20 million tons of debris--furniture, fishing boats, refrigerators--sucked into the Pacific Ocean in the wake of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami are moving rapidly across the Pacific.
Researchers from the University of Hawaii tracking the wreckage estimate it could approach the U.S. West Coast in the next three years, the UK Daily Mail reports.
"We have a rough estimate of 5 to 20 million tons of debris coming from Japan," University of Hawaii researcher Jan Hafner told Hawaii's ABC affiliate KITV.
Crew members from the Russian training ship the STS Pallada "spotted the debris 2,000 miles from Japan," last month after passing the Midway Islands, the Mail wrote. "They saw some pieces of furniture, some appliances, anything that can float, and they picked up a fishing boat," said Hafner. The boat was 20-feet long, and was painted with the word "Fukushima." "That's actually our first confirmed report of tsunami debris," Hafner told KITV.

Florida Friendly plant database Read it Here

Christmas Bird Count December 31: Nelson recognized with wildlife award

Sen. Bill Nelson has found a real identity with environmental issues. He emerged as perhaps the most out-spoken critic of BP and federal oversight of Gulf oil drilling after the epic spill and over the years has ushered many a D.C. politician into the Everglades and fought for funding.
Audubon of Florida has named him recipient of its Theodore Roosevelt Award, which goes to lawmakers who champion green causes. Roosevelt was a founder of the Florida Audubon Society and established the first National Wildlife Refuge at Pelican Island.
"The very name Theodore Roosevelt stands for resilience, resolve and courage in the face of fire," said Audubon Executive Director Eric Draper in a release. "No public figure in Florida embodies those values like Senator Bill Nelson."
Birds
STA 5 Birding Tour Schedule
November 12
November 26
December 3
December 17
Hendry-Glades Audubon will lead escorted tours to Stormwater Treatment Area 5 (STA-5) south of Clewiston his season. Tours are open to anyone, but participants must register to reserve a space on the trips. To sign up contact: Margaret England, at sta5birding@embarqmail.com or 863-674-0695 include your name and contact information including an emergency cell number for the tour day.

15th annual count takes place Feb. 17-20, 2012 As movie-goers watch the stars of The Big Year in their quest to count birds, some may be motivated to try the hobby for the first time. The annual Great Backyard Bird Count is the perfect opportunity. The event is hosted by Audubon, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada. The results provide a snapshot of the whereabouts of more than 600 bird species. Anyone can participate in this free event and no registration is needed. Watch and count birds for at least 15 minutes on any day of the count, February 17-20, 2012. Enter your results at www.birdcount.org, where you can watch as the tallies grow across the continent. The four-day count typically records more than 10 million observations.
"When thousands of people all tell us what they're seeing, we can detect patterns in how birds are faring from year to year," said Janis Dickinson, director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
"The Great Backyard Bird Count is a perfect example of Citizen Science," says Audubon Chief Scientist, Gary Langham. "Like Audubon's Christmas Bird Count, volunteers help us with data year after year, providing scientific support that is the envy of many institutions. It's also a lot of fun."
"We're finding that more people are taking part in our bird count programs every year--and the more that take part, the better it is for the birds," says Richard Cannings, Senior Projects Officer for Bird Studies Canada.
The 2011 GBBC brought in more than 92,000 bird checklists submitted by participants from across the United States and Canada. Altogether, bird watchers identified 596 species with 11.4 million bird observations.
Results from the 2011 GBBC included:

• Increased reports of Evening Grosbeaks, a species that has been declining;

• A modest seasonal movement of winter finches farther south in their search for food;

• The Eurasian Collared-Dove was reported from Alaska for the first time, more evidence of an introduced species rapidly expanding its range.

Although it's called the Great "Backyard" Bird Count, the count extends well beyond backyards. Lots of participants choose to head for national parks, nature centers, urban parks, nature trails, or nearby sanctuaries. For more information, including bird-ID tips, instructions, and past results, visit www.birdcount.org. The count also includes a photo contest and a prize drawing for participants who enter their bird checklists online.
The Great Backyard Bird Count is made possible in part by sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited.
Visit the GBBC News Room for high-resolution images and your state's top-10 lists from the 2010 count. Please also inquire about possible interviews with local participants.
Contacts:
• Pat Leonard, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, (607) 254-2137, pel27@cornell.edu
• Delta Willis, Audubon, (212) 979-3197, dwillis@audubon.org
• Dick Cannings, Bird Studies Canada, (250) 493-3393 (Pacific time zone), dcannings@birdscanada.org
Invasive species
Fighting against Florida's alien invaders One day this summer, Susan Arehart noticed her cat, Luna-tick, acting strangely. Arehart, a transplanted New Yorker who now lives in Riverview, thought maybe the cat was stalking a snake in the yard.
But when she got closer, she saw what was it was: a big, black and white lizard with sharp claws, known as a giant Argentine Tegu. She figured it was 4 feet long from the tip of its tail to the end of its forked tongue.
She thought it might run when it saw her. It didn't. "That thing stared me right down," she said. "It's not afraid of anything."
Everyone has heard about the pythons in the Everglades. State officials have told hunters to shoot them on sight. Congress is debating whether to ban their importation. Writer Carl Hiaasen jokes about how he'd like to see politicians out seeking a River of Grass photo op attacked by one.
But Frank Mazzotti, one of Florida's top reptile experts, thinks that what everyone ought to be talking about is the Tegu — and also the Nile monitor, the Oustalet's chameleon and several other slithery species that have invaded Florida in recent years.
Unlike the pythons, which are pretty well dug in, Mazzotti said, "we've got 140 species that aren't established yet."
That includes species beyond South Florida — for instance, the tegu, a recent fad in the exotic pet trade. Some Tegu owners have reported being surprised at how fast their little lizards grew, and how much they ate.
Five years ago tegus — either escaped captives or those turned loose by irresponsible owners — began popping up in rural and suburban Hillsborough County. On top of frightening homeowners and their pets, tegus eat the eggs and the young of ground-nesting birds and gopher tortoises.
State and federal officials should target those reptiles for removal now, before they get as entrenched as the pythons, said Mazzotti, a University of Florida wildlife ecology professor who has spent more than 25 years studying South Florida reptiles.
Read more

Florida Panthers
Corkscrew Panther takes a stroll along the boardwalk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGq0kuHROiU
Endangered Species
A good year for turtles The 2011 turtle nesting season started with a huge surge of nests, tapered off somewhere in the middle and ended with numbers above the five-year average.
There were 54 nests on Bonita Beach during nesting season, which runs from May 1 until Sunday. Of those, 48 nests hatched. Those numbers are not as high as the 70 last year, but they topple the 36 nests in 2009.
Turtles tend to nest every other year, so 2011 is more accurately compared to 2009 than last year. Of the 28 nests on Fort Myers Beach, 27 hatched. Turtle watchers also found three nests on Big Hickory Island, two in Bokeelia and two on Bunche Beach.
The year was also a surprise for experts who saw some green turtles nest on beaches that are mostly nurseries for loggerheads.
"For the most part we did well," said Eve Haverfield, president and founder of Turtle Time, a volunteer organization that monitors sea turtles in south Lee County. "And it was a surprising year because we had nests in areas where we don't have a plethora of nests like Bunche Beach and Bokeelia, so it's always a nice surprise to find nests there."
Season started early on Bonita Beach with the first nest found April 28. Warm water this spring was the reason for the strong start to the season, experts said.
Sanibel Island had 277 nests with an additional 77 nests on Captiva this year.
But even more remarkable were the seven green turtles that nested on Sanibel and the one that laid a nest on Captiva, said Amanda Bryant, turtle coordinator for the Sanibel/Captiva Conservation Foundation.
"We have green nests every other year," Bryant said. "The fact that we had green nesting last year and this year points to another green turtle or another two green turtles that utilize our beach."
Bryant also recorded one Kemp's ridley nest on Sanibel.
"Sanibel didn't have a good year last year, so for us to have a good year this year is wonderful," she said. "Hopefully, this means loggerheads will be doing a little bit better. Overall, I count this as a pretty good year."
Maura Kraus, turtle coordinator for Collier County, said her final numbers won't be ready until next month. But preliminary data shows 760 nests were laid this year, the same as last year.
Kraus said even more important than the number of nests is the number of successful hatchings. As of this week 556 nests had hatched. Kraus said the lack of storms this season kept most of the nests safe for the 55 to 65 days the eggs need to incubate.
"We had a good season. We are real pleased with it," Kraus said. "We had some storms in June, but even the nests that got washed over, we had good hatchings out of those nests."

Key West hospital serves special clientele After months of rehabilitation, a loggerhead sea turtle was released back into the wild in the Florida Keys Tuesday as a group of environmentalists and journalists witnessed business as usual at the Turtle Hospital in Marathon.
It's all about helping sea turtles survive, like this sub-adult loggerhead named Karsten being released off Sombrero Beach.
Five months ago, Karsten was found floating in a local Marathon canal by homeowners. He was scooped up and taken in the Turtle ambulance to received medical attention and diagnostics. Richie Moretti is founder of the Turtle Hospital.
"We root for all of them. Ones that come in that has so many problems at one time, like this one, she had two hooks in her, one real deep that Doug got out and one he got out of her jaw. You have to really see how the animal is doing; you can't just take the hook out and assume the animal is fine. That's how we found out they had lockjaw."
As a result, the turtle couldn't open his mouth to eat until volunteer veterinary staff stretched his jaw daily and fed him squid using a tube down his throat. Moretti says a sign that Karsten was ready to go home came when he caught and ate a live lobster.
"When you watch that loggerhead, stalk and then strike that you can throw his head and you know all my staff is just looking at her, they'd been feeding her, forcing her mouth and when they watched her go like that and can just crush that shell, made them all a little more respectful that these guys can be a lot stronger than you think."
On the eve of Karsten's release, Dr. Doug Mader of Marathon Veterinary Hospital quickly turned his attention to another sub-adult loggerhead that was hit by a boat.
"This piece of shell was just hanging loose by some tissue over the top of the tail."
You can see the slices from the propeller, like a cheese grater, as it lays steady in critical condition, in an empty pool at the hospital.
"...and every time that propeller is spins it cuts a slice in their shell. It actually got the back part of the shell badly sliced last night, I came in and had to amputate part of the shell and then those wounds over there as bad as they look, there is a good chance this animal is going to make it, because there is no damage to the flipper or the head. So we've got it on antibiotics, we've got it on fluids and we have it on lots and lots of pain medication right now."
So as this turtle begins what now seems like a long journey through the rehabilitation process, back on Sombrero Beach, Karsten is getting reacquainted with his natural habitat.
"It's sort of like sending a kid off to college, you hope they at least say hi occasionally, but you know with us with Turtles if we don't hear anything that's good. Cause if they ever get hit by a boat, they're wearing a tag internally and they're wearing tags on their flipper, so as long as we don't hear, no news is good news!"
Turtle Hospital Founder Richie Moretti says there are simple steps people can take, to prevent harming turtles.
"Things that we can all do, is just watching our fishing lines, watching our plastic bags, if we stay on a beach during nesting season, closing your drapes just so they don't go the wrong direction. The little things make such a difference."
There are 24 patients at the Turtle Hospital.
Everglades and Water Quality Issues
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers breaks ground on Indian River Lagoon-South Project Oct. 28 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District will host a groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of another project to restore America's Everglades. The Indian River Lagoon-South C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area groundbreaking ceremony will be held Friday, Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. near 20654 SW Citrus Boulevard, Indiantown.

"The greater Everglades is an American treasure, an extraordinary ecosystem unlike any other in the world," said Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state of Florida and Martin County are proud to stand together to break ground on this first component of the Indian River Lagoon-South project."
"The Department of the Interior celebrates the start of this monumental project to restore and protect the Indian River Lagoon, one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in America," said Rachel Jacobson, acting Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks, Department of the Interior. "This restoration project represents our strong and continuing joint commitment with Florida and its local governments to restore and protect the many natural resources, national parks and wildlife refuges of the south Florida region while also securing and enhancing flood protection, water supply, and the economy for the millions of South Florida residents."
"This day has been a long time coming and is an important milestone in Everglades restoration," said U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson. "After many delays and hurdles, we're finally moving dirt to help bring the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon back to health."
"The Indian River Lagoon project is a key component of overall Everglades restoration," U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney (FL-16) said. "Constructing the C-44 reservoir means a cleaner lagoon, healthier fish and wildlife, and reduced toxic algal blooms. The project is critical to maintaining Martin County's marine and tourism industries, preserving property values, and boosting our local economy."
"This groundbreaking is an important step toward getting the water right in the Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie Estuary," said Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard, Jr. "We're here today due to the hard work and collaboration of our partners at the federal, local and state level, and I thank these partners for their continued support and commitment to protecting this ecosystem."
The Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie Estuary are two of the country's most productive and most threatened estuaries. H ome to more than 4,300 species of plants and animals, the lagoon and estuary have suffered from altered water flow patterns and degraded water quality. The Indian River Lagoon-South project will restore the delicate balance of fresh and salt water in the lagoon and estuary, treat polluted water and revitalize degraded habitats.
The C-44 project includes the construction of a 3,400-acre above ground reservoir and a pump station with a capacity to pump 1,100 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water and a 6,300-acres stormwater treatment area. The completed project will capture local runoff from the C-44 basin and reduce the average annual total nutrient load and improve salinity for the St. Lucie Estuary and southern Indian River Lagoon.
"A tremendous amount of time, effort and steadfast commitment by the South Florida Water Management District and our restoration partners, especially Martin County, have preceded today's celebration. When completed, this project will help improve and protect the health of the St. Lucie River and Estuary, which, in turn, will mean a healthier economy for us all," said Kevin Powers, Vice-Chair of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board. The SFWMD is the non-federal project sponsor.
"The C-44 project will serve to greatly reduce polluted runoff into the St. Lucie River and the Indian River Lago on while bringing significant economic benefits to our community," said Edward V. Ciampi, Chairman of the Martin County Board of County Commissioners. "The project will also provide 12,000 acres of habitat creation and recreational opportunities. The Martin County Board of Commissioners has steadfastly supported this project and is proud to have partnered with the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a substantial funding partner. This unique partnership reflects the importance of the Everglades and our waterways to the people of Martin County."
"We are certainly celebrating the hard work of many, and the successes along the way, to make this day a reality," said Orlando Ramos-Gines, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers senior project manager for the Indian River Lagoon-South project.
The Indian River Lagoon-South project was the first major component of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) to come up for authorization since the approval of Water and Resources Development Act of 2000.

Feds announce plan to speed Everglades restoration A new fast-track planning effort could shave years off the next phase of Everglades restoration, putting more fresh and clean water into the central and southern portions of Florida's "River of Grass" more quickly.
A restoration task force that met Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., announced a rapid planning effort that, if approved by Congress, could transform how large public-works projects across the country are built. It's also expected to cut the planning process for the next major restoration project in the central Everglades from six years to 18 months.
"The reality is the ecosystem has continued to degrade," said Dawn Shirreffs, the Everglades restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. "We're running out of time. We don't have the time to spend six years on a project anymore."
Thursday's announcement came out of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' effort to streamline large projects nationwide. The Army corps decided to use the planning process for the next major restoration project, which will provide more a natural flow and deeper clean new water through the central Everglades and Everglades National Park, as a pilot.
Previous plans were overly detailed, expensive and time-consuming, the Army Corps of Engineers found. The time - as well as data - being invested in studies wasn't leading to a better product, officials said in materials that were prepared for Thursday's task force meeting.
Also, projects in the Everglades had a tendency to be addressed one by one rather than simultaneously, Shirreffs said. But there are three components of Everglades cleanup, all intertwined, and all best addressed together, she said. Water can't be moved unless it's clean, it can't be cleaned unless it's stored and it can't be stored unless it gets to the places designated for storage.
Cleaning up the pollution that's flowing into the Everglades requires reducing the phosphorus in the water to 10 parts per billion. Amounts any higher won't stop changes in plant and animal life in the Everglades, a delicate ecosystem of marshlands and forests that's home to a variety of threatened species.
Because of high levels of phosphorus, cattails have been taking over the saw grass in the Everglades for decades. The pollutant has flowed from fertilizers on sugar and vegetable farms and the sprawling suburbs of South Florida.
The state was supposed to get to its phosphorus-reduction goal by 2012, but the Florida Legislature pushed back the deadline to 2016. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott met in Washington with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and offered some alternative plans for resolving some of the legal disputes over water quality in the Everglades, but he also said that Florida would need another six years.
The state's plans call for downsizing some construction projects and relying more on water storage on public and private lands. The plan, Scott said, puts to use land that's already in public ownership so that projects can be authorized and built promptly "at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers.
Specifically, the state will be looking for opportunities to use publicly owned land to store and treat water in the Everglades Agricultural Area - where farmlands exist amid the Everglades' water system - and move the water south to water conservation areas and Everglades National Park.
That's expected to achieve more natural water circulation and tie together the state's work north of the conservation areas and the Interior Department's Tamiami Trail bridging project, along the highway that runs from Tampa to Miami, passing through the Everglades.
Last week, Salazar visited the Tamiami Trial project in Miami-Dade County. It's one of the first bridges in a series of planned spans that would raise parts of the highway above the wetlands and eventually could restore the historic freshwater flow of the River of Grass to levels not seen in 80 years.
The federal government eventually would like to see 5.5 miles of bridges on Tamiami Trail, at an estimated cost of $324 million and to be built over four years. So far, it's unclear whether money for the bridges will be budgeted, however.
Friday, officials will break ground on a separate project: a 12,000-acre reservoir in western Martin County, Fla., designed to improve the quality of the water in the St. Lucie Estuary and the southern portion of the Indian River Lagoon.
A congressional subcommittee will look next week at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's plans to acquire more land in the Everglades for conservation, how it would be paid for and what effect it would have on public access and recreation within the refuge and conservation area.

Congressman Rivera on support for Everglades Restoration Congressman Rivera joined U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe on Thursday for a visit to the Tamiami Trail Bridge Project in Miami-Dade County to learn about the progress being made on the bridge, which is scheduled for completion in December of 2013. The bridge will help restore fresh water flow to Everglades National Park and the South Florida Ecosystem.
"I want to commend Secretary Salazar for his leadership on this project. I don't think that there are many projects that you can imagine for our community, for our state and for our nation, that are as important as restoring the water flow in the Everglades," Congressman Rivera said. "We all know what an ecological jewel the Everglades is for our nation, so it is very very important from this point going forward to continue having that leadership, continue having the interagency cooperation that we've seen throughout the years of this project and the cooperation between the Executive Branch and Congress and maintaining the support in Congress for this project. Certainly that commitment has been there from our Congressional delegation in the past and no doubt it will be there in the future as well. The important thing now is to maintain that vigilance, maintain the cooperation and maintain the great efforts and the leadership that we've seen from Secretary Salazar."

Feds., Florida announce major effort to restore River of Grass The South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, including representatives from the Army, announced a fast-track planning effort to improve the Central and Southern Everglades by putting more fresh and clean water into the River of Grass.
Senior policy officials from the Department of the Army, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency and the State of Florida, including the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection convened at the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force (Task Force) meeting on October 27.
They announced a fast-track planning effort for the next generation that will, when authorized by Congress, improve the Central and Southern Everglades by putting more fresh and clean water into the River of Grass.
The Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District announced the start of the Central Everglades planning process, which will incorporate updated science and maximize use of publicly owned lands to focus the next phase of Everglades Restoration on the Central and Southern Everglades. This planning process will build on three years of unprecedented restoration progress between the federal government and the State of Florida including groundbreakings for six Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan projects. This includes substantial construction progress on the first mile of bridging of Tamiami Trail.
The Central Everglades planning process will analyze alternatives that will reduce the discharge of water currently damaging the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and provide more natural flow and depths of clean new water through the Central Everglades and the Everglades National Park. This initiative will use a fast-tracked planning process, a pilot program that the Army Corps of Engineers is initiating elsewhere in the country, designed to yield restoration benefits at an efficient rate.
The planning effort responds directly to the 2008 and 2010 recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences and restoration scientists who recognize the need to address unnatural water levels in the water conservation areas and Everglades National Park as one of the biggest challenges facing restoration managers.

Tamiami Trail Bridge will restore partial flow to Everglades, but it won't be enough For nearly a century, the flow of the Everglades has been blocked by a bumpy, two-lane road. The Tamiami Trail, built in the 1920s to allow Model A Fords to travel across the Everglades, effectively dammed the River of Grass, starving what would become a national park and altering its flora and fauna.
Now, after two decades of struggling to get approval and funding, the road is rising to let the river run free. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is raising a mile of the Tamiami Trail so water can once again flow into Everglades National Park.
Last week Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, flanked by a squad of other federal officials, showed off the progress on the project to a group of journalists. The officials all donned hard hats and posed for pictures at the construction site, boasting about how the $95 million project first approved by Congress in 1989 would be completed by December 2013.
There's only one problem. Raising just a single mile of the highway "is not sufficient," said Stu Appelbaum, who's in charge of planning for the corps' Everglades restoration work. Saving the River of Grass requires more flow than what that one segment would allow.
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Forecast Calling for Another Below-Average Dry Season Two significant rainfall events in October have helped replenish ground and surface water supplies in the South Florida Water Management District's 16-county region. However, long-term forecasts from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Prediction Center are calling for La Niña conditions to bring below-average rainfall to South Florida during the 2011-2012 dry season, indicating the region may remain in a water shortage.
In preparation for the dry season, water shortage orders remain in effect to limit landscape irrigation to two days per week throughout most of the South Florida Water Management District's 16-county region. The West Palm Beach City Commission has implemented additional one-day-a-week emergency restrictions that apply to its utility service area, which includes the Towns of Palm Beach and South Palm Beach. The City of Lake Worth has one-day-a-week irrigation restrictions in effect, as well.
Landscape irrigation using reclaimed water is not restricted, unless prohibited by local ordinance.
Mandatory reductions for agricultural and other large water uses are also in effect.
Stormwater runoff from the rainfall event over the weekend of Oct. 8-9 provided a much-needed boost to Lake Okeechobee's water level. However, the lake, which is the backup water supply for South Florida, remains below its historic average for this time of year.
The District is storing as much water as possible from the recent rainfall events, but not all of it can be retained because of limited storage options and the need for immediate flood protection.
Many agriculture and diversion and impoundment systems as well as nurseries and golf courses throughout the region are required to reduce withdrawals or overall water use by 15 percent. From August 7 through October 31, golf courses under water use restrictions may apply for a variance if they need to undertake re-sodding, sprigging or other course rehabilitation activities.
Permitted users of surface water in the Lake Okeechobee Service Area (LOSA) are required to reduce withdrawals or overall water use by 45 percent.

West Palm Beach's water supply could dry up by spring The source of West Palm Beach's drinking water "will probably be exhausted" by March and the city will not be allowed to pull water from its well field in violation of its permit, as it did to weather this year's drought, regional water managers warned the City Commission last week.
"I think you need to approach this with the concept that you're facing a significant event and do everything you can and we're going to do everything we can do to help," said Scott Burns, the water shortage incident commander at the South Florida Water Management District. "I think you need to plan on alternatives and that those sources won't be there."
City Utilities Director David Hanks offered alternatives: partnering with Florida Atlantic University on a study to drill horizontal wells; fixing the troubled Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant that's supposed to replenish the city's well field; resurrecting plans to inject water into a well for storage; and extending intake pipes to the deepest sections of Clear Lake, the reservoir that feeds water to the neighboring treatment plant.
But even if the board approves a plan and installs pumps, by March the C-17 Canal would likely be too low to use, Burns said.
Hanks said the best the city can do is keep water levels as high as possible at its water sources: the Grassy Waters Preserve, Lake Mangonia and Clear Lake. The way to do that: use less water.
"Our best solution is if we can decrease demand on the system," Hanks said.
Palm Beach County's Water Utilities Department director, Bevin Beaudet, recently sent district officials an 18-page letter threatening to sue the city if it continued to draw more water from the city's emergency well field than the city's permit allows.
Drawing down the city well field threatens the county's nearby water supply, he wrote.
In August the district cited but did not fine the city for violating its water-use permit by siphoning millions of gallons from the city well field without replenishing more than a fraction of what it was required to.
The permit requires that for every gallon the city draws from the well field, it must give back a gallon of cleansed water from the plant to keep the county's well field from running low.
But the $37 million sewage treatment plant is operating far below capacity and has been shut down for repairs so often that it could not produce enough water to replace the amount the city withdrew from its well.
The district wants to resolve the violation by having the city sign a formal agreement, called a consent order, promising to abide by the permit and find alternative water sources or face fines. The county has offered to sell the city its water at a discounted rate, as it did during the most recent drought.
However, little mention was made of that alternative during last week's meeting. City officials last year estimated the cost of buying enough water from the county to tide the city over during drought could come to $10,000 a day.
Instead, the district's deputy executive director, Bob Brown, told commissioners that the district wants to work with the city to resolve the violation and ensure there is enough water during the upcoming dry season rather than impose fines for the violations.
"We don't come here with a hammer, we come here to work with the city with the understanding that the city is going to work with the district," Brown said. "It's a two-way street."
Wildlife and Habitat
Going, Going, Gone: Two FL Species May Be Extinct The South Florida rainbow snake and Florida fairy shrimp may have names that sound magical, but the magic may have run out for both of them. A National Wildlife Federation (NWF) report confirms the two unique Florida species are gone forever and, according to Florida NWF General Counsel Preston Robertson, the Florida panther and the manatee could be next.
"The manatee, whose numbers fluctuate up and down our coast and — the other one, of course, is our state symbol — the Florida panther, which used to exist all over the southern United States but is now confined to the counties of southwest Florida."
Only about 100 Florida panthers are known to live in the wild, and the species has been on the endangered list since the 1970s. The manatee, also known as the sea cow, has been listed as endangered since the late 1960s.
Panther and manatee habitat has increasingly been threatened by development, says Robertson, adding that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released research indicating the most crucial and vulnerable panther habitats are currently in Collier and Hendry counties.
"Not to talk politics, but up until the present administration, there was a lot of effort made to protect land, to preserve habitat for the panther, also for water quality protection."
Wildlife preservation advocates point out that if fading panther and manatee populations are protected, the result is that habitat is also protected for bears and a host of other creatures, as well as preserving places where people can enjoy nature, bird-watch, hunt, and fish.
The NWF findings are online at http://blog.nwf.org/wildlifepromise.

Walruses suffer from similar disease afflicting Alaska ringed seals Arctic ringed seals aren't the only marine mammal suffering an unusual skin-lesion outbreak along Alaska's northern coasts.
Walruses that have hauled out by the thousands at Point Lay in Northwest Alaska during recent summers -- an event driven by climate change -- are also turning up with bizarre, festering sores. Scientists estimate perhaps 600 are infected. Instead of wounds on their faces and rear flippers, red abscesses pepper the animals' entire bodies. But apparently only a few have perished.
Still, scientists from a number of agencies are working to answer several questions, including whether the outbreaks in the two species are related. They also worry the lesions could eventually lead to deaths among Pacific walrus, an animal more than 100,000 strong that's being considered for protections under the Endangered Species Act.
"Is it the bubonic plague or just a really bad case of acne?" asked Tony Fischbach, a federal walrus biologist who first noticed the sores on some walruses late this summer.
As in the case of the ringed seals, biologists are working with the North Slope Borough Department of Wildlife Management, pathology experts and others. They've sent skin and tissue samples to labs in the U.S. and Canada, but haven't pinpointed a cause. Everything from viruses to toxins are being considered.
It doesn't appear that a huge numbers of walruses have the lesions. At various times, an estimated 20,000 walruses have gathered on the beach.
Leo Ferreira III, the former mayor in Point Lay, a village of 200 residents west of Barrow, said the sores seem to have contributed to the deaths of some walruses.
"Most of them that are dying got the lesions on them," said Ferreira, an Inupiat walrus hunter. He provided a little help last month as scientists collected flesh samples from the animals for testing. He's seen two dead ones with lesions.
"This is the first time this is happening," he said. "But this is also happening with the ringed seals. We're very concerned. It's because we think there is a disease spreading through them."
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Update on Lynx Critical Habitat Designation When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a critical habitat designation for the threatened Canada lynx, conservationists feared the rule lacked adequate protections in Colorado and several other Western states. In July 2010, a District of Montana judge ruled that the original critical habitat designation was indeed inadequate, ordering a revised proposal from the agency. A group of organizations—including the Sierra Club—has now settled on a timeline with the Fish and Wildlife Service, which will facilitate the reconsideration and expansion of critical habitat for the Canada lynx.
Global Warming and Climate Change
Rising sea levels will hit hard in South Florida A sea-level rise of just a few inches will bring flooding to South Florida cities, contaminate sources of drinking water and lead to sharp increases in utility bills over the next 20 or 30 years, according a study released Wednesday by Florida Atlantic University.
The study found that projected sea level increases of 3 to 6 inches by 2030, due to global warming, could overwhelm flood-control systems that in many areas are more than 50 years old. The authors provided a list of steps to be taken in the coming decades, from moving drinking-water wells inland to installing more pump stations, that could help the region cope with the higher water.
Global warming causes sea levels to rise because water expands as it increases in temperature and because glaciers melt. In the past century, sea levels have risen 4.8 to 8.8 inches, largely due to global warming, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Higher sea levels will increase the intrusion of saltwater into underground sources of drinking water, forcing cities to abandon wells near the ocean and drill new ones, according to the report.
As a case study, the report used Pompano Beach, where the city is fighting — so far successfully — to keep saltwater intrusion from its eastern wellfield. Although most of the city stands on relatively high ground, low-level coastal areas would be inundated.
By 2030 the city will have to spend millions to upgrade water plant equipment, install pump stations in low-lying areas and upgrade its sewer system, passing the cost onto its customers, according to the report.
"Sea level is creeping up on us," said Barry Heimlich, a researcher at FAU, who led the study. "And in a few decades it could overwhelm our storm drainage system."
Randy Brown, Pompano's utilities director, said the study was basically accurate and the city was incorporating the need to accommodate sea-level rise into its various water plans. He said it would be impossible to estimate the impact on bills over the next 20 years. Although he's optimistic about protecting drinking water supplies, he's unsure whether the city will be able to prevent flooding of low-lying areas.
Frederick Bloetscher, associate professor in the FAU Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering, says flooding during storms in eastern sections of South Florida cities provides the average citizen with the most powerful evidence for the reality of global warming.
"Ask people if anything's different," he said. "Ask them if their streets flood more. You do see more flooding when it rains, and people can relate to that. People's perceptions that things are different on the ground are right. It is reality."

Offshore and Ocean
Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary gets mixed review in condition The first comprehensive condition report of the vast Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary shows that while some management steps have helped the fragile ecosystem, there is still plenty to do to aid decimated coral reefs, improve water quality, protect and restore habitat and help some marine species recover from overfishing.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 108-page report, released Thursday, has "some sobering news, but also some good news," according to Billy Causey, southeast regional director of the National Marine Sanctuaries — which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Miami (Miami-Dade, Florida) The good news includes some improvement in water quality. The sanctuary's 2,900 nautical square miles have become less of a dumping ground for human waste. New regulations prohibit discharge of sewage from marine sanitation devices within the protected federal and state waters of the sanctuary.
Controversial no-take zones also have shown promise, with an increase in the size and population of some fish species and spiny lobster in or near those zones.
"We are seeing a number of larger fish, particularly in the ecological reserves of Western Sambo [a few miles off Key West] and the Tortugas [70 miles west of Key West]," Causey said.
But there is plenty of "sobering news" for the waters that support a commercial fishing industry and annually lure millions of tourists, including recreational fishermen, boaters, divers and those who just like to lie on the beach and gawk at the ocean's beauty.
"We all understand that a healthy marine ecosystem is a healthy economy," said Sean Morton, superintendent of the Keys' protected waters, one of the largest of the country's 13 marine sanctuaries.
More than 33,000 Keys jobs, 58 percent of the local economy and $2.3 billion in annual sales are connected to the island chain's unique geography, bordering both the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.
But those waters have been heavily exploited by man for more than 100 years. The sanctuary, home to about 6,000 species of marine life, has been in place only since 1990.
"Recovery of the ecosystem's health takes time," Morton said.
The report lists 17 questions used to rate the condition and trends of water, habitat, living resources and marine archaeological resources, such as shipwrecks. None of the conditions rated at the highest level, "good," and many "appeared to be declining."
One is the health of key species. Corals have been hit hard by disease and bleaching. Sea grass, sea turtles, sponges and queen conch also are struggling.
But there's hope. Ken Nedimyer and others in the Keys are working on pioneering efforts to grow coral in underwater nurseries to replace the important reef building blocks, which have drastically declined since the 1970s.
Still, recovery of most aspects of the ecosystem is hampered by continuing local pressures that include commercial and recreational fishing, harmful algal blooms, marine debris, vessel groundings, new exotic species such as the lionfish and boat traffic.
Global climate change, rising sea levels and ocean acidification also are growing problems, Causey said.
"One of the greatest things in this report ... is that we are starting to see a higher level of consciousness in the real problems confronting the coral reef and not skipping around climate change," Causey said. "We have to address that at a local and regional scale."

Energy
BP Increasing Exploration in the Gulf BP is a smaller company than it was before the Deepwater Horizon disaster off Florida's Gulf coast last year.
But with third-quarter net profits of $4.9 billion -- up $1.8 billion from the same period a year earlier -- and plans to shed up to $45 billion in assets in the next two years, BP's chief executive officer is telling investors the company is back at work.
Now heading a leaner company, BP Chief Executive Officer Bob Dudley, appearing on Bloomberg TV, said the company intends to more than double spending on exploration as it has acquired all its requested permits to drill in the Gulf of Mexico.
"We are getting back to work in the Gulf of Mexico," Dudley said.
The company, which once pumped 4 million barrels of oil a day worldwide, now sees its focus in exploration, with the peak oil production at 3.4 million barrels a day by the end of the year, Dudley said.
"People have worked very, very hard in the Gulf of Mexico, putting in place voluntary standards for drilling," he said. "We have received all the permits that we've requested. We've got three deep-water rigs running now, a fourth one very shortly. By the end of the year, we'll have five big rigs running."
David Mica of the Florida Petroleum Council said it's a good sign that federal deep-water drilling permits are starting to be approved. But he'd like to see the process speeded up. "There is a slowness of processing of permits that is still a problem," Mica said.
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Environmental groups challenge permit for Citrus County power plants Arguing that fish and other sea life in the Gulf of Mexico are being damaged, two environmental groups have challenged the state's decision to renew a permit for Progress Energy Florida power plants in Citrus County.
The Sierra Club and the Florida Wildlife Federation, in a case filed last week in the state Division of Administrative Hearings, target two coal-fired plants at Progress Energy's Crystal River complex.
In part, the groups say Progress Energy's discharges of hot water into the gulf are damaging a large ecosystem. Also, they take issue with water intake systems that can trap and kill sea life such as shellfish and small organisms.
"FWF and the Sierra Club dispute that this permit meets Florida water quality standards or satisfies obligations under the (federal) Clean Water Act,'' the groups said in a petition seeking an administrative hearing.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection gave notice last month that it planned to renew the water-discharge permit, which the plants have had since the late 1970s. Progress spokesman Scott Sutton said the permit addresses the issues raised by the environmental groups.
"It went through the process, and DEP made the determination this is the permit that adequately protects the environment, and we're ready to go forth and comply with it,'' Sutton said.
Progress has five plants at Crystal River, though the permit only deals with two coal plants and a nuclear plant. David Guest, an attorney for the environmental groups, said the legal challenge does not address the nuclear plant because it does not pose the same water-related concerns as the coal plants.
Part of the dispute centers on water that is used to cool the plants and then discharged into the gulf.
The Sierra Club and Wildlife Federation argue that the discharged water is so hot that it damages sea life, including environmentally important sea grasses, and that Progress should install a type of cooling system known as a "cooling tower.'' Guest and the petition indicate the damage could spread as far as 3,000 acres.

Arch Coal agrees not to mine under W.Va. school complex Arch Coal Inc. has agreed not to mine under Buckhannon-Upshur High School and the proposed site of a middle school, an attorney for the Upshur County Board of Education said Friday.
Under a deal reached Thursday, Arch agreed to establish no-mining and limited-extraction zones that will protect the investments the county has made in its facilities, said board lawyer Hunter Mullens.
In exchange, the school board will drop objections it had filed to the permit application before the state Department of Environmental Protection.
The board has fought for months to stop the mining plan created by International Coal Group Inc. before it was bought out by St. Louis-based Arch. Members worried the 1,800-acre Hampton Mine would cause the ground beneath the school to subside and create the possibility of explosive methane gas leaking into its buildings.
"Our goal was always to identify a solution that the school board could support," said Arch spokeswoman Kim Link. "We agree that the no-mining zone makes sense for everyone involved."
Mullens, meanwhile, said board members were happy with the company's willingness to cooperate.
"It's really good for the Upshur County children because we know that school is going to be safe," he said.
ICG and subsidiary Wolf Run Mining Co. are seeking permits for the Hampton Deep Mine in Buckhannon, targeting the 52-inch thick Middle Kittanning coal seam. Application documents show the company expects the 500- to 600-feet deep seam to produce about 1 million tons of coal a year for eight years.
In its 22-page objection, the school board said that ICG had long promised its operation would not undermine or otherwise affect the district's facilities.
The board said it learned otherwise through a legal advertisement outlining the mining plan — after it had spent $600,000 acquiring 114 acres next to the high school for a new $32 million middle school.
It called subsidence and seepage "a very real possibility" with the potential to create "a disaster of unprecedented proportions."
The Hampton Mine would come close to the reserves at ICG's ill-fated Sago Mine, which was closed after 12 men died after an explosion and prolonged entrapment in January 2006. But the Buckhannon River stands between the two operations, and the DEP says it would remain an impediment to reaching the Sago reserves even at that depth.

Renewable energy group blasts PSC for failing consumers with nuke decision The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, a nonprofit that promotes renewable energy, blasted the decision by state utility regulators to grant the rate increase request sought by FPL and Progress Energy to pay for speculative nuclear projects:
For the third consecutive year, the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved Progress Energy of Florida (PEF) and Florida Power and Light's (FPL) requests for hundreds of millions of dollars in advanced cost recovery for questionable new nuclear projects, despite the fact that neither utility has clearly demonstrated an intent to actually build the reactors. The commission's unanimous vote today to approve a combined $282 million in cost recovery brings the total amount charged to customers in advance to more than $1 billion.
"It is a sad day for Florida ratepayers' wallets when the Public Service Commission keeps approving millions of dollars for Progress Energy and FPL on nuclear projects that will likely never be built. It's like free money for the utilities – talk up a project, sell the idea to the Legislature and PSC, delay it multiple times, and keep vacuuming up ratepayers' hard earned dollars," said Dr. Stephen A. Smith, executive director of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
"Yet, year after the year the commission votes to protect the utilities at the expense of Florida's businesses and families. It's hard to believe that the Florida Legislature ever intended for the PSC to rule with blinders on. Where is the oversight?"
PEF has proposed two new reactors in Levy County, Florida and FPL has proposed two additional reactors at the Turkey Point nuclear plant near Miami. Both proposals are more than a decade from completion, if they are built, and have experienced repeated cost increases and scheduling delays. Ratepayers would not receive a refund if either utility abandons the projects.
"The commission's interpretation today of its own intent to build standard, which was adopted to protect Florida ratepayers, sends a clear signal that FPL and PEF can continue to spend hundreds of millions of their ratepayers' money on proposed new nuclear reactors without any commitment whatsoever to actually construct them," said attorney Jamie Whitlock with Gary A. Davis & Associates, Inc., who represented the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy during the PSC proceedings. "Once again, we believe the commission has violated its statutory duty to fix fair, just and reasonable rates for Florida ratepayers."
The Florida PSC is scheduled to issue the final order on nuclear cost recovery for PEF and FPL on November 8, 2011.

Cuba prepares for oil drilling A giant Chinese-built oil rig is slowly heading across the ocean toward Cuban waters, fueling fears that offshore oil exploration north of Havana could jeopardize South Florida's fragile ecosystem and lead to environmental disaster.
The self-propelled Scarabeo 9 semi-submersible rig — powered by eight 4.3-megawatt thrusters — left Singapore in August and is sailing along the African coast.
By early next year, the mammoth rig operated by Repsol, a Spanish company under contract with Cuba, will begin drilling the first of three exploratory wells about 90 miles southwest of the Dry Tortugas.
The prospect of oil drilling in the narrow Florida Straits has raised alarms about the chances of containing a spill if one were to spew into the Gulf Stream that rushes along the Eastern Seaboard. The Scarabeo 9 is an unanchored rig somewhat similar to the Deepwater Horizon, which exploded and fouled much of the Gulf Coast with millions of barrels of crude oil in 2010.
Because of the U.S. embargo of Cuba, those operating the Repsol rig would not have access to American blowout preventers, aircraft and other rescue equipment needed to contain a spill, Pinon said.
"That whole bureaucratic conflict between Cuba and the United States would just not make that available," said Pinon, a former executive of Amoco Oil, Shell Oil and BP and now a research fellow at Florida International University. "The oil would flow out, with nothing to do about it."
Pinon, who advises officials in both countries, is among the American energy experts and environmentalists who are exploring ways to develop safety standards and contingency plans in case of disaster. He will testify next week before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which is looking at whether the United States is prepared to respond to oil spills outside its waters.
He will urge U.S. officials to reach out to Cuba to establish an oil-spill emergency response plan, backed by U.S. resources, much like one formed with Mexico. Former Florida U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has made a similar pitch, as co-chairman of the commission that investigated the Deepwater Horizon spill.
"If there were to be an accident, almost inevitably the spill would get caught in the Gulf Stream and be carried up the East Coast and endanger a large share of the coastline from the Keys up to Jacksonville," Graham said on Thursday.
With the Scarabeo 9 on its way, talks between the two countries "are going to have to move faster than most diplomatic transactions," Graham said. Repsol has a good reputation for safety, he noted, "but there's got to be some standards even for the best operation."
Some staunch defenders of the embargo policy would rather pressure Cuba and energy companies to abandon offshore drilling plans.
U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, backed by 11 other Floridians, has introduced a bill that would deny drilling leases to companies that do business with any nation facing trade sanctions, such as Cuba.
Embargo proponents are alarmed by Cuban drilling partly because it could open a stream of revenue to bolster Cuba's fragile economy and perpetuate the Castro regime.
A U.S. geological survey estimated that deposits below Cuban waters contain five to six billion barrels of oil. Cuban officials have estimated as much as 20 billion barrels.
Repsol paid $752 million for the Scarabeo 9, Pinon noted.
"No company is going to go to this kind of expense if it doesn't think it could find oil," he said. "If this is a dry oil field, somebody should get fired."

Keystone Pipeline By the end of this year, the State Department will decide whether to give a Canadian company permission to construct a 1,700-mile, $7 billion pipeline that would transport crude oil from Canada to refineries in Texas.
The project has sparked major environmental concerns, particularly in Nebraska, where the pipeline would pass over an aquifer that provides drinking water and irrigation to much of the Midwest. It has also drawn scrutiny because of the company's political connections and conflicts of interest. A key lobbyist for TransCanada, which would build the pipeline, also worked for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on her presidential campaign. And the company that conducted the project's environmental impact report had financial ties to TransCanada.
The debate over the pipeline is both complicated and fierce, and it crosses party lines, with much sparring over the potential environmental and economic impacts of the project. More than 1,000 arrests were made during protests of the pipeline last summer in Washington, D.C.
Read more

Obama administration approves BP's plan to drill in the Gulf of Mexico The Obama administration has approved BP's first plan to drill for oil in the gulf since last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster, which left 11 dead and damaged the gulf ecosystem and the economies of the states that border it. Representatives for the Gulf Restoration Network say the decision is "problematic," considering the fact that comprehensive safety legislation has yet to be passed through Congress.
The approval by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) came despite the fact that BP is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation and was recently cited by the Department of the Interior for numerous safety and environmental violations in the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
But BP does not currently warrant special scrutiny or attention, BOEM deputy director Walter Cruickshank told Lusgarten on a panel at the Society of Environmental Journalists Conference on Friday. Until there is a conviction that affects its eligibility, the criteria to evaluate BP's qualifications will be the same as any other operator, Cruickshank explained.
BOEM approved BP's plan to drill up to four exploratory wells nearly 200 miles from the coast of Louisiana after the bureau completed a "site-specific environmental assessment" of the activities in the plan.
Some members of Congress, like Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., are critical of the administration's decision to approve BP's plan to drill up to four exploratory wells nearly 200 miles off the Louisiana coast. "Comprehensive safety legislation hasn't passed Congress, and BP hasn't paid the fines they owe for their spill, yet BP is being given back the keys to drill in the gulf," Markey told Frontline.
Read more

Land Conservation
Hometown Democracy leader unveils site detailing 'The Price of Sprawl' Nearly a year after the so-called "Hometown Democracy" amendment was soundly defeated in the state of Florida, the group that backed it has unveiled a website detailing the negative effects of urban sprawl in various counties throughout the state.
The Hometown Democracy/Amendment 4 initiative would have required a voter referendum whenever a local government amended its comprehensive land-use plan, giving citizens a role in approving urban development.
Lesley Blackner, president of Hometown Democracy, argued that "irresponsible overdevelopment leads to higher taxes and lower quality of life" and Amendment 4 would "give voters the right to decide if a proposed change to the community plan is worthwhile for the community."
Yet voters overwhelmingly rejected the amendment at the ballot box, perhaps due to efforts by the well-funded group that opposed it, Citizens for Lower Taxes and a Stronger Economy. In fact, Citizens outspent Amendment 4 supporters five-to-one, launching a massive advertising campaign that included a slew of television ads and thousands of recognizable "Vote No on 4″ signs. The opposition, which argued that the amendment could will severely limit the ability to recruit businesses and create jobs in Florida, was largely funded by real estate developers and the Florida Chamber of Commerce.
Despite the defeat of Amendment 4, its supporters are still fighting against urban sprawl.
Blackner has unveiled a new website, http://www.priceofsprawl.com/ that takes a county-by-county look at how development is affecting Florida, and how it will in the future. In Duval County, for example, the "build-out" populations (the population needed to fill all of the housing approved for development but not yet built) is 1,270,509 — 47 percent more than the current population of 864,263. According to a chart on the site, property values in Duval are down 9.2 percent in 12 months, vacancy is at 11 percent and the water supply is in trouble. The site also details how overdevelopment leads to higher taxes and low home values, and is often caused by politicians' failure to consider certain costs associated with development: roads, schools, police, fire, water, sewer, garbage, etc.
The overall aim of the project is to publicize the hidden costs of infrastructure, the ongoing decline of home values and the ongoing damage to Florida's drinking water — all of which, say Blackner, are the result of overdevelopment.

Roadless rule upheld Nearly 50 million acres of America's richest natural resource—our National Forests—are now protected by a decree of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals. The court has firmly, and unanimously, taken the side of the vast majority of citizens who love our forests just the way they are: thick with trees and wildlife, their waters running free and pure.
This ruling, which reinstates the Roadless Rule, is so powerfully constructed it is believed it can withstand further challenge.
The ruling was reached despite an array of industry foes and an army of lobbyists who sought to unleash road pavers, clear-cutters and mining engineers in some of our most pristine natural sanctuaries.

Lawsuit filed to get more wilderness designated for Big Cypress National Park Sportsmen have staged rest-stop rallies against it. Conservation groups have launched nationwide letter-writing campaigns in favor of it. Now, the two sides are headed to court.
The National Parks Conservation Association filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Fort Myers seeking to overturn a 2010 decision by the Obama administration that scaled back the size of a proposed wilderness designation in the Big Cypress National Preserve.
A larger wilderness designation, which only Congress can enact, is needed to keep off-road vehicles from ruining wetlands, chasing off Florida panthers and disrupting the quiet solitude of 147,000 acres of the preserve north of Interstate 75 in eastern Collier County, the lawsuit says.
Under the 2010 plan, the National Park Service dropped 40,000 acres from the wilderness designation, where off-road vehicles would be prohibited. The plan calls for 46,000 acres of wilderness and 130 miles of ORV trails.
"We don't think it's good for the preserve, we don't think it's good for the for visitors and we don't think it's good for wildlife," NPCA government affairs director Kristen Brengel said.
The lawsuit accuses the National Park Service of sidestepping its legal mandates and manipulating science in order to satisfy a lobbying push by sportsmen's groups.
In a second claim in the lawsuit, the NPCA alleges that the preserve's ORV advisory committee is skewed in favor of sportsmen's groups and should be suspended and its recommendations thrown out.
NPCA regional director John Adornato, the group's representative on the ORV committee, had his reappointment held up this year while reviewers determined whether he ran afoul of a White House policy that federal lobbyists not serve on federal advisory boards. Adornato was eventually reappointed after he sent documentation to prove that he was listed as an inactive federal lobbyist in 2008.
The debate over off-road vehicles in the 729,000-acre Big Cypress preserve has been endlessly litigious with both sides filing dueling lawsuits since the 1990s.
A landmark legal settlement ended the practice of swamp buggies roaming the original preserve willy-nilly and replaced it with a network of ORV trails that the two sides now fight over how to put in place.
The latest lawsuit applies to part of the preserve known as the Addition Lands, which has been off-limits to off-roaders since the Park Service began managing the area in 1996.
Besides the wilderness designation, the 2010 plan designated another 50,000 acres as primitive backcountry, where off-roaders also would be banned.
Conservation groups are asking for too much and are running afoul of the 1974 Act that created the preserve and carved out allowances for continued traditional uses, Big Cypress Sportsmen's Alliance President Lyle McCandless said.
"As one sided and extreme as (the 2010 plan) is, they're still not satisfied," he said.
McCandless vowed that his group would file its own lawsuit over swamp buggy access in the Addition Lands and in the rest of the preserve.
The National Park Service took 11 years to write the 2010 plan and received 25,000 comments about it, Big Cypress National Preserve Superintendent Pedro Ramos said.
"We feel very good about the decision we made," Ramos said.

U.S. and Indonesian Governments Work Together to protect one of World's Most Important Forests The United States and Indonesian governments signed an agreement September 29, 2011 that will result in $28.5 million in funding to protect a large block of forest land in the Indonesian region known as the Heart of Borneo.

World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy worked with the two governments to develop this innovative conservation financing approach.
The forest land is rich in wildlife and an important source for securing carbon. It is also a place that many local communities rely on for their livelihoods because it provides them with jobs and firewood to heat their homes.
Through the agreement, carried out under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act, Indonesia's debt to the U.S. of $28.5 million is "swapped" for investment over the next five to seven years in three Heart of Borneo forest districts.
The U.S. government is responsible for reducing Indonesia's debt obligations by $20 million. WWF and The Nature Conservancy each provided $2 million. Because of the timing of the debt payments, the actual amount available for forest protection in Indonesia is $28.5 million.
Funding from this swap will help protect two WWF priority areas:

•Kutai Barat District, where work will focus on protecting remaining natural forest, by converting degraded land into palm oil plantations

•Kapuas Hulu, an area between Danau Sentarum and Betung Kerihun national parks that, if connected, would provide a place for orangutans and other wildlife to roam freely and for forest carbon to be stored

The debt-swap will provide many benefits to the region including:

•funds invested in critical biodiversity conservation projects, such as protected areas and habitat corridors

•strengthened role of communities in natural resource management through new projects and community managed areas

•improved governance of natural resources through sustainable forestry practices and certification

•enhancement of the land use planning process to minimize the impacts from unsustainable agriculture

Air Quality
Florida's AQI Shows Consistent Green
Florida's Air Quality Index (AQI) Summary stands out impressively in the green when you visit AirNow, a website developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Park Service along with tribal, state and local agencies to provide the public with air quality reports in their regions.
Daily current reports, tomorrow's forecasts and the current AQI are provided for all states. On any given day, conditions show a variance ranging from Good (green, 0-50), Moderate (yellow, 51-100), Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups (orange, 101-150), Unhealthy (red, 151-200), Very Unhealthy (purple, 201-300) and Hazardous (maroon, 301-500).
When the AQIs reach above 100, air quality is considered to be unhealthy for active children and adults, people with respiratory difficulties and those with heart or lung disease. For the most part, as you scroll through the states, there are predominantly greens, with a few yellows and oranges.
Of the states that have more than a dozen monitoring sites, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire and New Jersey are consistently ranked green.
The summary also reports the current AQI numbers, as well as an archived section to refer back to. And now, as with just about everything, there's even "an App for that." EPA's AirNow offers a free downloadable iPhone app with real-time air quality information, so finding out if the air is clean is as easy as pushing a button.

Political weakness keeps older power plants polluting 30+ years too long Across the nation, old coal-fired power plants are gasping for their last breath, having survived long past their prime because of political favors and weak government regulations. They would have died decades ago if not for a fateful policy compromise in the late 1970s that exempted existing power plants from new air quality standards in the Clean Air Act.

The compromise was based on a prediction that the plants would be retired soon, but instead it gave them a whole new lease on life, with a free pass to pollute for another 30 plus years. And until recently, there was no end in sight.
These plants continue to cough up toxic pollutants like mercury, lead and arsenic into the air. They are by far the biggest producers of the power sector's pollution, forcing millions of Americans to seek their own life support – in the form of respirators and inhalers – just to get through each day without an asthma attack.
Earthjustice litigation is taking steps to close the loopholes and retire dozens of the old plants, while cleaning up those that continue to operate. We are employing a multi-prong strategy to compel the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen pollution standards based on the best available science and technology.
Read more

Miscellaneous
Five states take Asian carp case to Supreme Court Five states are going to the U.S. Supreme Court with a plea for faster action on a federal study of how to prevent invasive species such as Asian carp from migrating between the Great Lakes and Mississippi River watersheds.
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Wednesday he's asked the nation's highest court to hear the case after being turned down by a federal appeals court in August.
Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Chicago's water district. They want to physically separate the Great Lakes and Mississippi drainage basins in the Chicago area, where a man-made navigational canal offers a direct link between Lake Michigan and Mississippi tributaries.
Chicago-area shipping interests say doing so would damage the area economy and cause flooding.

An Unusual Find A tiny box jellyfish (Tripedalia cystophora), only a few centimeters in length, was spotted in Henderson Creek at the Rookery Bay Environmental Learning Center.
After carefully bringing the little creature inside to take photos, it was released back into the creek.
This species of box jellyfish has better developed eyes than other jellyfish, having both simple and complex eyes. The complex eyes have a lens, cornea and retina. The tiny jellies thrive in the mangrove-fringed waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea.
This species' range has been expanding and little is known about its current distribution. It is harmless to humans, unlike its potentially lethal Australian cousins, including the deadly sea wasp with the ability to kill 60 humans with its deadly venom that attacks the heart, nervous system and skin cells.

In Memoriam
Ellen Peterson December 5, 1923 - October 14, 2011 Ellen Peterson, 87, of Estero, Florida passed away on October 14th, 2011.
Ellen was a warrior when it came to the environment; she cared deeply and devoted her life to saving the planet and protecting Mother Earth. She served on many boards and advisory committees such as: the Agency for Bay Management, the Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida, Save Our Creeks, the Responsible Growth Management Coalition, The Everglades Committee, the Environmental Peace and Education Center and the Sierra Club's Calusa Group. Ellen founded the Calusa group over 30 years ago and remained the chairperson until her death.

2011-10-16T11:45:00.001-07:00

"By polluting clear water with slime you will never find good drinking water." Aeschylus
Announcements
Broward County Waste and Recycling Services and Parks and Recreation Division are hosting the second annual "America Recycles Day Celebration" on November 12 from 9 a.m.—2 p.m. at Vista View Park in Davie. This eco-themed event will feature "green" vendors, community representatives, a tree and shrub giveaway, an electronics recycling collection event, hybrid car display, pet adoptions, and children's activities.

STATE PARKS TO HOST PUBLIC MEETING REGARDING LAND USE AMENDMENTS

~Public invited to comment on land management changes at Seabranch Preserve and Savannas Preserve state parks~

STUART — The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Florida Park Service will host a public meeting to present amendments to the land management plans for Savannas Preserve State Park and Seabranch Preserve State Park on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011.
The public meeting will consist of a presentation of the land management plan amendments for each park and an opportunity for attendees to make comments and ask questions. All interested persons are invited to attend.
A copy of the land management plan amendments can be found at the DEP Public Notices Calendar.
The public meeting will take place:

Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011

6 p.m.

John F. Armstrong Wing at the Blake Library

2351 Southeast Monterey Road

Stuart, Florida 34996

CONTACT: DEP Press Office, 850.245.2112, DEPNews@dep.state.fl.us

Join Us on Make a Difference Day

__________________________________________________________________________

"More than 3 million Americans were out volunteering on last October's Make A Difference Day."

Help us restore Snyder Park

Saturday, October 22, 2011

from 9:00am until 12:00 noon

Minimum age to volunteer is 14 and minors must have adult sign their release form.

Adults and youth alike are welcome! EACH participant must turn-in release form.

Click Here to Download your Release Form

Join us to earn volunteer hours, meet others and have some fun in the Park.

________________________________________________________________________
About the Project:

The Snyder Park Restoration Project is a program of Kids Ecology Corps in partnership with the City of Fort Lauderdale. Snyder Park is an urban forest and part of the Eastern United States Flyway zone that is visited by a variety of migratory birds. These migratory birds depend on the native plant and tree species for shelter and food, and over the years the numbers of Florida Natives have decreased significantly because the introduction of invasive exotic trees and plants. The goal of the Snyder Park Restoration Project is to involve the community and business partners in the restoration effort to remove overgrown exotic plant and trees. Please join us in our effort to restore these vital urban habitats.

Volunteer Information:

Closed Toe Shoes -Volunteers with flip flops will not be able to participate
Proper attire would be t-shirt and long pants.
Minimum age to volunteer for this specific project is fourteen (14). An adult must either accompany all minors OR provide a parent-signed release form.
It is recommended that you wear a hat, sunscreen and bring water and snack.
All tools will be provided by Kids Ecology Corps.

Directions:
Snyder Park
3299 SW 4th Avenue
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33315

From I95: Take Exit 25 State Route 84; Go East on SR 84 for approximately 1 mile; Turn right onto SW 4th Avenue; Go approx. half a mile and then turn right into Snyder Park. Once through the gates turn left and park in the main parking lot at the front of the park. Meetup Location is at the Snyder Park Office, the building next to the front entrance of Snyder Park. Click Here to get directions using MapQuest

Thank you for taking the time to Make a Difference!

Get Groovy at the Sawgrass Nature Center's "Born To Be Wild " Gala

The Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital's is hosting its 14th annual benefit.

This year's benefit "Born To Be Wild Gala" will be held on Saturday,
November 5^th, 6:00 pm

at the Country Club of Coral Springs, Florida. Come and enjoy some fabulous 60's & 70's inspired appetizers, dinner, drinks & mouthwatering desserts. Let your hair down, pull out you tie dyes, bell bottoms and love beads and you may win a prize at our best costume contest. Or take a chance on winning some great raffle prizes or bid on some wonderful live and silent auction items including a guitar autographed by Barry Gibb from the Bee Gee's, vacation get- a-ways to the Caribbean, Sanibel Island, Bahamas, and the Keys or take a wild swamp buggy, air boat or canoe trip.

The Sawgrass Nature Center & Wildlife Hospital is a community based nonprofit organization. The center provides environmental education programs for children and adults and cares for sick, injured and orphaned baby wild birds, mammals and reptiles in our wildlife hospital.

Tickets are only $75.00 and all funds raised will be used to help fund the wildlife hospital, educational programs and facilities at the Nature Center.

For ticket information please call 752-WILD (9453) or stop by the center located at 3000 Sportsplex Dr. (in Sportsplex Park). Come have a "wild" time and support a good cause.

Make your reservations today; no tickets will be sold at the door.

To learn more about the center check their web site at Sawgrassnaturecenter.org. or stop in for a visit, the Center is open Tues - Fri from 9-5, Sat & Sun. from 10-3.

Contact: Joan Kohl

Phone: (954) 752-9453

FWC seeks public input on gopher tortoise conservation Four years after adopting Florida's first Gopher Tortoise Management Plan, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is asking the public to share its thoughts on improving conservation of the gopher tortoise, a state threatened species. The plan will be updated in 2012.

Florida has accomplished much for gopher tortoises in the past four years, including exceeding the 10,000-acres-per-year goal of restoring and managing gopher tortoise habitat. An annual average of 36,000 acres of gopher tortoise habitat is being restored and managed in Florida under the Gopher Tortoise Management Plan. Gopher tortoises' protected habitat also grew by more than 6,500 acres under the plan, with 14 of the 21 expansion sites occurring on private lands.
Additionally, more than 4,000 gopher tortoises were humanely relocated from sites slated for development. The plan's redesigned permitting system and identification of sites that will accept relocated tortoises played key roles in this process.
Loss of habitat is the main threat to the gopher tortoise's survival.
Citizens with suggestions on revising the Gopher Tortoise Management Plan can review the plan and submit their ideas online at: http://share.myfwc.com/GT2/Lists/Input on Revisions to the GT Mgmt Plan. Public input will be accepted through Nov. 28.
"The current Gopher Tortoise Management Plan, developed and implemented in partnership with many stakeholders, guided us well in achieving measurable progress in conserving the gopher tortoise in Florida," said Dr. Elsa Haubold, leader of the FWC's Species Conservation Planning section.
Conserving the gopher tortoise is essential not only to the tortoise, which lives for up to 60 years, but to 350 other Florida species such as the indigo snake and burrowing owl, which share and shelter in the tortoise's extensive burrows. Adept at earth-moving, the tortoise digs out burrows averaging 15 feet long and 6.5 feet deep in well-drained, sandy areas such as longleaf pine forests, oak sandhills and coastal dunes. Under state law, the gopher tortoise, its eggs and its burrows are protected.
"We are grateful to private landowners, public agencies at the local, state and federal level, and other stakeholders for their partnership in conserving gopher tortoises and restoring their habitat," Haubold said. "By being adaptive and building on what we have learned and achieved during the first four years of implementation, we can revise the plan so Florida is more efficient and effective at gopher tortoise conservation. We look forward to public input to help us in this revision of the Gopher Tortoise Management Plan."
Another 62 wildlife species soon will join the list of Florida species like the gopher tortoise and bald eagle that are already under FWC management plans. Florida's new threatened species conservation model requires that management plans be created for all state-listed species and updated at specified intervals. As FWC staff begins the scheduled revision of the Gopher Tortoise Management Plan, work is under way to develop plans for the 62 currently listed species that do not yet have approved plans.
The Gopher Tortoise Management Plan and the other anticipated species management plans give the public an open, transparent perspective on Florida's efforts to conserve its diverse wildlife for future generations against the backdrop of a growing state with nearly 19 million people.
For more information on the gopher tortoise, please visit MyFWC.com/GopherTortoise.
Of interest to all
Raising 'Sugar-Cane': Investigative Report A battle being waged in the ethanol industry pits sugar against corn, and it reaches from Florida to the Midwest to Latin America. Florida is at the center of this "energy war," and this investigative report by Les Coleman examines the history, business and political links between sugarcane-based ethanol and ethanol distilled from corn.

The long arm of Florida "big sugar" reaches far outside the state and across international frontiers. Flo-Sun, through subsidiaries such as Florida Crystals and Domino Foods, has milling and refining operations around the world. The rulers of Flo-Sun are brothers Pepe and Alfonso Fanjul, based in Palm Beach, whose father came to the U.S. on the heels of the Cuban Revolution more than a half-century ago.
The Fanjuls, naturally, have their eye on Latin America. So do their close friend and neighbor, David Koch, and his brother, Charles, who head Koch Industries. Their common goal: the importation of sugarcane-based ethanol.
Brian Jennings, executive vice president of the Midwest-corn-dominated American Ethanol Association, says cane ethanol is not domestic and escapes domestic taxes.
"We don't have any sugarcane members, to my knowledge. A lot of sugar ethanol that makes its way into the United States comes through the Caribbean-based initiative, which does escape the tariff, the secondary tariff."
That's a 54-cent-per-gallon tax break for imported sugar ethanol. One recent piece of legislation before the U.S. Senate was an effort to repeal the fuel subsidy for corn-based ethanol exclusively produced in the U.S. - an effort backed by "big sugar" and the Koch brothers.
The Kochs are billionaires and are key backers of the Tea Party movement and its pro-free-market, small-government ideology. But Jennings says that preserving the free market may not be what is behind the Kochs' move into the ethanol business.
"I think it's disturbing that Koch is lobbying to kill the ethanol tax incentive at the same time the company owns shares in ethanol. Koch will continue to fight U.S. ethanol, I'm sure, even though they have ownership interest. I'm not surprised to hear they are involved in Brazilian sugar ethanol production, either."
The Kochs' pot of ethanol gold may not be at the end of some Iowa cornfield rainbow, but in Paranagua, Brazil, where one of their companies, Koch Fertilizer, has built a 57,000-cubic-ton warehouse to provide fuel for the booming Brazilian sugar cane ethanol industry. Koch Fertilizer is produced offshore, in Trinidad and Tobago, and Jennings doesn't much like it.
"I'm a little bit jaded when it comes to a company like Koch. Unfortunately, this type of thing has been happening for years, when it comes to farmers and ranchers trying to get a fair price for their product."
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott wants to expand South Florida ports to accommodate sugar ethanol imports. Florida sugar producers gave Rick Scott $100,000 in his successful bid for governor.
Gov. Scott's wildlife appointee has history of environmental infractions Gov. Rick Scott faced a choice. He had to fill a seat on the state's wildlife commission, and 20 people had applied.
Two had previously served on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. A third was president of an influential sportsman's group. Among the rest were a vice president of the Florida Wildlife Federation, the operator of an animal-rescue group and a former Humane Society investigator.
Scott passed over those applicants to pick Charles W. "Chuck" Roberts III, a Panhandle paving contractor whose company has on several occasions run afoul of state environmental regulations.
"He was selected because Governor Scott and his appointments staff felt he was the best qualified for the position," explained Scott's press secretary, Lane Wright.
Roberts, 58, is an avid angler and quail hunter, the owner of a bird-hunting plantation and president of C.W. Roberts Contracting since 1976. The company's website boasts about its many government contracts for building roads and prisons. Its most high-profile project was Panama City's recently completed $325 million airport.
Roberts said when he was interviewed by Scott and the governor's staff, no one asked about his company's history of environmental infractions, including one chemical spill that required an extensive cleanup. He said he did not understand why that should have come up.
"I don't see why that should be involved with fish and wildlife," Roberts said.
The paving company's website features a statement about its core values.
"From the beginning, C.W. Roberts Contracting Inc. has held themselves to a higher standard than their competitors, resulting in a solid and respected reputation that precedes the organization," the website says.
But there are other things in the records of the state Department of Environmental Protection. DEP officials turned over their reports on C.W. Roberts to the Times, but Roberts said they also alerted him to the newspaper's public records request.
The records show that several of Roberts' facilities failed to comply with the state's environmental rules, but in several incidents there's no record of the company facing any penalties.
Read more

FWC launches new technology for Wildlife Alert The Wildlife Alert Reward Program has helped the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) catch thousands of violators through phone calls and online submissions from the public. Now, it is employing an additional method: text messaging.

The nonprofit, reward-based program was created 30 years ago to encourage citizens to report fish and wildlife law violations. The program offers rewards in exchange for information leading to arrests. Members of the public can call the Wildlife Alert Hotline or go to MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert to report known or suspected violations. Now, they can also text Tip@MyFWC.com. Most cell phones now allow users to send text messages directly to an email address; standard usage fees may apply.
"The text messaging option makes it more convenient for the public," said Col. Jim Brown, director of the FWC's Division of Law Enforcement. "We also hope it will make Wildlife Alert even more effective in catching poachers and other violators."
When submitting information via text message, the FWC encourages including as much information as possible, such as the specific violation and the location. Once a report is initiated, FWC dispatch has the ability to respond via text message to the reporting party to gather additional details.
The FWC is committed to protecting Florida's fish, wildlife and people. However, FWC officers can't always do it alone.
"While we make every effort to be conscious of any threats to our valuable natural resources and people, we often rely upon support and tips from members of the public," Brown said.
The FWC encourages people to report any known or suspected illegal activity, such as illegal hunting, taking saltwater game fish out of season, taking protected wildlife species, boating under the influence and more.
To report violations by phone, call 888-404-FWCC (3922). For more information, visit MyFWC.com/WildlifeAlert.
Birds
Final reckoning for Eskimo Curlew? Feds request information but plan no search Federal biologists want to know if the Eskimo Curlew should finally be declared extinct. The shorebird once numbered in the hundreds of thousands, but its spring migration took it through the Great Plains, where in the 19th century it became an easy target for market hunters. Loss of grassland habitat and the extinction of a grasshopper that it preyed upon also took a toll. In 1967, the species was officially listed as endangered.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced in June that it wants to determine if the bird should be reclassified as extinct. The public is encouraged to report any sightings, and scientists are being asked to watch for it in the field. But no expedition to wintering areas in Argentina or breeding grounds in Canada is planned.
The only known photos of the curlew were taken in Texas in 1962. A year later, a hunter shot one in Barbados. Since then, at least 32 possible sightings have been reported from throughout the bird's range. Most involved one or two individuals, but a remarkable 23 birds were reportedly seen on Atkinson Island, Texas, in 1981.
The most recent possible sighting occurred in Nova Scotia on September 24, 2006, by birder Randy Hoffman.
Sandhill cranes are a conservation success. Sandhill cranes are found in a diversity of wetlands; however, they prefer an open landscape of grasslands, agricultural fields and wetlands. Sandhill cranes feed on plant tubers, seeds and grains, invertebrates, and small vertebrates found in uplands and wetlands.
In the spring, sandhills "paint" their feathers with mud as camouflage in brown grasses.
They are territorial breeders, arriving each spring in Wisconsin where a pair establishes a 20- to 200-acre exclusive area for nesting and brood rearing. A pair's courtship includes an elaborate dance involving quick steps, half-spread wings and leaps into the air as well as the unison calling.
Sandhill crane nests are normally constructed over water in wetlands using the surrounding vegetation. A crane typically lays a single two-egg clutch annually but rarely fledges more than one young each year. After about 30 days of incubating the eggs, the young, called "colts," hatch out and are able to leave the nest walking or swimming within 24 hours. Parents first feed and then lead the growing colts to food.
After 60 to 70 days the young begin to fly and soon become strong fliers. In addition to the pairs, non-breeding cranes form small flocks in summer consisting of young birds, adults without territories and failed breeders. Sandhills are long-lived birds often surviving more than 20 years with the oldest wild sandhill crane reported at 35 years old. They go through "teenage years" from 2 to 7 years old when they pair up and may nest, but many do not successfully raise a colt to independence. As they grow older they become more experienced and successful parents.
While the sandhill crane population is currently large and widespread, this was not always the case. As Euro-American presence expanded across North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, unregulated hunting, wetland drainage and habitat loss caused a significant reduction in the sandhill crane population.
Sandhill cranes were commonly harvested for food until the last century. In an account published in 1622, Edward Winslow and William Bradford noted that during the Pilgrim's first year in North America a "fat crane" was a welcome addition to the dinner table. From this and other information, many have suggested that sandhill crane was likely to have been on the original Thanksgiving dinner table, either in place of, or alongside the turkey.
Unfortunately harvest of cranes and other wildlife species grew into unregulated market hunting during the early period of our country and exceeded a sustainable harvest level. At the same time, the productive soils of many shallow marshes were drained and farmed, reducing breeding habitat.
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Invasive species
Little Bugs Cause Big Stink Asian stink bugs that have reached the United States are causing millions of dollars in agricultural damage as well as infesting houses
Something's bugging Doug Inkley —26,056 somethings, to be precise. That's the number of stink bugs the NWF senior scientist collected in his Maryland home in just the first five months of this year.
He's found stink bugs under his mattress, clogging his bathroom drain, even floating in his homemade chili. He once counted 8,000 of the insects in his attic in a single day. "They are a huge nuisance," he says with remarkable restraint.
Inkley's unwanted guests are a disturbing example of an invasive species run rampant. The brown marmorated stink bug, as the offending species is known, was first reported in the United States in the late 1990s. Its name comes from the ability to emit a foul odor that deters predators. Native to Asia, the bugs most likely hitchhiked here via international cargo. Gardeners in Pennsylvania were among the first to notice the new bugs, which were not only feeding on ornamental plants and vegetables but also entering people's homes in autumn to ride out the cold months.
Since those early sightings, the shield-shaped, roughly three-quarter-inch-long insects have established populations in 33 states and the District of Columbia, where they suck juices from more than 300 different kinds of plants, including peppers, soybeans, corn, grapes and raspberries. Peaches, pears and other tree fruit rate high on the stink bug menu. Apple growers in Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia lost $37 million to the insects in 2010.
Before brown marmorateds arrived, North America already had some 250 native species of stink bug. Some native stink bugs are serious plant pests, but they are kept in check by predators such as parasitic wasps. The brown marmorated stink bug has few enemies here, which is why its population has exploded.
U.S. scientists are studying quarantined specimens of Asian wasps that may prey only on brown marmorateds in their natural habitat. If studies show that these wasps will prey just on brown maromateds here and not cause other environmental problems, they could be released to help control the invading stink bugs.
With thousands of stink bugs in her own attic, entomologist Tracy Leskey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Appalachian Fruit Research Station in West Virginia is trying to develop tools to manage brown marmorated stink bugs, using pheromones or other attractants to capture the bugs in agricultural settings. Leskey has heard from rooftop gardeners in Manhattan complaining about brown marmorateds eating their tomatoes. She's most worried about organic farmers, who have fewer weapons for combating insect pests than do conventional growers and who have been especially hard hit by the bugs. "We had a number of organic growers that really just waved the white flag of surrender," she says. "That's just depressing." Unfortunately, other farmers are spraying more than ever but still losing the war against this invasive pest.
The new stink bugs are among the latest in a long line of problematical animals and plants that are threatening native ecosystems, agriculture and even human health. To combat those species, NWF lobbyists are pushing for new government policies that would require stricter inspection of everything from imported nursery plants to shipping containers. "Once they get here, it's too late," Inkley says of invasive species. "We must keep potential invasive species from getting here in the first place."
Endangered Species
2011 a banner year for 2 Florida sea turtle species The Florida sea turtle nesting season has come to an end, and there is good news for two of Florida's federally endangered sea turtle species. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and its partners documented a record high annual nest count for green turtles in Florida. Leatherback turtles also had a high number of nests, with the count falling just shy of the previous high mark in 2009.
Loggerheads, the species that nests most commonly in Florida, did not have an increase in numbers this year. The nest count for this federally threatened sea turtle was close to average for the previous five years. However, since 1998, the trend in the number of loggerhead nests is a general decline.
"We're pleased with the green turtle and leatherback nesting totals in 2011," said Dr. Blair Witherington, an FWC Fish and Wildlife Research Institute scientist. "Nesting by both species has been rising dramatically and can be attributed at least in part to major conservation efforts over the past few decades. However, our loggerhead nesting totals have declined or are at best stable, which suggests that this species has a different, and perhaps more difficult, set of conservation challenges," he said.
Nest counts are performed each year through Florida's Index Nesting Beach Survey, which was created to measure seasonal sea turtle nesting, and to allow for accurate comparisons of beaches and years. The standardized index counts take place on 255 miles of selected beaches along both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.
In one of the largest wildlife counts in the nation, hundreds of FWC partners diligently survey Florida's nesting beaches throughout the sea turtle nesting season.
"We are grateful for the large number of partners and volunteers that make this survey possible," Witherington said. "Without them, we couldn't collect nesting data on such a large scale."
The FWC's role in coordinating Florida's sea turtle nest counts is funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and sales of the state's sea turtle license plate.
For more information about sea turtle nest counts, visit www.MyFWC.com/Research, click on "Wildlife," then click on "Nesting" under the "Sea Turtle" heading.
Sick or injured sea turtles can be reported by contacting the FWC Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404-FWCC (3922).
Turtle Trouble Ahead as Nest Numbers Rise Florida sea turtles are making a come-back. Two of the top three species of sea turtles in Florida increased their populations this year. As Whitney Ray tells us, even as their numbers surge danger from damage done to the Gulf of Mexico by the BP oil spill may still pose a threat.
Up at Dawn, Bill Wargo and his team known as the Turtle Patrol comb nine miles of Gulf cost beach looking for nests. Once they spot one. They mark it and record its locations. Conservation efforts like this are paying off.
"We've had a total of 1,145 hatchlings successfully emerge from the nest and swim to sea," said Wargo.
Florida Fish and Wildlife found 12-thousand green sea turtle nests in Florida this year. That' s a record. And Leatherback turtles saw their second highest nest numbers. The most common Florida sea turtle, the loggerhead saw its nest numbers drop by 10-thousand, but they still well above the record low set in 2007.
While the news is mostly good, there's a threat looming in the Gulf of Mexico. No one knows what the long term impacts of the BP oil spill will be on Florida's sea Turtles or the entire gulf coast ecosystem.
At the peak of the crisis in the summer of 2010, a massive nest moving operation was underway to relocated eggs from the gulf to the east coast of Florida.
The Florida Wildlife Federation is asking Congress to put 80 percent of the money BP pays in environmental fines to in to gulf coast restoration, so among other things, turtles can find safe places to nest.
"We need long term ecological monitoring of the fish and wildlife populations in the Gulf of Mexico," said Manley Fuller with the Florida Wildlife Federation.
The Legislation is being debated in the US House and Senate. There's also debate over how high BP's fines should be.
Conservationists say the biggest threat to turtles right now isn't oil, it's coastal development. They say turtles have lost dozens of miles of nesting grounds to hotels and beach houses.
The Republic of the Marshall Islands is now home to the world's largest shark sanctuary. The Nitijela, the Marshallese parliament, unanimously passed legislation this week that ends commercial fishing of sharks in all 1,990,530 square kilometers (768,547 square miles) of the central Pacific country's waters, an ocean area four times the landmass of California.
"We salute the Republic of the Marshall Islands for enacting the strongest legislation to protect sharks that we have seen," said Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation for the Pew Environment Group, which is spearheading efforts to establish shark sanctuaries, where targeted fishing for these species is prohibited. "As leaders recognize the importance of healthy shark populations to our oceans, the momentum for protecting these animals continues to spread across the globe."
Key provisions of the comprehensive Marshall Islands' law include:
•A complete prohibition on the commercial fishing of sharks as well as the sale of any sharks or shark products. Its zero retention stipulation requires that any shark caught accidentally by fishing vessels must be set free.
•Large monetary fines, anywhere between US$25,000 to US$200,000, for anyone who is found to be fishing sharks or in possession of shark fins. In addition, violators would be fined the market value of the product in their possession.
•A ban on the use of wire leaders, a longline fishing gear which is among the most lethal to sharks.
•A monitoring and enforcement provision which requires all fishing vessels to land their catch at one of the country's ports and bans at sea transfers.
This week's action was initiated in March of this year when the Marshall Islands Marine Resources Authority issued a moratorium on the shark trade. It was furthered in June, when President Jurelang Zedkaia joined other central Pacific leaders in setting the stage for the creation of a Micronesia Regional Shark Sanctuary, the first regional shark conservation agreement of its kind. In July, the Marshall Islands Mayors Association moved to make this vision a reality by passing a resolution that called on the 24 inhabited atolls throughout the Marshalls, each with its own local government, to enact ordinances prohibiting the sale and trade of sharks or shark fins.
"In passing this bill, there is no greater statement we can make about the importance of sharks to our culture, environment and economy," said Senator Tony deBrum, a representative from Kwajalein Atoll who is a bill cosponsor. "I thank President Jurelang Zedkaia for his vision and support for this effort. Ours may be a small island nation, but our waters are now the biggest place where sharks are protected. We hope other Micronesian leaders will join with us to make good on our collective promise of a regional sanctuary."
In addition to deBrum, Senators Michael Kabua (Kwajalein), Jeban Riklon (Kwajalein), David Kabua (Wotho), Jerakoj Bejang (Lib), and Dennis Momotaro (Mejit) cosponsored the enacted legislation, which also bans the sale, trade and possession of sharks, shark fins, or any other part of shark.
"The Marshall Islands have joined Palau, the Maldives, Honduras, the Bahamas and Tokelau in delivering the gold standard of protection for ensuring shark survival," Rand said. "We look forward to helping other countries enlist in this cause."

Everglades and Water Quality Issues
Water challenges [facing the Site 1 impoundment] Dangerous drought conditions this spring resulted in a burn ban, and debris had to be stockpiled until the ban was lifted in July.

Drought conditions were substantially alleviated in the month of August, when eastern Palm Beach County saw 9.84 inches of rain, 1.78 inches above normal, and eastern Broward County received 9.71 inches of rain, 2.28 inches above normal. However, meteorologists are predicting a drier-than-normal dry season. If the remainder of the wet season does not provide significant rainfall, such as a well-placed tropical system, the water shortage is likely to continue through the spring season.
In September, rainfall levels fell below normal again, when eastern Palm Beach County saw 7.06 inches of rain (83 percent of normal) and eastern Broward County received 6.41 inches of rain (80 percent of normal). In addition, rainfall is not evenly distributed throughout the state, so rainfall in south Florida does not necessarily mean that much-needed rain is falling in the Okeechobee basin to the north.
Fortunately, no construction time has been lost to tropical storms, but frequent rains still provide challenges to construction. More rain means more water to remove during dewatering operations and placement of fill in levee foundations can stall if the base becomes saturated. Even the placement of metal sheetpile may be halted temporarily due to safety concerns associated with lightning and the tall barge-mounted crane.
Information about water shortage orders and warnings, current weather and water conditions, and water-saving tips can be found at www.sfwmd.gov/waterwatch.
Florida meets with Federal leaders, reaffirms Florida's commitment to Everglades restoration Florida Governor Rick Scott, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard Jr. and South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Executive Director Melissa Meeker today met with U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Deputy Secretary of Civil Works Jo Ellen Darcy and U.S. Department of Justice Assistant Attorney General Ignacia Moreno to reaffirm Florida's long-standing commitment to restoring America's Everglades. During a meeting of state and federal principals, Florida's Governor outlined a strategy for improving water quality and sending cleaner water south to the vast ecosystem, while protecting jobs and the state's economy.
"Today, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to ask our federal and state Everglades restoration partners to agree on a strategy that puts the ecosystem first and prevents costly, ongoing litigation from derailing our mutual progress toward restoration," said Governor Scott. "A strong Florida partnership will help usher in the next generation of projects that will improve water quality in South Florida, while still protecting jobs and the state's economy."
Announcing a strengthened Florida partnership that focuses on the heart of the Everglades system, Governor Scott called upon the DEP and the SFWMD to work hand-in-hand to further improve the quality and quantity of water flowing into the Everglades. By focusing on implementing restoration projects on lands already in public ownership, the state is saving taxpayer dollars and minimizing the effects of government's land acquisition efforts on local and state agricultural-based economies.
"Everglades water quality is a top priority for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection," said DEP Secretary Vinyard. "We have a conceptual path forward for one of our long-standing challenges, and I am extremely optimistic that through cooperation and collaboration we will deliver measureable and permanent results."
DEP and the SFWMD will continue to work closely with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to identify and implement projects that will treat water to ultra-low levels of phosphorus. To protect South Florida's unique make-up of flora and fauna, DEP in 2006 established a stringent phosphorus water quality standard for the Everglades of 10 parts per billion.
"This strategy has great potential to address critical areas of the River of Grass and build on the progress we've made in meeting the restoration needs of Everglades National Park and the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge," said SFWMD Executive Director Meeker. "A strong partnership with DEP is invaluable as we work together toward achieving our state's water quality goals."
Since 1994, Florida's network of stormwater treatment areas south of Lake Okeechobee — with a combined treatment area of 45,000 acres — have retained approximately 1,470 metric tons of phosphorus that would have otherwise entered the Everglades. Through April 2011, more than 3,800 metric tons of phosphorus have been prevented from entering the Everglades through treatment wetlands and the Best Management Practices program covering the Everglades Agricultural Area. Florida has invested more than $1.8 billion to improve the quality of water flowing into America's Everglades. In addition, Florida has dedicated more than $2.4 billion to the 50-50 state-federal partnership to implement the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.
Scott seeks delay on Everglades cleanup deadline An important deadline in Everglades restoration efforts — already pushed back four years — would be postponed another six years under a proposal made Thursday by Gov. Rick Scott.
In a meeting in Washington with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Scott laid out a plan to put off a deadline to reduce the amount of phosphorous flowing in the Everglades to 10 parts per billion. The deadline was originally set for next year, but was put off until 2016. Under the governor's proposal, the state would have until 2022.
That change would require the approval of U.S. District Court Judge Alan Gold, who has already expressed dissatisfaction with Florida's restoration efforts.
In an April ruling, he said the state has "not been true stewards of protecting the Everglades in recent years."
Reducing phosphorous levels requires building 22,000 acres of stormwater treatment areas to filter water flowing southward.
The proposed delay was not met with applause by environmentalists. David Guest of Earthjustice, one of the environmental groups that has sued the state over the Everglades, was blunt in his assessment: "This is terrible," he told the Miami Herald.
But Scott insisted "Florida remains steadfast in its commitment to restoring America's Everglades."
In a statement, the Republican governor also said his plan is "a strategy that puts the ecosystem first and prevents costly, ongoing litigation from derailing our mutual progress toward restoration."
Water supply already low - and dry season has just begun Despite three months of average rainfall, the county enters the dry season still short on water, because of last year's drought.
A cold front that moved through the area on the last day of September ended the daily sea-breeze cycle that drives the routine afternoon rains of summer.
Windy conditions and heavy rains are expected tonight through Tuesday, bringing 3-4 inches of rain throughout the region, with isolated areas receiving as much at 6-10 inches. But it is not known what impact that will have on the region's water supply. What is known is that water levels in Lake Okeechobee are dangerously low.
On Thursday the lake was at 11.09 feet above sea level -- more than 3.5 feet below normal for this time of year. Evapotranspiration, the rate at which water evaporates from the lake, outpaced nearly 6.5 inches of rain that fell in September.
"This year's average wet season rainfall has not been enough to refill the lake above water shortage levels," said Susan Sylvester, the chief of the Water Control Operations Bureau at the South Florida Water Management District. Meteorologists are predicting another drier-than-normal dry season, due to La Nina, a weather system spawned by cooler than normal water temperatures in the Pacific near the equator.
Meanwhile, the district is storing as much water as possible and water restrictions remain in place throughout the region. Late-season rainfall over the lake or north of it remains the best chance for overcoming the long-term water shortage, water managers said.
Federal judge rules for cleaner water in the Everglades A federal judge has ruled that water coming from state-operated Stormwater Treatment Areas, and running south into the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, has been exceeding pollution limits designed to protect the Florida Everglades.

The ruling is the result of a long-running dispute between the state of Florida and the federal government, which argued that the state was allowing for too much pollution at Loxahatchee. In a 1992 consent decree, the state agreed to build Stormwater Treatment Areas to clean and filter pollution before it reaches Loxahatchee and Everglades National Park.
Though the Treatment Areas were specifically intended to reduce the total amount of phosphorus in the area, the ruling says the state must do more and should set even more protective limits on phosphorus, which often leads to algal blooms and fish kills.
"We know that too much phosphorus, which comes from agricultural pollution, upsets the delicate balance in the Everglades," said attorney Alisa Coe, an attorney with environmental law firm Earthjustice, in a press release. "Judge Moreno affirmed what we've been saying – that the state limits must be met and pollution must be reduced."
The Everglades has been inundated not only with pollution from phosphorus, but also with sulfate runoff and methylmercury pollution — which can have a host of dangerous effects on both animal and human life.
Read the Sept. 28 ruling here (.pdf).
One GOP lawmaker's push for a moratorium on commercial water permits While intense community organizing and outreach effectively curbed the ability of private entities to withdraw water from the Wacissa River, a state bill filed last month would move to further protect an already strained Florida aquifer from corporate interests.
The measure, proposed by state Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Daytona Beach, would establish a decade-long moratorium throughout the state on all new permits for commercial water extraction.
"We are constantly being told how we must conserve water, that water management districts' main focus must be conserving water, which means that we cannot water our lawns, we can't do this and we can't do that," Lynn says. "And that is all happening at the same time that the cost of water that we pay to our cities and counties is going up constantly. So if that is all true, and that is all happening and we know it, then there is something contradictory about allowing companies to come in and start extracting our water and selling it for a profit."
Just one day before Jefferson County approved its landmark Aquifer Protection Ordinance, Lynn introduced Senate Bill 216, the Moratorium on Permits/Consumptive Use of Water for Commercial Profit. A first of its kind in the nation, the legislation seeks to address what Lynn describes as mixed messages from the state's water management districts, which issue dire warnings of water shortages for the public while simultaneously approving permits to private entities that allow the extraction of millions of gallons from the Florida aquifer every day.
Lynn says she regularly hears from constituents about water issues; many of the counties she represents have been warned for years that it will be necessary for them to find alternative sources for water.
"In Marion County, when I first started representing that area, they were told that the state was going to be coming in and taking their water, spring water and so forth, and using it for other counties," she says. "Now Marion County is being told they'll have to find alternative sources of water. Putnam County, which as the Rodman Dam there, they're being told they will be short of water and they'll have to get it from somewhere. Volusia County is being told they'll have to find alternative sources, such as the St. Johns [River] or desalination, and are looking at a variety of ways to get water. It's everywhere throughout the state."
Lynn says her bill would stop cities, counties and water management district from being pressured into approving permits.
Tommy Thompson, a founding member of Friends of the Wacissa and a history teacher at Deer Lake Middle School in Tallahassee, says that despite the low probability of Lynn's bill surviving the legislative session, he is confident such measures are incremental steps toward substantive change to the relationship between the state and bottled water.
"Drinking bottled water I hope one day will be looked upon like smoking in a restaurant. I've written Sen. Lynn and put myself at her disposal," Thompson says, "but considering the political climate in Florida right now I can't imagine that bill going forward. What is really important is one step at a time, because when people read in the newspaper about this 10-year moratorium, it puts this in their consciousness. Though I think that the bill will be defeated, the bigger effort will be won later when we get people to quit buying bottled water and use public facilities to make our water palatable for everybody."
"Drinking bottled water I hope one day will be looked upon like smoking in a restaurant," says Thompson.
In addition to seeking a moratorium on consumptive use permits, Lynn has filed legislation designed to implement a surcharge on bottled water purchased in containers smaller than one gallon. She insists S.B. 118 is not designed to hinder the sale of packaged water products, but to provide a source of funding for environmental cleanup in a climate of steep budget cuts and shifting priorities.
"This is not to stop us from buying bottled water; it's simply to say that those bottles are causing all kinds of damage to the foliage, the fauna, the fish and wildlife," Lynn says.
"I'm not an extreme environmentalist," Lynn continues, "but there's been no money to clean up the springs, no money to clean up the St. Johns River, and that is the river we're being told to use for drinking water. The St. Johns is in desperate need of cleanup. This surcharge would be a way of providing dollars for environmental cleanup, and we're not funding it in any other way."
"Here in the U.S. we're so lucky," says Kristin Urquiza, director of the Think Outside the Bottle campaign at Corporate Accountability International. "We have near universal access to clean, safe drinking water through the establishment of our public water systems, but unfortunately we're moving backwards, we're not prioritizing reinvesting in those systems. We have a $23 billion annual funding gap between what our water systems get and what they need. Corporations like Nestlé are actually staking their future business practices on the failure of our public water system."
Urquiza describes a leaked presentation made in Geneva last year by Nestlé Waters North America CEO Kim Jeffery, who described a situation in which public water systems are in decline and expected to fail within the next 50 years. Nestlé is positioning itself to profit from such a scenario.
"Sen. Lynn is leading the way with this particular moratorium," says Urquiza. "We've seen a couple of examples of legislators thinking about passing through legislation ending spending on bottled water, but as far as being out there on the front lines, it has really been individuals fighting tooth and nail."
Wildlife and Habitat
Federal report highlights need to restore gulf ecosystem Five coastal states are determined to clean up the damaged Gulf of Mexico ecosystem after last year's oil spill highlighted how decades of contamination and deterioration had placed a backbone of the U.S. economy at risk of ruin, according to a federal report released Wednesday.
The Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Task Force's preliminary report pinpointed challenges, priorities and strategies for the five states — Florida, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama — working with the backing of several federal agencies to restore and preserve the Gulf Coast. The task force was established by President Barack Obama after BP's catastrophic oil spill last year.
"One of the results of all the meetings is a real sense of urgency," EPA chief Lisa Jackson told the Associated Press. "Person after person came in and said 'we're losing the gulf.' None of it is irreversible, but the longer we wait, the harder it will be."
The task force provided AP a copy of its executive summary before the preliminary report's official release. A public comment period will last until late October, and a final report will be presented to Obama in December.
The task force laid out four goals requiring immediate attention: restoring and conserving habitat, restoring water quality, replenishing and protecting coastal and marine resources and enhancing community resilience.
The committee also has asked Congress, which has yet to commit funding to restoration efforts, to dedicate "significant portions" of penalties from the oil spill to the recovery efforts. Members also are asking Congress to create a permanent council to oversee, coordinate and manage the restoration.
The Gulf of Mexico has been in a slow, persistent state of decline for nearly a century, harmed by upstream efforts to make rivers more accessible to ship traffic and prevent Mississippi River flooding. Fertilizers used in Midwest farming also flowed downstream filling the gulf with harmful nutrients that have created a large "dead zone" where there is so little oxygen nearly nothing can survive.
The report says restoring the natural flow of the river, which would allow sediment to flow downstream and strengthen and prevent the erosion of barrier islands and wetlands, is critical. The sediment — nutrient-filled sand and rock that flow from rivers and streams into the ocean — constitute the structural foundation of the gulf's ecosystem.
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Offshore and Ocean
Shark fin ban With support from hundreds of Sea Turtle Restoration Project members, a bill to ban the possession or sale of shark fins in California was signed into law today by Governor Jerry Brown.
The work to pass AB 376 involved cooperative efforts all year and included local, national, and international support. California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii and Guam have now all passed laws banning shark fins, creating a virtual blockade against the trade of shark fins along the entire U.S. West Coast out into the Pacific Ocean.
Oyster beds thriving in St. Lucie and Loxahatchee estuaries The more than 30 acres of oyster beds planted in Martin and Palm Beach counties with the help of a $4 million National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant are now thriving and reproducing on their own.
Martin County Water Quality Chief Gary Roderick says several organizations overseeing the estuary, including the South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Wildlife Research Institute, have lauded the success of the newly planted oysters.
"They told us the recruitment was very successful," he said. "They said the reefs have the highest densities since monitoring records have been kept."
The Martin County Oyster Reef restoration project was one of only four projects in Florida to be paid for by the NOAA grant. Only 50 similar projects nationwide received funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which was designed to put unemployed Americans back to work. Cleaning up the St. Lucie Estuary is one of the primary goals of the Indian River Lagoon South component of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.
The local project provided more than 100 temporary jobs to area workers, who planted 10 clusters of oyster patch reefs in the St. Lucie Estuary between the Roosevelt Bridge and Sewall's Point between 2009 and 2010. They were aided by dozens of volunteers, who helped plant another six acres of oyster beds near the Stuart River Walk.
Workers also planted six acres in Palm Beach County's Loxahatchee Estuary, and oyster reproduction on the manmade reefs in both estuaries has surpassed that of natural reefs. Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society based on Hutchinson Island, says his organization has partnered with Martin County to measure the number of oysters per square meter in the newly planted areas.
"It's improved on the manmade reef conditions versus the natural reef conditions," Perry explained. "In the normal (natural) case, there are about 200-250 oysters per square meter. In the St. Lucie Estuary, It looks to be upwards of 300; in the Loxahatchee, they have had about 400 or 500 per square meter."
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U.S. Sanctions on Icelandic whaling fall short Last month, President Obama took important steps to censure Iceland for its illegal whaling activities, but failed to impose tough economic sanctions against the nation, as NRDC has strongly advocated. More than 104,000 BioGems Defenders have written to the President urging him to sanction those Icelandic seafood companies with direct ties to the whaling industry.
While the President failed to impose more hard-hitting sanctions, he directed federal agencies to take diplomatic action to pressure Iceland to end commercial whaling and authorized the State Department to tie American cooperation in Arctic projects to the Icelandic government changing its whaling policy.
The agencies are required to report back to the President in six months or if Iceland resumes whaling before then, so there is a possibility that stronger sanctions could still be issued. We'll continue to keep you updated on Iceland's whaling activities and the Obama Administration's response.
Energy
Lawsuit Seeks to Halt Work on Controversial Keystone XL Pipeline The hotly contested Keystone XL pipeline hasn't been approved for construction, but federal officials don't seem to care; they've allowed the pipeline company to mow down 100 miles of native prairie grasslands in Nebraska to clear the way -- before any public hearings were held on whether Keystone XL should move forward at all.
The Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth filed a lawsuit in federal court in Omaha Wednesday to halt that work. Specifically, we're challenging decisions by the State Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to allow work to begin before a decision's been made on the pipeline or the public hearings, which look like little more than a sham at this point.
If approved, TransCanada's 1,700-mile pipeline would carry up to 35 million gallons of oil a day from tar sands in Canada to refineries in Texas. Not only will this project add fuel to the global climate crisis, but the pipeline will cut across Nebraska's legendary Sandhills, hundreds of rivers and streams, and the Ogallala Aquifer, which provides drinking water for millions of people. TransCanada's existing pipeline, called Keystone 1, has reportedly leaked 14 times since it started operating in June 2010.
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Florida Energy Summit Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has announced plans for the 2011 Florida Energy Summit, which will be held October 26 through October 28 in Orlando. Commissioner Putnam made the announcement during a visit to the Florida Solar Energy Center in Cocoa, where he explored the research and development of energy technologies to advance the production of biomass, hydrogen, fuel cell and solar energy.

"The Florida Energy Summit will advance the expansion of the production of renewable energy in Florida by bringing together leaders in energy development, agriculture production, government, academic research, technology and finance," said Commissioner Putnam. "By taking a more comprehensive look at prospective energy resources, we will gain a better understanding of Florida's energy potential to not only capture, but also capitalize on the rich resources available."
The Florida Energy Summit, a three-day conference hosted by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, will bring bright minds from across the state and around the nation to discuss the latest advancements in energy conservation and the future of renewable energy in Florida.
Concern Grows Over Plan to Drill for Oil Near Florida Keys The news that the Spanish oil giant, Repsol, intends to begin exploratory drilling in the waters directly north of Cuba, has set off a chorus of criticism in Cuba's neighbor to the north: the United States.
Repsol, which has a presence in more than 35 countries, has announced that an immense, semi-submersible oil rig constructed by the Italian company Saipem, is currently speeding its way from Singapore to the Florida Straits between Key West and Cuba, with a goal of beginning exploratory drilling sometime in December.
With analysts believing that Cuba's coastal waters may contain up to 20 billion barrels of oil, Repsol -- which also drilled offshore in Cuba in 2004 -- is set to partner with Norway's Statoil and India's ONGC in the drilling of a pair of wells as per an agreement with the Cuban government.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, with memories throughout the region still fresh with images of the April 2010 explosion of BP's Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf Of Mexico, there has been an outcry at Repsol's plans.
The Deepwater Horizon incident killed 11 workers and loosed a gusher of oil that leaked an estimated 53,000 barrels a day into the Gulf for three months, fouling beaches in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and killing fish and wildlife.
Following a 17-month investigation, a report last month on the disaster issued by the the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement leveled withering criticism at well owner and operator BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cementing operator Halliburton Co.
"From the Deepwater Horizon incident, we have seen clearly that deepwater offshore drilling is inherently risky," says Dr. Susan D. Shaw, director of the Maine-based Marine Environmental Research Institute. "Even in U.S. waters with the resources, infrastructure and equipment that we have, we watched a massive failure on many counts."
In a rare moment of bipartisanship in the rancorous U.S. political landscape, a Sept. 28 letter to Repsol by 34 members of the U.S. Congress -- including the Cuban-born Republican chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Florida Democrat Debbie Wasserman Schultz -- wrote that the "oil drilling scheme endangers the environment, and enriches the Cuban tyranny" and urged the company to "walk away from the project."
The U.S. maintains a trade embargo with Cuba, and Cuban-Americans make up a powerful voting bloc in the state of Florida, which counts for 27 electoral votes in the U.S.'s Electoral College system.
Political considerations aside, however, it is the patch of sea where Repsol proposes to work that has caused the most concern.
The location of the proposed drilling is only 65 miles from the Marquesas Keys, an uninhabited group of islands near Key West, in an area of strong 4-6 mile per hour currents that come from the Gulf of Mexico, shoot through the Florida Straits and then churn northwards up the Atlantic Coast of the continental U.S.
A wide swath of protected areas could be threatened, including the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary -- which spans some 2,800-square-nautical-miles and includes important repositories of coral reefs, seagrass and 1,600 miles of mangrove shoreline -- and Biscayne National Park, an area that contains the beginning of the third-largest coral reef in the world and mangrove areas along its shore. The million-plus acre Everglades National Park -- a subtropical wilderness that has famously been described as a "river of grass" -- is also nearby.
"It's such an ecologically rich area that any oil in the marine environment could seriously impact the entire ecosystem," asserts Daniel O. Suman, professor of marine affairs and policy at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
Repsol's safety record could best be described as mixed.
In February 2008, a spill by the company let free an estimated 100 barrels of crude near the 2.4 million-acre Yasuni National Park in Ecuador. The park, home to populations of jaguars, harpy eagles and other fauna, is also the ancestral home of the Huaorani people, the region's native inhabitants. This was followed by another spill in Ecuador in February 2009. In December 2010, a Repsol petrol platform in Nigeria's Ebro Delta region spilled 180,000 liters of crude into the ocean off that country's coast.
On its website, Repsol -- which did not respond to requests for comment -- states that the drilling equipment to be used "complies with all the technical requirements and all the limitations established by the US administration for drilling operations in Cuba."
Residents of the Florida Keys -- one of the more beguiling corners of the United States with its vistas of blue-green ocean water and endless sky -- remain apprehensive.
"We're very concerned," says Key West mayor Craig Cates. "And because of the embargo (with Cuba) we can't even send any equipment over if anything starts leaking. We just have to wait until it gets into our waters. "
Land Conservation
Nearly 14,000 acres of protected land removed from consideration for sale by state Nearly14,000 acres of land that the state was reviewing for possible sale this year have been removed from consideration because of its conservation value, according to a report issued Friday.
The report, from the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Management Services, could help define the emerging debate over the Florida Forever land-buying program. Program critics say Florida owns too much land and should sell some, but environmentalists say they're concerned the state could sell off prime conservation land.
Florida has purchased more than 2.4 million acres since 1990 under Florida Forever and its predecessor program, Preservation 2000, which began in 1990.
The report sent Friday to Gov. Rick Scott and legislative leaders is the first of its kind in Florida, said Clay Smallwood, director of DEP's Division of State Lands. SB 1516 in 2010 required DEP and DMS to inventory land and buildings for possible sale.
DEP and DMS in March issued an interim report that identified 24,554 acres that could be sold, including 22,363 acres that was under review. Another 2,191 acres in March was actively being marketed or was under contract.
The report issued Friday identified 10,053 acres that could be sold, including 8,375 acres still being reviewed and another 1,678 acres being marketed or under contract. That means 13,988 acres were removed from the review list since March.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other agencies identified more than 9,440 acres that were on the review list that had conservation value, including possible additions to the Rotenberger and Holey Land wildlife management areas. Another 4,450 acres that were taken off could be transferred to the state's five water management districts.
Most of the 13,988 acres taken of the list had not been purchased under any conservation program nor were being managed by any state agency.
The state sold 18 parcels last year, traded two and gave away one. In return, the state received $851,324 and 186 acres valued at $5 million.
None of the land sold and none of the 1,678 acres now up for sale were purchased by the state for conservation, Smallwood said.
The sale of any conservation land must be approved by the governor and Cabinet and the state Acquisition and Restoration Council, he said. Before that happens, state agencies and universities are offered the opportunity to take over managing the property.
"There is a lot of thought and process in this and a lot of science and opportunity for formal input," he said. "This (report) formalizes it."
As for those who may think the state should sell more land, Smallwood said the state is just beginning its review by looking primarily at lands that were not being managed by any agency.
Existing managed landholdings will be reviewed in subsequent years, and more land could wind up on the review list, he said.
"We should make sure to question that all past purchases were on target, on task," he said. "If not we need to see how to correct that."
Redwoods vs. Wineries One of Northern California's redwood forests is in danger of being sacrificed to wine grapes and high-end housing. Two wineries are proposing to clear-cut a total of nearly 2,000 acres of redwood trees and Douglas firs to plant vast new vineyards and erect a high-end housing development to boot.

Turning forest into vineyards is arguably even worse than clear-cutting alone -- because tree loss with vineyards is permanent. Redwoods-to-vineyard conversions increase greenhouse gas emissions and harm stream flows, water quality and habitat for imperiled wildlife, including endangered salmon and steelhead trout.
Air Quality
Cities Speaking Up for Clean Air -- Will Yours Be Next? Albany, N.Y. this week became the first city to join the Center for Biological Diversity's new Clean Air Cities campaign by passing a resolution in support of the Clean Air Act and reducing greenhouse gas pollution. Less than two weeks after the launch of our national campaign, resolutions urging federal action on climate change and pollution cuts are already moving forward across the country, from Richmond, Calif. to Seattle, Wash. Will your city be next? We need your help to make it happen. Center staffers stand ready to support you, because this work is more urgent than ever.

Not only is the global climate crisis deepening every day, but the U.S. House of Representatives is poised to vote on legislation that would gut the Clean Air Act. These bills would prevent the EPA from moving ahead with long-overdue efforts to reduce air pollution such as mercury and other toxic metals, as well as smog and soot from industrial boilers, solid-waste incinerators and cement plants. We need our cities to stand up to big polluters and stand up for the Clean Air Act.
Please take a minute to check out CleanAirCities.org and send the supplied cover letter and draft resolution to your city officials. We have step-by-step instructions on how to do it and need your help to get cities in all 50 states to take action. Not sure who to contact? Email Rose Braz, our climate campaign director.
House votes to delay cement pollution rules To the dismay of environmentalists and the delight of Florida's cement makers, the U.S. House voted on Thursday to delay air-quality standards designed to remove mercury and other pollution from the skies and waters.
Hardy Johnson of Parkland had lobbied hard for the bill on behalf of Titan America, which runs a cement plant in north Miami-Dade County, the biggest in Florida. Earthjustice and other environmental groups warn that this plant and others across the country are putting dangerous amounts of mercury into the air, which then sinks into the water, creating a health hazard.
Hardy Johnson Republicans pushed the bill through the House, on a vote of 262 to 161, as part of a campaign to roll back or stall EPA regulations that they say stifle business. South Florida Congressman Allen West co-sponsored the bill.
Johnson told lawmakers that the EPA standards, if fully enforced, would cost 100,000 jobs nationwide, saddle cement makers with $3.4 billion of costs and add another burden to Florida's beleaguered construction industry.
Johnson acknowledged that he faces "a challenge" in the Senate, which is unlikely to pass a companion bill.
The issue is especially important to Florida, strapped by a 10.7 percent unemployment rate and home to lots of health-conscious residents, many with breathing problems.
The bill would delay enforcement for at least 15 months, which Johnson called a "time out" but environmentalists said would amount to suspending the air standards indefinitely.
"If they change those standards, you will see an increase in asthma, particularly in younger people," said Doug Young, president of South Florida Audubon. "These standards were set up this way for a reason. You go backward and it starts reversing everything."
Miscellaneous
DEP celebrates improvements to Tallahassee- St. Marks The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's (DEP) Division of Recreation and Parks, Office of Greenways and Trails (OGT) celebrated the reopening of the Tallahassee-St. Marks Historic Railroad State Trail today. DEP held a special grand reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the completion of a resurfacing and widening project and to invite community members and visitors to take advantage of these improvements.

Designated as a National Recreation Trail, this 16-mile multi-use trail was Florida's first paved rail-trail. The Trail was originally built with an 8-foot wide surface, but after 20 years of service, OGT widened the Trail to 12 feet to meet current state and national standards. It also resurfaced the Trail to address wear and tear and safety issues. Today's ribbon cutting marks the Trail's return to full service as a key recreational and economic resource for the region.
"Today we celebrated not only the Trail's return to full service, but also the recreational value and economic significance of Florida's trails and greenways," said Florida Park Service Director Donald Forgione. "Trails are so much more than a corridor of pavement. They enhance communities, promote tourism and connect people to the local natural and cultural resources."
Florida Park Service Director Donald Forgione was the keynote speaker at today's event, while the Chief of the Office of Greenways and Trails, Jim Wood, served as the emcee for the morning's festivities. In addition, Kerri Post, Senior Marketing Director for Visit Tallahassee, spoke about the benefits of the trail to local tourism and Harry Reed, Executive Director for the Capital Regional Transportation Planning Agency, discussed the benefits of the Trail as an important component in the non-motorized element of the Regional Mobility Plan and the developing Capital City to the Sea Loop.
Susan Matthews, Supervisor of National Forests in Florida with the U.S. Forest Service, also joined the program to highlight partnerships and new properties, including land that connects the Munson Hills off-road bike trail to the North Trailhead of the St. Marks Trail. Representatives from the Capital City Cyclists and the Southern Trailriders Association also shared accolades and appreciation for the improvements. The event culminated with a ceremonial ribbon cutting and light refreshments provided by the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation, Inc.
October is Florida Greenways and Trails Month Have you ever wished that you could have seen Florida back when it was primarily small rural towns and communities with dirt roads, abundant forests and wild animals? Of course, you can't go back in time, but the next best thing is actually right outside your back door.
Throughout Florida, there are thousands of miles of trails comprised of diverse landscapes that offer a glimpse into the Florida of yesteryear. And they may be even better now than a few decades ago, because the trails are well marked and well maintained. There are now also numerous ways to travel across the various terrains – back then, travel was mostly by foot or by hoof. Now you can still choose hiking or horseback riding, but in addition, bicycling or rollerblading just add to the adventure of going on, up, over, across and through some of those same trails.
Florida's state parks, along with its greenways and trails system, lead to just about every type of outdoor activity imaginable. Whether you'd rather be camping, fishing, swimming, paddling or simply observing wildlife, there's a trail for that. And yes, the wild animals are still out there, but luckily these days you probably won't find it necessary to protect yourself from them. Then there are the waterfalls and springs, rivers and creeks, or oceans and lakes at the end of the trail. How about winding up at a fishing museum or Second Seminole War battlefield, an ancient archaeological site or a lush garden nestled between the Atlantic Ocean and the Matanzas River?
Florida's parks and trails offer outlets for weddings and family reunions as well, a place to relax and for friends to meet and socialize, or a place where you can go to achieve your fitness goals. Yes, Florida has grown, but our parks and trails enable us to take pleasure in some of the same beauty and untamed nature that previous generations enjoyed – and then some.
It Came Out of the Dark In the five years since it was discovered, a frightening fungus has killed more than a million bats in North America; is there anything we can do to help the besieged flying mammals?
It was first discovered about 40 miles outside of Albany, New York, in 2006, when a spelunker photographed hibernating bats with a powdery white substance covering their muzzles. Today, just five years later, white-nose syndrome (WNS) has killed more than a million bats of six species and spread north to Canada and as far south as Tennessee and North Carolina. In a few years, biologists fear this disease, caused by a cold-loving fungus called Geomyces destructans, could reach the Pacific Coast. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) calls it the "worst wildlife health crisis in memory.
"This fungus came out of the dark," says Paul Cryan, a bat ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey's Fort Collins Science Center in Colorado. "It is unlike any other skin pathogen that we know about." Most skin infections in mammals, such as athlete's foot, affect only dead areas of the skin and rarely are life threatening. But WNS is different. "It invades and destroys living skin tissues in hibernating bats," he adds.
In some locations, mortality in bat colonies has reached 95 percent. And since more than half of the 46 bat species found in the United States and Canada hibernate, primarily in caves or abandoned mines, they are susceptible to WNS. This includes Indiana bats, gray bats and Virginia and Ozark big-eared bats, which are all included on the U.S. Endangered Species List.
Despite its name, white-nose syndrome seems primarily to attack a bat's wings. The infected wings tear easily, lose elasticity and often end up looking like "crumpled tissue paper," says Cryan. "Healthy wings are very important to bats," he explains, not just for flying but also during hibernation. Bats are especially susceptible to dehydration throughout the long winter, and their wings help them maintain proper water balance. When WNS penetrates a wing, Cryan notes, the fungus is "basically poking holes in the bucket," causing water to leak out. He and his colleagues believe extreme thirst eventually rouses the bats from their winter torpor, and they leave their cave to find water. This depletes the fat stores the animals depend on to get through the cold months. Most of them perish before spring.
"It's almost impossible to overestimate the consequences of white-nose syndrome to these animals and to the environment," says Nina Fascione, executive director of Bat Conservation International (BCI) Bats are primary predators of night-flying insects and are known to eat mosquitoes. They also eat many agricultural pests, particularly those that attack corn and cotton crops. But despite the benefits they provide for people, "bats have had a hard time of it over the years," adds Fascione. "They've been victims of myth and superstition, and have long been killed by misinformed people. Sometimes, bats have even been dynamited in caves. Today they are threatened by loss of habitat, wind turbines and climate change. White-nose syndrome is one more horrible thing."
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