The National Park Service at Biscayne National Park recently released a draft General Management Plan (GMP) that proposes to close more than 20 percent of public waters to recreational boating and fishing. As local boating and sport fishing businesses that are opposed to this broad public access closure, we think there has to be a better way to balance conservation and preserve recreation.

The Park Service’s proposals include establishment of between a 10,000- and 21,000-acre marine reserve within Biscayne National Park’s boundaries. This vast marine reserve would entirely prohibit recreational fishing. Additionally, the park’s plans establish several no-combustion-engine zones that act as a de facto closure of even more of the park’s waters to boating. Engine powered boats will find it almost impossible to launch from shore and other prohibited areas within the park. Although Florida’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation says that less-restrictive measures should be implemented, these appeals have fallen on deaf ears.

Recreational boating and fishing are important contributors to the Florida economy. Biscayne National Park is the largest marine park in the national park system and one of the country’s largest urban recreational fishing areas. It supports approximately 10 million angler trips a year. Recreational boating in Florida has an overall economic impact of over $3.4 billion in retail sales. Fishing and angling activity alone contributes $7.5 billion to our economy.

The Biscayne General Management Plan proposes closures to both boating and fishing, that if implemented will close public access, limit visitor experiences and directly affect the thousands of recreational boating and fishing jobs and retail sales that service Biscayne National Park.

We urge the National Park Service to eliminate the concept of marine reserves and the massive no-combustion-engine zones that are proposed in the draft GMP and instead work collaboratively with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, boaters and fishermen to develop a management plan that will preserve the park’s valuable natural resources while maintaining public access.

Scott Deal, president, Maverick Boat Company Inc., Fort Pierce

Joe Neber, president, Contender Boats Inc., Homestead

Carl Liederman, American Sportfishing Association, Miami

10 years of drawing inspiration from the Everglades

By Tom Austin
The Miami Herald

Artists long have looked at the Everglades with wonder. Over time, realistic portrayals of its spectacular landscapes — including the photography of local Clyde Butcher — have given way to contemporary abstraction and performance art inspired by the River of Grass and the modern pressures facing it and, metaphorically, the world beyond.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/18/2549737/10-years-of-drawing-inspiration...

The South Florida Water Management District owns about 1.4 million acres across South Florida, including this land in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Preserve in Palm Beach County. Environmental groups are raising concerns about district plans to sell about 3,000 acres of public land scattered across South Florida. (By Andy Reid)

By Andy Reid
7:40 p.m. EST, December 14, 2011

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm over the South Florida Water Management District potentially shrinking its vast real estate holdings.
Audubon of Florida and the Sierra Club are among the environmental groups raising concerns that budget cuts have the district selling off too much public land once slated for restoration or conservation.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/blogs/green-south-florida/sfl-selling-conser...

TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/NSF) - Governor Rick Scott has proposed restoring some spending for environmentally sensitive land.

The proposal would put $40 million into Everglades restoration.

Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Herschel T. Vinyard said this amount "will allow Florida to keep the momentum going in the state-federal partnership to restore one of Florida's most valuable natural treasures."

Will the Everglades ever be restored to its natural splendor? Among The Miami Herald’s editorial priorities is the protection of the area’s natural resources, especially the River of Grass, and ensuring Miami-Dade County’s urban development boundary, or UDB, stays put unless there’s sufficient growth to require construction in the far west portions of the county that border on the Glades.

Similarly, Biscayne Bay remains a jewel that warrants protection in the midst of the Port of Miami’s port-tunnel construction and deep dredge plans — both important projects that will rev up South Florida’s economy. Today we look back at this year’s environmental battles to prepare for 2012.

Sadly, in the case of the Everglades, commitment — especially from the state level — has been missing in the fight to preserve this national treasure. Earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed $615 million in projects that he called “shortsighted, frivolous, wasteful spending.”

What’s alarming is that more than half of the funds vetoed would have been used to buy land to help clean up the Everglades after decades of abuse. Remember, this battle started back in 1988.

Protecting the River of Grass is not a frivolity. The Everglades is a life-sustaining system that supports wildlife, generates tourism revenue and recreation and provides us with drinking water through Lake Okeechobee.

The governor signed a bill that took an ax to the South Florida Water Management District’s funding, cutting it by 30 percent. Mr. Scott called it a “tax cut” yet the savings for most property owners was minuscule. Busting the district’s budget was a foolhardy move, for it cut into its ability to provide high-quality water-management services, better regulating, for instance, the cycle of drought-flood-drought-flood that plagues our region.

The state’s long-delayed plans to reduce the flow of phosphorus, a debilitating nutrient that runs off of farms after it rains, is still stalled. The feds don’t think the state’s curtailed proposal goes far enough. The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a huge expansion of artificial marshes that would clean phosphorous from water flowing into the Everglades. The governor’s plan scales it way back and adds another two years to the 2020 deadline. Add to that the lack of restrictions on fertilizer use and the 10-year delay imposed by the state under a previous administration, and it’s clear there’s lack of serious commitment to this most vital resource.

Hold the line

In an astonishing move this month, the Miami-Dade Commission staged yet another assault on the Urban Development Boundary — which holds the line between development in the westernmost part of the county and the Everglades.

The Ferro Investment Group again is seeking to move the line farther west — and a majority of the commission, unfortunately, agreed to send the application up to the state for review.

The community has fought this battle before and, in holding the line, emerged the winner in the fight against rampant growth. This time, Ferro’s request comes amid a changed dynamic — changed for the worse. A new state law, with Gov. Scott’s blessing, severely waters down Florida’s 25-year-old growth-management regulations, giving counties and municipalities greater freedom to amend their local comprehensive development plans that were put in place to control sprawl.

By Christine Stapleton

 

For the second time in four months, environmentalists seeking to block rocking mining south of Lake Okeechobee have won a favorable appellate court ruling against Palm Beach County and Rinker Materials of Florida.

In a single-page ruling issued today, the Fourth District Court of Appeal blocked plans to build a proposed mine, finding there was not enough evidence to prove aggregate from the mine would be used for either agricultural or public road-building projects.

The county's comprehensive plan allows mining for only three purposes: agriculture, public road and Everglades restoration. Rinker, doing business as Cemex, wants to dig nearly 4,000 acres over 38 years in the area south of Belle Glade and east of State Road 827. The resulting holes would be used to store water.

The Sierra Club and the 1000 Friends of Florida filed a lawsuit in May 2008 to block the mine, claiming Palm Beach county commissioners failed to assess the mine's effect on the environment and that the mine did not conform to the county's comprehensive plan. A lower court judge disagreed and found sufficient evidence to prove that the mine would be used for either agriculture or road building. The group appealed.

"Although there was some evidence that the proposed mine might support agricultural activities, this was a tangential, collateral benefit," the court ruled.

"This is a huge deal," said Robert Hartsell, of the Everglades Law Center, which represented the environmental groups. "These are lands the state of Florida and the federal government are spending billions of dollars to repair, and to dig giant holes in the ground while we're trying to restore the Everglades is poor, poor judgment."

Rinker's attorney, Martin Alexander, declined to comment on the ruling or whether Rinker would ask for a re-hearing.

The ruling is the second loss for mining companies, who are the target of three lawsuits filed by the environmental groups. In August, the appeals court decided that Bergeron Sand and Rock Mine Aggregates could not expand its operations unless it could show that the aggregate it produced would be used for public road projects, a requirement the company said it could not meet.

A lawsuit involving the Lake Harbor Quarry is pending.