Hope for the Everglade Snail Kite: Army Corps Agrees to Evaluate Forward Pumps on Lake Okeechobee

"The Everglade Snail Kite is a system-wide indicator species for Everglades restoration success. In order to comprehensively protect Kite habitat and the Greater Everglades Ecosystem as a whole, water level declines should be dealt with through water restrictions and water conservation measures. Audubon urges that citizens, businesses, and agencies respond to these steps dutifully when drought conditions are identified to avoid the need to use temporary forward pumps when water is most scarce."

After five years of debate and hearings in Washington, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is expected to announce the Burmese python will soon be illegal to import.

With a 17-foot skin from a python killed in the Everglades, Florida Sen. Bill Nelson urges a Senate panel to help ban the import of Burmese python into the U.S.

U.S. Senate Staff

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By CURTIS MORGAN

Cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

The United States is poised to formally and finally ban that slithering scourge of the Everglades, the Burmese python.

U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, who has championed the ban, is expected to make the announcement Tuesday morning during a press conference at a flood control pumping station off Tamiami Trail in the Everglades — a spot that is pretty much ground zero for a giant exotic constrictor that has become one of the nation’s most notorious invasive species.

Judge offers qualified praise for state Glades efforts

Though encouraged by a new pollution clean-up plan touted by Gov. Rick Scott, a Miami federal judge presses state and federal agencies to commit to paying for work that could cost $1 billion or more.

 

By CURTIS MORGAN

Cmorgan@Miamiherald.com

 

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.’’

 

 

 

 

01/05/2012

 

 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignited a controversy in 2009 when it agreed to adopt numeric nutrient criteria for Florida waterways. EPA said the specific limits were needed to replace Florida's narrative standards that environmental groups said have failed to prevent algal blooms they say are choking waterways. However, utilities along with industry and agriculture groups generated a firestorm of opposition, saying the rules will be difficult and expensive to meet.

In December, the state Environmental Regulation Commission OK'd its own water quality rules that are intended to replace federal standards. The next stop for the state rules is the Legislature, which in 2010 passed a bill requiring any state rules costing more than $1 million to receive legislative ratification. If it OKs the new water rules, they will be sent to the EPA to consider.

By The Miami Herald Editorial

HeraldEd@MiamiHerald.com

As the Florida Legislature prepares to grapple with another tight budget year, and leaders vow to continue to build an appealing pro-business environment that reduces costs for businesses to generate more jobs, there’s one jobs creator being virtually ignored that stretches from Kissimmee near Walt Disney World to the Florida Keys: the Everglades.

Cleaning up Florida’s fabled River of Grass after decades of abuse from polluted rainwater runoff draining from area farms, homes and businesses into the ’Glades ecosystem is not only necessary but economically desirable. The 27th annual Everglades Coalition conference underway this week appropriately titled its meeting: “Everglades Restoration: Worth Every Penny.”

The numbers tell why.

Just in the past three years, in the midst of a recession, Everglades restoration projects — whether they redirect canals or elevate roadways or make other needed environmental fixes — have generated 10,500 jobs. Add to that the spin-off of tourism, recreational fishing and other ventures and as many as 442,000 jobs will materialize in the next decades, according to the coalition.

Building the bridge on the Tamiami Trail, which will help restore water flows to the river, is putting 1,212 people to work.

Even as Florida struggles to balance its budget for the coming year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature have to see why the Everglades is not only a water source for agriculture and drinking water for one in three Floridians — the major water source, in fact, for South Florida residents — but also a boon for business.

This is, after all, an international treasure, a rare river that’s more grass than water to the eye, 100 miles long and 60 miles wide, where tourists near and far come to watch flocking birds and gator brawls.

The Everglades ecosystem isn’t some isolated sore spot. It runs from central Florida’s Kissimmee Chain of Lakes into Lake Okeechobee (our water supply) and through the River of Grass, out to Florida Bay and the Keys. Hundreds of thousands of jobs already depend on it.

Visitors to Everglades National Park spend about $165 million a year. And the jobs created by restoration projects pay well, too. Hydrologists, engineers, geologists, surveyors — those are the kinds of jobs Florida should want to keep.

HUTCHINSON ISLAND — Gov. Rick Scott didn't exactly win environmentalists over in his first year in office, as he gutted growth management laws, waged a legal battle against federally imposed water quality standards and expressed general disdain for "job-killing" regulations.

But Thursday evening, the governor stood before an audience of some of his harshest critics at a meeting here of the Everglades Coalition and pledged — like every governor who has spoken before him — that he was committed to restoring the struggling River of Grass.

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...