Environmental Intersection by George Lindemann

Ken Salazar to Rick Scott: Everglades plan doesn't go far enough, fast enough @miamiherald

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... in @pbpost by @christinestaple #Everglades

@SFWMD, though short on cash, renews farmer leases without competitive bidding

By CHRISTINE STAPLETON

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.

SFWMD Invests in Alternative Water Supply Projects

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:

	Entity	Project	Water Made Available (Million Gallons Per Day)

Town of Davie Reclaimed Water Facility Phase II-B 3.5*
Palm Beach County Water Lake Region Water Treatment Plant 1.3 Utilities Floridan Wellfield Improvements
City of LaBelle Reverse Osmosis Water Treatment 1.5 Plant, Phase 1A

*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. >

Dispute over northern #Everglades area pits environmentalists and sports enthusiasts against each other @TCPalm

Can't we all just get along....

WASHINGTON — A dispute over what should happen to 150,000 acres of the northern Everglades pitted environmentalists and sports enthusiasts against each other at a House subcommittee hearing Thursday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hasn't said which 150,000 acres it wants for the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge. The agency says the proposal will improve the quality and quantity of water and protect wildlife. Those opposed to the plan worry about public access to the land.

"These areas need to be open. They need to be open to recreations," Jorge P. Gutierrez, president of the Everglades Coordinating Council, told the House Fisheries, Wildlife, Oceans and Insular Affairs subcommittee.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would purchase easements to protect 100,000 acres from future development. The land would remain privately owned. The agency would buy 50,000 acres to create a refuge open to visitors for recreational activities, including hunting and boating.

Some witnesses worried about not being able to hunt and boat on the 100,000 acres that would remain under private ownership.

"Air boaters are unique individuals, and we don't really appreciate land being locked up," Bishop Wright Jr., president of the Florida Airboat Association, said. "There are no airboats for public use in refuges."

Mark J. Masaus, deputy regional director for Region 4 of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said officials are meeting with hunters to hear their suggestions about the project.

Some committee members questioned how the proposal would be funded. The government plans to use money from offshore oil and gas revenues.

The project would take several years to complete and cost about $450,000 annually to maintain and operate.

Rep. John Fleming, R-La., the subcommittee chairman, said it would cost $700 million to buy the easements and land, a figure others said was merely an estimate.

"What the service fails to tell the American people is how many thousands of new jobs will be lost by locking up this land to no development in the future," Fleming said.

via m.tcpalm.com

Watering Limits Lifted @sfwmd by @cmorganherald in @miamiherald #water #okeechobee

Just because its legal to water now doesn't mean we are out of the woods yet nor should we abuse the ability and privilege to water...

Posted on Thursday, 11.10.11

By CURTIS MORGAN

Water managers pronounced the drought officially dead on Thursday, lifting water restrictions for most of South Florida.

With torrential rains last month largely erasing most of the lingering deficits from what had been a record-setting dry spell, the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board on Thursday voted to drop irrigation limits placed on homes, farmers and golf courses across much of the region.

They will stay in place, however, in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, which have both adopted permanent twice-weekly watering rules.

#Everglades projects face cuts; Programs for monitoring the frail @christinestaple @pbPost

by CHRISTINE STAPLETON on 10/27/11

The monitoring programs that reveal how Everglades restoration plans are working, or not, will probably be slashed by 60 percent overall, leaving gaping holes in programs that predict algal blooms, monitor pollution, provide real-time water level data and assess the survival rates of endangered species.

Gone are programs that monitor the well-being of alligators, crocodiles and pink shrimp, indicator species that reveal the health of the ecosystem.

Cuts to wading bird monitoring in Lake Okeechobee will leave scientists unable to predict the start, peak and end of nesting season -- benchmarks needed to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restoration efforts and wildlife.

"The Everglades and Lake Okeechobee are like patients in an emergency room," said Paul Gray, Audubon of Florida's science coordinator for Lake Okeechobee watershed programs. "If you have a patient in the emergency room, the last thing you want to do is shut off all the monitoring equipment."

The proposed cuts by federal, state and other agencies will be discussed today at a meeting of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.

Monitoring restoration efforts is the keystone of "adaptive management," which governs Everglades restoration projects. "Adaptive management" lets decision-makers customize projects based on what has worked and what did not.

"Adaptive management is totally dependent on data," said John Marshall, chairman of the Florida Environmental Institute.

Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, named for Marshall's uncle, covers 147,000 acres of remnant northern Everglades habitat, west of urban neighborhoods in Palm Beach County. A 56 percent cut in aerial monitoring of Everglades plant growth and water depth will eliminate vegetation sampling in the refuge.

That could cause problems in monitoring the spread of invasive plants, Marshall said. The Old World climbing fern, which smothers native vegetation, infests tens of thousands of acres there.

"Without monitoring, how can you make a decision on what is producing the best results?" Marshall said.

Also hard hit are programs that monitor oysters, barometers of estuary health, in the Lake Worth Lagoon, Loxahatchee River and St. Lucie estuary.

Oysters cannot move out of pollution's way, giving researchers valuable data on water quality. The data are also used to schedule releases of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee.

"Do you do quarterly monitoring? Would that be good enough?" said John Scarpa, research professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University.

He calls oysters the "canary in the coal mine" for gauging the success of restoration programs.

"We still need to do something," Scarpa said. "Is the restoration going to get done if we keep pulling the plug on certain projects?"

~christine_stapleton@pbpost.com

Copyright 2011

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

FL Supreme @FLCourts Sides w/ @FL_Audubon+@SFWMD on Wetlands Mitigation Case #Eco #Everglades @AllEverglades

Florida Supreme Court Sides With Audubon on Wetlands Mitigation Case

Posted on November 4, 2011 by Florida Audubon

The Supreme Court of Florida last Thursday ruled in favor of the position advocated by Audubon of Florida that continues to support state agencies’ ability to negotiate terms of development permits to ensure they protect the environment.

Coy A. Koontz applied for a permit with the St. Johns Water Management District (District) to develop 3.7 acres of his property that was comprised mostly of wetlands. The District offered to grant the permit to Mr. Koontz only if he complied with certain conditions to conserve property and mitigate the loss of wetlands by improving other wetlands off site.

Wetlands by Chad Johnson

Mr. Koontz refused to comply with the District’s conditions and his permit was not granted. Subsequently, he sued the District, claiming the District had “taken” his property during the time the negotiations continued without a resolution. The Supreme Court reversed a previous decision that ordered the District to pay Mr. Koontz over $300,000.

Audubon filed a brief supporting the District and requiring that the fine be reversed- this reversal was unanimously supported by the Supreme Court Justices (although they reached the same conclusion for a number of different reasons.)

Audubon’s support for the District’s case stemmed from recognizing the importance of allowing water management districts and other state agencies to negotiate terms before issuing a permit without fear that they could face financial repercussions if an agreement is not reached quickly enough.

Audubon applauded the Florida Supreme Court’s decision that gives agencies greater power to require specific protections when wetlands are developed, as they did with Mr. Koontz. This decision will prevent the agencies from being pressured into issuing permits hastily that could harm Florida’s wetlands and environment.

Audubon’s intervention in this case was facilitated by the late Thom Rumberger, and the firm of Rumberger Kirk and Caldwell, who have done much very important legal work for Audubon. Tallahassee attorney Anna Upton also was instrumental in the preparation of Audubon’s brief before the Supreme Court.

Charles Lee @FL_Audubon: #Everglades Headwaters proposal critical to future success @TCPalm @AllEverglades

Your Sept. 27 editorial, "New wildlife refuge and conservation area north of Lake Okeechobee may be great idea, but what are state's priorities?" regarding the Everglades Headwaters Refuge and Conservation Area makes a good point when it says "Maybe it's time to prioritize the most important Everglades restoration projects — and fund and complete them, in order, before launching new projects."

That is precisely why we think moving forward with the Everglades Headwaters Refuge and Conservation Area now is so important. The very first Everglades effort was the Kissimmee River Restoration, authorized by Congress almost 20 years ago in 1992. The Everglades Headwaters Refuge and Conservation Area proposal helps the long-awaited Kissimmee River Restoration project succeed by assuring that land surrounding the restored river will be maintained in conservation, and provide water storage and cleansing opportunities rather than slipping toward development.

The Everglades Headwaters proposal got its start in cooperative discussions with ranchers who were genuinely concerned that the marginal economics of ranching would soon put many ranches on the auction block. Enlisting ranchers as partners and compensating them for important environmental services keeps them in business, retains land on the tax rolls, and achieves restoration benefits at far less cost than traditional public works projects. The easements and selective land purchases that will result from the Headwaters proposal will be key building blocks in reaching those goals.

The editorial included some erroneous and outdated information about the Headwaters Refuge, and other aspects of Everglades Restoration.

First, the statement that "There is no money to pay for" the Headwaters Refuge and Conservation Area is not quite correct. Each year the Land and Water Conservation Fund set up by Congress receives hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from offshore oil and gas leases and royalties. In 2010, the LWCF received $450 million. These funds are available for National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area purchases if Congress allocates them to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This is how most modern refuge lands have been acquired, and how the Headwaters Refuge and Conservation Area can be funded.

Next, some of the editorial's information about Everglades Projects approved but not completed is outdated. For example, the 2009 Earth Magazine report cited said the Tamiami Trail Bridge Project has been "derailed by contentious politics "

Well guess what — if you go down to the Tamiami Trail today you will find that the bridge project is actually under construction and is rapidly nearing completion. Others projects nearing the finish line are the crucial C-111 restoration project and components of the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands in Miami Dade County likely to be finished by year's end. The Picayune Strand restoration project in Collier County is already producing pronounced benefits.

Yes, there have been engineering problems with some projects. The leaky Ten Mile Creek reservoir is an example. But no one ever suggested that Everglades restoration would be easy. Restoration of the Everglades is truly a pioneering project. Being a pioneer means making some mistakes and moving forward anyway through "adaptive management." When Congress authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project in 2000, directives to engage in adaptive management were specifically included just because these situations were wisely anticipated.

One of the things learned through "adaptive management" is that taking advantage of natural, low-tech opportunities to store and clean water is often a much more cost-effective way to proceed with Everglades Restoration. These are tried and true methods that we know will work.

That is where the Everglades Headwaters Refuge and Conservation Area proposal really shines. Because Everglades waters flow downstream from the Kissimmee River through Lake Okeechobee, the Headwaters proposal will deliver major benefits to the entirety of the Everglades and South Florida.

© 2011 TCPalm. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Comments » 2

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October 12, 2011

10:53 a.m.

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gladesman writes:

Here is a statement inside the quotation marks pasted from the recently released Environmental Assessment for the Headwaters.

"West Indian Manatee
Alternative C would likely do little to protect or conserve manatees. This is mainly because the
species is present 30 miles downstream of the southernmost Alternative C lands in the extreme lower
Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee. There may be some small water quality benefits by the
protection of 50,000 acres of land, and the 100,000-acre conservation easements, but there would be
other opportunities for water quality to be degraded after it leaves Alternative C lands an before it
reaches waters occupied by manatee"

I was complaining to a friend about the stupidity of transferring $700,000,000 dollars of wealth from those who buy oil products at inflated prices due to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. He said I was wrong when I cited the above excerpt from the US Fish and Wildlife Service's (USFWS) own documents to support my position. My friend said that in that excerpt they were only speaking about Manatees and not the project as a whole.
I explained to him that the Assessment in this paragraph at page 261 is referring to the 50,000 acre Refuge and the 100,000 acres of easements specifically in the 3rd sentence of the excerpt. That IS the whole project. They were being very clear IMO.
US Fish and Wildlife Service has documented "there may be some small water quality benefits" within the excerpt.
I simply do not believe small water benefits is enough of a bang for $700,000,000 million BUCKS for the 1st of 4 phases.
Oh I am sure supporters will come back and say USFWS has promised many other benefits like hunting and recreation will also result from Headwaters. The problem with that is the folks making the promises will not be there to keep them many years from now when needed. Locals in Florida know this from past experience with the Feds.

Although I eat beef and support the cowboy (Florida Cracker/Gladesmen) culture I will not swallow this mountain oyster raw or cooked.
I do fully understand any rancher in his right mind jumping on this bandwagon for the BIG bucks and I do not mean deer.
The author of this article is the same interesting fellow that attempted on behalf of Audubon to covertly invite State and US Dep't. of Interior officials to his office in Tallahassee to set up the transfer the Tamiami Trail (US41) segment through Big Cypress National Preserve to the Federal government. Luckily for the traveling public his attempt failed when the coup de ta of a State highway was exposed.

October 13, 2011

9:26 p.m.

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reality writes:

Thanks, Mr. Lee. I had been so depressed to read that the Taimiami bridge project wasn't even started. Thanks for correcting that misinformation. And to gladesman: Didn't the State of FL try to sell the Taimiami road to a private company to make it a tollroad, but luckily had no takers? Do you know one of the first things Boehner did when the Repubs retook the Majority, was to make the gasoline taxes available for purposes other than roads & bridges? The water absorbed by all these easements will benefit all creatures in FL, as it sinks into the acquifer, and prevents flooding.

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via tcpalm.com

From the very well respected Charles Lee of Audubon...

Rain's relief from drought expected to dry up quickly @alexseltzer @pbpost #Everglades

by SONJA ISGER

Last week's rains may have raised the level of Lake Okeechobee and saturated the ground, but in the long run they didn't do much for Palm Beach County, meteorologists say.

"It's like putting a Band-Aid on the wound but your wound hasn't healed and you take the Band-Aid off ... and you still have the wound," National Weather Service drought expert Barry Baxter said. "It's a short-term fix."

All rainy season, meteorologists said South Florida needed something like a slow-moving tropical storm to stall and dump water to help ease the drought. This week's low-pressure system may have been the closest thing to that, but it still fell short. Even with the dousing, areas in Palm Beach County are running rainfall deficits of about 13 inches.

Yet the rains helped. Broward and Miami-Dade counties got between 5 and 7 inches. Palm Beach County received about 2 to 4. Martin and St. Lucie counties saw around 4 inches.

Now come cooler weather. Today's high will be about 77 with a low of 56. Temperatures will rise Sunday to the mid-80s. The weekend is forecast to be mostly sunny.

While severe weather -- including tornadoes, gales and flooding - - was predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday, Palm Beach County was spared.

A tornado came down on the border of Sunrise and Plantation in Broward County Tuesday at about 10 p.m., the National Weather Service confirmed. Fire-rescue officials reported that the tornado packed winds between 111 and 135 mph and damaged 15 to 20 homes. Three people suffered minor injuries, but no one was taken to the hospital.

To the north, rescue crews in Martin County were dispatched to Indiantown near State Road 609 at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. They found a home with "moderate damage," a barn that was completely destroyed and the nearby VFW lodge with a collapsed exterior wall and missing roof.

The rains helped raise Lake Okeechobee to 12.29 feet above sea level, still 1.47 feet below normal but 3.23 inches above what it was last week, officials with the South Florida Water Management District said.

The Kissimmee region basins received 0.50 inches of rain from the storms.

The rain brought South Florida to the lowest drought level -- abnormally dry -- on the U.S. Drought Monitor, Baxter said. But that could change quickly, Baxter said, as meteorologists are forecasting this year's La Nina could be stronger than last year, bringing drier conditions.

"We got some water back in our reserve tanks, but it's not enough to get us through the dry season again," Baxter said.

~ alexandra_seltzer@pbpost.com

~ sonja_isger@pbpost.com

Mixed reception in Washington for Everglades refuge

The proposed federal refuge north of Lake Okeechobee, which calls for putting some 100,000 of pasture land under permanent conservation and buying another 50,000, is touted as way to preserve both wildlife and ranches

BY CURTIS MORGAN

CMORGAN@MIAMIHERALD.COM

A proposed wildlife refuge north of Lake Okeechobee that is a big piece of the Obama administration’s shifting Everglades restoration strategy got a mixed reception Thursday on Capitol Hill.

Environmentalists and ranchers extolled the plan to purchase conservation easements on some 100,000 acres of pasture and buy another 50,000 acres outright, saying it would protect wildlife, wild lands and the water supply along with a way of life under increasing pressure from development.

“We have an opportunity now to stop urban sprawl and stop this part of Florida from going the way of other parts of the state,’’ Rick Dantzler, a former state senator from Winter Haven and co-chairman of the pro-refuge North Everglades Alliance, told a U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources subcommittee.

But hunters said they feared the plan would shut them out of most of the proposed Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area. Several lawmakers questioned pursuing a $700 million plan when the government is gushing red ink and a slew of projects in the existing $14 billion Everglades restoration plan remain stalled and unfunded.

John Fleming, a Republican congressman from Louisiana who chaired the hearing, argued that the refuge would divert money from more important Everglades projects south of the lake — a view echoed by one Florida congressman on the subcommittee, Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Panama City.

Southerland noted that the U.S. Interior Department had relied on public input to shape the refuge proposal but “unfortunately it seems to me that it’s not shaped by the brutal reality that we are broke.’’

Lawmakers also expressed concerns that the White House was moving forward on the refuge without congressional authorization. That’s because Interior has administrative power to create refuges and intends to bankroll land and easement buys through its Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is supported by annual royalties for leases on offshore oil and gas drilling.

Rep. David Rivera, a Miami Republican whose district includes Everglades National Park, talked about how critical a healthy ecosystem is to South Florida’s water supply and said he generally supported the refuge proposal. But he also pressed Interior to draft legislation that would give lawmakers more say and offer firm assurance that the refuge would be open to hunting use and for access by state water managers.

The administration proposed the refuge, which would extend from southwest Osceola County down to Lake Okeechobee, early this year, pitching it as a softer, less expensive approach to Glades restoration.

Supporters say it would call for relatively little expensive infrastructure, leave two-thirds of the land in private hands and open at least 50,000 acres to hunting. Only land owned by willing sellers would be targeted for purchase.

The areas targeted for conservation are a mosaic of habitats — such as pinelands, wetlands, prairies and scrub — that support 98 threatened and endangered species, including the Florida black bear, panther and scrub jay. The land is also critical to South Florida’s drinking water supply.

Supporters acknowledged the refuge would likely only have “marginal” water quality benefits, slowing down and filtering pollutants before they flow from farms and suburbs into Lake Okeechobee. But they said the open lands could be used to expand water storage essential to the lake, Everglades and farmers.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is also bankrolling Everglades conservation easements, this year spending $100 million to acquire development rights to some 24,000 acres in four counties around Lake Okeechobee. Last year, the USDA paid $89 million to acquire development rights for another 26,000 acres.

Jo-Ellen Darcy, an assistant secretary of the Army who oversees the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the refuge proposal was just one of several encouraging signs for restoration.

Federal agencies also announced an overhaul of plans last week intended to speed up work to revive water flow to the parched River of Grass, which came on the heels of a pledge of support from Florida Gov. Rick Scott to deal with persistent water pollution problems.

“We’re both in tight budget situations but we are both committed to this restoration effort,” she said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended public comment on the proposal until Nov. 25. A final decision on the plan is not expected until next year and it could take years to purchase easements and land.