Geotourism: Tourism that sustains or enhances the geographical character of a place — its environment, culture, aesthetics, heritage and well-being of its residents.
This is a great program - it involves private land owners, low upfront costs and low long term costs...
In MIami Herald Yesterday:
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. Story here.
Posted by Mary Ellen Klas on November 15, 2011 in Florida Environment , Florida Governor , Rick Scott | Permalink
@SFWMD, though short on cash, renews farmer leases without competitive bidding
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Posted: 8:03 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011
For five years the Pearce family of Okeechobee waited for the lease to expire on 4,700 acres of public ranchland, so they could bid on the lease and return their cattle to land that, until 2006, was in the family for five generations.
But about 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 13, Patricia Pearce learned that, later that morning, the governing board of the South Florida Water Management District would be asked to renew the 5-year lease of the current tenants, the Old River Cattle Company. The renewal was scheduled even though the lease was not up until March 2012, no notice of the land's availability was published in a local newspaper and the Pearces were willing to pay more.
"We have been waiting patiently for five years," Patricia Pearce told the board after making the 85-mile drive to the district headquarters in West Palm Beach. "We were told it would be put up for public bid. I'd like to know what the policy is."
So would many others, including members of the governing board and ranchers and farmers who lease more than 129,000 acres of public land controlled by the district, which spans 16 counties.
"What is the thinking, that we didn't want to give the Pearce family an opportunity to compete for this land?" asked board member Glenn Waldman during the Oct. 13 meeting. "Is it just because it's easier to re-lease?
Last year the district collected more than $4.2 million in rent and saved countless more in taxes and land management costs by leasing land for agricultural uses, from grazing to farming. But at a time when the district's budget has been slashed, more than 300 workers cut and Everglades restoration projects delayed for want of money, the board's renewal of the Old River Cattle Company lease and eight others without seeking competitive bids to ensure top dollar has sparked a review and proposed overhaul of the district's controversial and confusing lease policies.
Bob Brown, the district's recently appointed assistant executive director, acknowledged that "some legitimate points have been raised." Brown will unveil the proposed changes at a meeting of the Projects and Lands Committee meeting today.
This is not the first time the district's lease policy has come under fire. A critical, internal audit in 2002 uncovered a lease for as little as $1 per acre -- far below the market value of a lease for pasture land. Other leases were renewed without competitive bids which appeared to "bypass the tenets of fair and open competition," according to the audit.
The auditor strongly recommended that the district adopt a policy of public notice and open bidding for all leases: "Competition will determine market value and therefore the leases should be competed."
That did not happen. Although the district did adopt its first agricultural lease policy in November 2003, revisions made in 2005, 2006, 2010 and earlier this year diluted oversight and eventually gave the executive director the authority to approve lease renewals.
As the policy evolved, the leases of ranchers and farmers who leased back the land that they had sold to the district were routinely renewed without allowing others the opportunity to bid. And despite a Florida law that requires the district to publish notice -- weekly for three weeks -- of its intention to lease any land, the district enacted its own policy that "allows the district to renew existing leases without competition if, among other things, the lessee is in good standing," the district said Tuesday in response to questions from The Palm Beach Post.
In defense of those policies, Ruth Clements, the district's chief real estate specialist, explained that renewing the leases of good tenants -- those who paid their rent on time, paid taxes, maintained fences and were good stewards of the land -- made good sense. That was the case of the nine lease renewals presented to the board last month.
All nine of the tenants needed lease renewals to qualify for a federal agricultural matching grant that would allow them to make environmental improvements to the land, according to a spokesman for the grant program. Unless they could prove they would be on the land for at least another five years, their applications would be denied, he said. The application deadline for the grant was Oct. 31.
"Here's my thought on this," said Ric Hartman, a partner in the Old River Cattle Company. "I'm a businessman and I have a tenant who is paying his rent on time, paying his taxes and done everything I have asked him to do, why would I want to go look for someone else?"
Even though the board approved his lease renewal last month, the documents have not been signed, Hartman said. Now he is concerned that the board may reconsider its vote.
"We played the game the way we were supposed to," Hartman said. "I'm not threatening and I'm not going to sue but I would be really disappointed if they did that.
Partnerships help reduce South Florida’s reliance on limited traditional sources
West Palm Beach, FL — To help sustain the region’s water resources, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board approved an investment of funding for three alternative water supply projects in Broward, Palm Beach and Hendry counties.
“These projects help to expand South Florida’s water supplies and ensure a sustainable supply for people, businesses and the environment,” said SFWMD Governing Board Chairman Joe Collins. “Supporting efforts to develop alternative water resources is an investment in Florida’s future.”
The following projects were approved:
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Entity |
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Project |
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Water Made Available (Million Gallons Per Day) |
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Town of Davie |
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Palm Beach County Water Lake Region Water Treatment Plant 1.3 Utilities Floridan Wellfield Improvements |
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City of LaBelle |
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*Part of a multi-year project
Including additional projects approved for the Big Cypress Basin, the SFWMD is investing $2.72 million in Alternative Water Supply projects during Fiscal Year 2012. Since 1997, the Alternative Water Supply Funding Program, in cooperation with the State of Florida, has invested $185.5 million into 468 alternative water supply projects. To date, these projects have created 398 million gallons a day of water supply capacity, reducing reliance on freshwater sources.
Alternative water sources diversify South Florida’s water supply while reducing the region’s dependence on traditional freshwater resources and making communities less susceptible to drought impacts. Examples of alternative water supply include:
Saltwater and brackish water
Reclaimed water
Surface water captured during wet weather
Sources made available through new storage
Stormwater (for consumptive use)
Other nontraditional sources
Development of alternative water supplies is an important component of the District’s four regional water supply plans, which encompass the agency’s jurisdictional area. Updated every five years, each plan creates a framework for future water use decisions and identifies strategies to meet future water demands of urban and agricultural uses, while meeting the needs of the environment.
For more information on alternative water supplies, please visit www.sfwmd.gov/AWS. >
WASHINGTON — 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.
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
Everglades restoration imperiled by monitoring program cuts, experts say
By Erika Bolstad | Miami Herald
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© 2011 Miami Herald Media Company. All Rights Reserved.
FY2012 Projects: Northern Everglades – Payment for Environmental Services
Alderman-Deloney Ranch, 147 acre-feet, Okeechobee County - Two culverts with riser structures installed in drainage ditches will retain water at a higher level in 322 acres of two natural isolated wetlands.
Buck Island Ranch, 1,573 acre-feet, Highlands County - Thirty-seven culverts with riser structures installed in drainage ditches will retain water in the ditches, pastures and wetlands of 3,748 acres of agriculturally improved pasture.
Dixie Ranch, 856 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Three water retention management areas in the Chandler Hammock Slough and Turkey Slough area will have stabilized water control structures to retain excess stormwater in on-site ditches and wetlands.
Dixie West, 315 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Two water retention management areas will have stabilized water control structures to retain excess stormwater in on- site ditches and wetlands.
Lightsey Cattle Company, XL Ranch, 887 acre-feet, Highlands County – Seventeen water control structures and 20 sheetpile ditch weirs will reduce runoff, increase water storage and maintain higher groundwater levels on adjacent pasture. The project will also incorporate an existing 580-acre reservoir into the total 765 acres of water management service area.
Lost Oak Ranch, 374 acre-feet, Polk County – Multiple, stabilized water control structures will retain stormwater on the ranch and reduce excess volumes of runoff reaching Lake Kissimmee.
Triple A Ranch, 397 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Construction of a 104.6-acre aboveground impoundment will provide additional on-site runoff retention.
Willaway Cattle & Sod, 229 acre-feet, Okeechobee County – Construction of a 60.1- acre aboveground impoundment will provide storage of excess runoff for later recycling as irrigation for sod.
For more information:
Just the Facts: Dispersed Water Management Program - http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xrepository/sfwmd_repository_pdf/jtf_...
List of the FY2012 Projects: Northern Everglades - http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xrepository/sfwmd_repository_pdf/pay_...
Northern Everglades and Estuaries Protection Program - http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20protecting%20and%20restoring/o...
Florida Ranchlands Environmental Services Project - http://www.fresp.org/
As part of my continuing series on Public-Private Partnerships as a way to creatively solve environmental and economic problems, I wanted to show you a picture of one in action! Storing water on ranches likes this one in Highlands County benefits both the ecosystem and the economy.
Also, if you haven't signed up to follow the South Florida Water Management District on Twitter, I highly recommend you do so: @SFWMD.
