Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

Hurricane Sandy's weekend nudge to Lake Okeechobee's rising water levels add to flood control concerns with a month of storm season still to go.

Flooding threats from the fast-rising lake in September prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to start draining billions of gallons of lake water out to sea to ease the strain on its 70-year-old dike — considered one of the country's most at risk of failing. But lake water levels have actually gone up nearly one foot since the draining started Sept. 19. That's because South Florida's vast drainage system of canals, pumps and levees fills up the lake faster than it can lower it.

Black skimmers gather on the sand's edge on Lanark Reef this week. The mostly submerged island is a haven for nesting sea and shore birds, as well as migratory and wintering species. / Jennifer Portman/Democrat

 LANARK REEF — After decades of worry by conservationists about the future of one of Florida’s most important destinations for nesting and migrating sea and shorebirds, this fragile strip of sand flats and sea oats is now entirely in safe hands.

Audubon Florida announced this week it has purchased the last privately held parcel on the low-lying reef located in the Gulf of Mexico less than a mile south of Lanark Village.

Lanark Reef is an avian hotspot. It is home to the largest of the Panhandles’ four brown pelican rookeries, and supports large numbers of nesting shorebirds, including black skimmers, willets and the American Oystercatcher, which is a threatened species in Florida. The reef is considered an “Important Bird Area” by Audubon, and is designed a critical habitat for the Piping Plover by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. More than 250 species of birds use the reef for spring and summer nesting and as a stopping point for winter migration.

“Lanark Reef is one of the most important breeding, wintering and migratory sites for coastal birds in the state of Florida,” Julie Wraithmell, Audubon Florida’s Director of Wildlife Conservation told the Tallahassee Democrat on a trip to the reef this week. “It’s a bird factory.”

The purchase was completed quietly last month, when the nonprofit paid $33,000 to Premier Bank, which acquired the property in 2011 from Tallahassee developer Hurley Booth. Though large areas of the six-mile long reef are submerged at high tide, the state in the 1950s conveyed parts of the island that mostly remain dry into private ownership. Booth had the title to the remaining 1.7-acre parcel for about a decade and five years ago sought to build home sites on the narrow swath of sand. The submerged lands of the reef are owned by the state.

The scant dry land, however, is not zoned for development of any kind and is not part of Franklin County’s land use map, said director of Administrative Services Alan Pierce. While permits for several septic tanks were granted by a county department in 2007, Pierce said the county turned down Hurley’s request to build seven homes on the reef.

“We said no, it’s not land that can be suited for development,” Pierce said. “It’s just a sandbar as far as we are concerned.”

Audubon Florida purchased the land from the bank with money provided by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation from the sale of recovered oil from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Private donations from around the nation also contributed toward the purchase and ongoing management of the reef.

“There is something fitting about using that money,” Wraithmell said of the recovered oil funding.

John Himes, northwest regional biologist for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said he is glad the reef now will be protected. Not only does it provide nursery and resting grounds for threatened and endangered sea and shore birds, it is also home to the diamond back terrapin, a rare salt marsh turtle.

“It is a really important area,” he said, pointing out its obvious shortcomings for residential development as it is frequently washed over during storms. “It’s not like we are taking anything away from anyone.”

As ill-suited as the reef is for human habitation, it is ideal for the many bird species that flock there. In the spring and summer, thousands of birds crowd its uplands free from the threat of mammal predators such as racoons and coyotes. Its relative remoteness discourages harmful disturbances by people and pets.

“Our coasts are home to species of birds that live their entire lives in this dramatic landscape of sand and wind and salt,” Wraithmell said. “Even though you think they’d be really tough, in fact they are very vulnerable.”

The nests and eggs of many nesting shorebirds are camouflaged and easily destroyed by even the most well-meaning human contact. While the reef is safely viewed up close from a boat, people are encouraged to not walk on the islands. Stepping on the island causes birds to leave their nests, leaving their young vulnerable to predatory birds or the hot sun.

“People don’t know the harm they can cause,” Wraithmell said. “There is this tendency to say, ‘It’s just this once,’ but once is enough to do damage.”

Himes said looking at the birds is fine “as long as you keep your distance.” The place is a bird sanctuary.

Though the notion of houses on the small spits of sand seems improbable, Wraithmell said private ownership was still a risk.

“Unfortunately, in the current times, I’m not sure what I would put off the table,” she said.

Wraithmell said acquiring the land is just the beginning of protecting it for the future. Audubon Florida plans to work with the state to develop a management plan for the entire reef.

“Everyone has to take responsibility for keeping this place as special as it is,” she said. “Wildlife brings so much to our quality of life. It’s a big part of what Florida is. We’ve got a chance up here to hold on to it. There is no time to lose.”

Gail Phillips, an Audubon volunteer and nearby Gulf Terrace resident whose home looks out on the reef, is pleased it will now be protected and managed in a consistent way.

“I am absolutely thrilled,” Phillips said. “It’s a hidden jewel.”

-By Jennifer Portman

Despite Hurricane Debby’s severe impact on coastal wildlife on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the state’s royal tern population has increased thanks to a successful breeding season at Huguenot Memorial Park.

“Huguenot is a truly unique habitat. Dozens of species of birds have relied on this one beach for survival for generations,” said Monique Borboen, an Audubon Florida policy associate.

Borboen said, thanks to a dedicated park naturalist assisted by volunteer bird stewards, progress is being made in protecting this special place.

“Residents of northeast Florida are fortunate to have such an important and beautiful bird habitat so close to home,” she said.

Huguenot Memorial Park is the only breeding colony of royal terns on Florida’s Atlantic Coast. This year, the colony fledged more than 2,000 royal tern chicks. These young birds will go a long way in helping statewide populations recover from the rain, wind and storm surge caused from a devastating Hurricane Debby in June. The storm made landfall at the height of Florida’s beach-bird nesting season, destroying the eggs and chicks of many beach-nesting birds on the Gulf Coast.

“Huguenot is a perfect example of why multiple breeding sites are the best defense for beach birds against natural or manmade disasters,” said Borboen. “Hurricanes are a common and natural occurrence in Florida, that’s why nature doesn’t like to put all her ‘eggs in one basket.’ One strong storm has the potential to devastate miles of shoreline habitat and cause the destruction of multiple breeding bird colonies.”

Huguenot Memorial Park is considered by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as the most important seabird breeding colony site on Florida’s east coast. Located at the mouth of the St. Johns River, this coastal habitat hosts a wealth of declining species, providing vital stopover habitat for imperiled red knots, federally designated critical wintering habitat for threatened piping plovers, a state-designated critical wildlife area for one of Florida’s few laughing gulls and royal tern colonies, nesting habitat for marine turtles as well as historic nesting habitat for declining American oystercatchers, gull-billed terns, least terns, black skimmers and Wilson’s plovers.

By ERIC STAATS  

Wednesday, August 22, 2012  

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/aug/22/Mirasol-develop-wetlands-north-collier-agreement/  

NORTH NAPLES — A longstanding fight between developers and environmental groups over saving key wetlands in a northern Collier County slough has come to an end. 

The final piece of the preservation puzzle fell into place when a coalition of five environmental groups reached a deal with landowner IM Collier Joint Venture over plans for Mirasol at the northwest corner of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard, the groups announced Tuesday. 

Mirasol came to epitomize a decade-long push to stop new subdivisions that developers proposed putting in the middle of a flowway the groups wanted to protect for the sake of nearby Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and foraging habitat for endangered wood storks that nest there. 

Since 2006, the groups filed a string of lawsuits and administrative challenges over Mirasol and two other projects, Parklands and Saturnia Falls, that together would have taken a 1,200-acre bite out of wetlands in the Cocohatchee Slough. 

The groups came to a truce with G.L. Homes in 2010 over Parklands and Saturnia Falls after the developer agreed to cut back its development footprint and boost its wetlands preservation plans. The deal over Mirasol found similar common ground. 

"I think this is a good ecological outcome for the region," said Brad Cornell, policy advocate for the Collier County Audubon Society, one of the groups in the coalition.

Other groups involved were the National Wildlife Federation, Audubon of Florida, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida and the Florida Wildlife Federation.

The groups were preparing to go back to court over Mirasol's new federal wetlands permit, issued in 2011 after a judge revoked an earlier version of the permit in 2009.

The deal averts another lawsuit and paves the way for IM Collier Joint Venture to sell the land for Mirasol to another partnership led by development company Taylor Morrison. Development is expected to start in 2013.

"We felt we could solve these issues if we put our heads together in a positive way and in the end we came up with a solution that was acceptable to everyone," said Dennis Gilkey, who has a minority interest in the new partnership and spearheaded negotiations with the groups.

Landowners are petitioning Collier County to amend its approvals for Mirasol to reflect the deal; state and federal permit modifications also are pending.

Mirasol, which will be renamed, is adding 80 acres to its 1,800-acre project, dropping one of two planned golf courses and building 1,121 units instead of the original 799 units, Gilkey said.

The new project still will destroy more than 550 acres of wetlands, but the project will preserve some 1,100 acres of wetlands.

The deal calls for a net increase of 170 acres of wetlands to be preserved on site and funds restoration of another 1,000 acres of off-site farm fields to the kind of shallow wetlands that are important for providing food to trigger wood stork nesting at Corkscrew. A decline in those wetlands has been blamed for wood storks not nesting at the sanctuary for five of the past six years.

In all, the settlements with G.L. Homes and IM Collier will protect 3,500 acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat in the Cocohatchee Slough, according to the groups' figures.

Case #2 -
 

Earlier this year, in Friedman/Starkman v. SFWMD, Audubon Florida supported the Defendant SFWMD through a brief amicus curiae.   In this case, Plaintiff landowners had filed suit against the SFWMD, claiming that they had lost nearly all value of their land and should be compensated for the value of their property.  The arguments in support of this claim were, among others, that their properties had been identified on maps showing potential future restoration projects and other property nearby had been purchased by the SFWMD from willing sellers.  There was also an attempt to set a new precedent in Florida for compensating landowners under a theory of “precondemnation blight.”  We felt strongly that establishing this cause of action in Florida would impact the ability or willingness for agencies and local governments to participate in proactive land use planning and made the decision to support the SFWMD. More information about the facts of the case can be found in the attached memo.

Recently, the 5^th District Court of Appeals agreed with the lower court and ruled in favor of SFWMD.  The good news is that after some additional motions by the landowners, their motion for rehearing was denied and a mandate was issued effectively dismissing the appeal. 

Thank you for your support, that enables us to participate in this important matter and help make sure this case didn’t open a new door of “precondemnation blight” litigation in Florida that would have severely hindered the ability to proactively plan for future land conservation and ecosystem restoration projects.

By Sade M. Gordon
Posted August 29, 2012 at 7:30 p.m.

INDIANTOWN — With over a quarter of the first phase of the C-44 canal's construction complete, Martin County commissioners and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are even more anxious for the scheduled approval of the second contract for the canal's restoration project.

The first contract, which Congress funded as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project with more than $32 million in 2011, includes an intake canal, access roads, drainage canals and a new bridge on Citrus Boulevard. But it's the second contract, which kicks off construction of a huge stormwater reservoir, that Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, says will start making the big changes the St. Lucie Estuary needs to restore its natural balance of fresh and salt water.

Perry cited the recent Tropical Storm Isaac as clear proof of how necessary the reservoir is.

"Water shouldn't be pouring into the St. Lucie Estuary," he said. "It should be stored here."

Project Engineer Paul Sadowski of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said he estimated the first phase of the project to be "26 percent complete." The area has been cleared of trees and top soil, he said, while work on the bridge for the intake canal and relocation of the drainage canal are under way. There are about 120 workers on hand for the restoration project, but Sadowski couldn't confirm whether or not they were hired locally.

If all goes as planned, the first phase will be done by early 2014.

By August 2014, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Martin County Commission hope to be awarded $270 million by Congress for the second portion. The second phase is a three-year endeavor that will result in 12,000 acres of above ground storage that would collect excess water from four different canals.

Perry expressed concern that the reservoir was going to store water above ground, however. The danger of above-ground storage is the weakness of the dikes that surround the water. He gave Lake Okeechobee's deteriorating dike as an example of what could eventually happen to the projected 2014 reservoir. Instead, he suggested using the surrounding orange groves upstream and making deals with farmers to create on-site underground storage and treatment.

Even so, he said, it was "critical that storage be put in place."

Eric Draper
Executive Director
Audubon of Florida         

BY ERIC DRAPER

FloridaWaterLandLegacy.org