Speaker Rubio holding Everglades funding hostage -- take action!

From Audubon of Florida
Will Everglades Be a Loser in the Budget Deal?

House Speaker Marco Rubio appears to be holding Everglades funding hostage, but it is not clear why. Only $6 million is required as a down payment to issue $100 million in bonds. With most other budget issues resolved at the committee level, it is up to the presiding officers to decide whether the Everglades will get state money this year. The Governor’s proposal of $200 million to fund both the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee cleanup is long gone. Now we are hoping for just half that split between the two programs.

Why is Everglades Spending So Important?

$50 million of the Everglades money would be programmed for the C-111 project to help freshwater flows into Florida Bay. Florida Bay is a critical part of the Everglades ecosystem and is experiencing a historic algae bloom related to the lack of seasonal freshwater.

The other $50 million will go to Lake Okeechobee and its estuaries. Lake Okeechobee is also experiencing a horrible algae bloom. Lake Okeechobee is heavily polluted from upstream runoff. The Northern Everglades plan presented to the Legislature this year accelerates the process of getting nutrient pollution out of the Lake. The cleanup cannot proceed without state funds.



TAKE ACTION
Please send an email to Speaker Rubio at speaker@myfloridahouse.gov and ask him to fund the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee. If you have already written, write again or call him at 850-488-1850. The Speaker needs to know that the Everglades is still important to Floridians. Write today. In your email to the Speaker, please attach the map and photos included here to demonstrate the severity of the situation and the need for state funding. Feel free to use the following as a template for your letter.

Dear Speaker Rubio:
It is time to resolve the issue of Everglades Funding. Without at least $100 million in bonded funds this year two vital projects will not continue. Ending the algae blooms in Florida Bay and Lake Okeechobee are urgent priorities. Both are important fisheries and tourist destinations and harbor endangered wildlife. Please restore funding for the Everglades in the budget.

Sincerely,

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

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'Endangered' label for St. Johns an embarrassment to this state

'Endangered' label for St. Johns an embarrassment to this state
By David Guest
Daytona Beach News-Journal
April 25, 2008

The environmental group American Rivers has named the St. Johns River as one of the top 10 endangered rivers in the United States. This is embarrassing for a state that's struggling to be seen as an environmental leader. It's doubly embarrassing because the reason that the St. Johns is considered endangered is simply because of bad politics.

How bad? Florida water managers are considering a ridiculous plan to build the largest pipeline in the state to suck water out of the St. Johns and send it to fuel more Orlando sprawl. Never mind that this type of water transfer has proven to be an environmental disaster in other parts of the world.

Never mind that Central Florida is so historically wet that Walt Disney had to drain the land 40 years ago to develop Disney World. Developers, and their friends in government, want to build even more sprinkler-guzzling lawns and golf courses, and they insist they can't provide as much future water as they need.

So now, taxpayer dollars are being used to decide whether Seminole County, Orlando/Orange County's next-door neighbor, should be granted a permit to pump 5.5 million gallons daily from the river. It is the first step in a larger plan to pump as much as a quarter-billion gallons daily from the St. Johns and its tributary, the Ocklawaha.

"Imagine the Empire State Building flooded nearly to its trademark lightning rod," David Hunt wrote in the Florida Times-Union, when the plan was announced. "That's about how much water the St. Johns River could lose each day under plans to quench a thirsty Central Florida."

It is worth noting that the St. Johns is so revered that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency designated it years ago as one of 14 American Heritage Rivers worthy of special attention from the federal government. Why mess with a good thing?

Florida is a naturally soggy place with plenty of water. But we have to work smarter to make sure water is available at the right places and times. That doesn't mean sucking your place dry then sticking your straw in your neighbor's river when your water runs low.

The solution is common sense: If your water is low, conserve it and stop adding new taps for a while.

Water conservation should always be our first choice, and we have plenty of examples elsewhere to guide us. Even with measures like odd-even-day watering, Floridians use 160 gallons of water per person per day, six gallons per person more than the national average. California uses a third of that. We know that most of our water is lost to water-intensive landscaping and agriculture. Both problems have readily available fixes. Using drought-tolerant landscape plants and installing efficient landscape irrigation is one place to start.

Florida agricultural corporations are major guzzlers, using half the water in the state. But many still use inefficient flood irrigation. Agricultural operations should be using drip irrigation, which has been used elsewhere for more than 30 years, and cuts water usage by 50 to 80 percent. (Plastic tubing with small holes delivers water near the plant's roots, with little waste.) These and other widely used water conservation solutions are available right now. All it takes is political will.

The other preposterous scheme -- tapping the nationally renowned St. Johns River to feed more sprawl -- should get the boot.

Guest is an attorney for Earthjustice in Tallahassee. Earthjustice is a nonprofit organization dedicated to enforcing and strengthening environmental laws.


WAYS TO HELP
Click the picture below to visit and support St. Johns Riverkeeper:

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

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Protect Florida's Everglades from Development

From the National Wildlife Federation
Protect Florida's Everglades from Development

We need your help to protect the Western Everglades and a water flowway called the Cocohatchee Slough!

There are five development projects underway--including two massive golf course communities--which threaten to destroy an estimated 1,140 acres of wetlands, including critical foraging habitat for the wood stork, an endangered wading bird whose U.S. population has plummeted more than 75 percent over the past century.

These developments include...

Mirasol and Saturnia Falls (a.k.a. Terafina): These have been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. National Wildlife Federation (NWF) is currently mounting legal challenges to stop these two projects.

Parklands: Originally, this development was approved by the three agencies, but thanks to an NWF-led lawsuit as well as pressure from activists like you, they were forced to take another look at the project. Unfortunately, the revised permit application still doesn't provide adequate safeguards for wetlands, water quality and wildlife.

Urge Col. Paul L. Grosskruger of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Regional Administrator James Palmer of the Environmental Protection Agency and Southeast Regional Director Sam Hamilton of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to deny Parklands and re-think Mirasol, Saturnia Falls and the others.

Click here to stand up for Florida’s Everglades and the endangered wood stork!



Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

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Jeb: 'We need to kill' gators

Jeb: 'We need to kill' gators
Bradenton Herald
April 23, 2008

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Wednesday took a swipe at one of the state's most famous symbols, the alligator.

He told a group in Dallas of how he repeatedly vetoed spending state money to market alligator meat.

"Alligators proliferate in Florida. They eat small dogs," Bush said. "We don't need to market them, we need to kill them."

After a slight pause, he added, "Is this open to the press?"

Bush, the younger brother of President George W. Bush, made the comments during an address to several hundred business people meeting in a hotel ballroom. Earlier in the day, the former Florida governor met with other directors of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., the hospital chain whose board he joined last year.

Jeb Bush told the business groul that he is "light green" on the environment and is skeptical that humans are causing global warming.

Bush, whose two terms ended in 2007, also said he "can't imagine" running for national office and isn't interested in being Sen. John McCain's running mate.

The younger brother of President George W. Bush made the comments during an address to several hundred business people meeting in a hotel ballroom. Earlier in the day, the former Florida governor met with other directors of Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp., the hospital chain whose board he joined last year.

As governor, Bush, a Republican, was largely silent on global warming. His successor, Charlie Crist - who is often mentioned as a possible GOP running mate for McCain - has said Florida should become a leader in addressing climate change because its low elevation makes it vulnerable if ocean levels rise.

Bush said those who advocate action to limit climate change are acting out of something like religious zeal.

"I don't think our policies should be based on emotion; they should be based on sound science," he said.

Rather than reducing oil consumption, Bush said the United States should focus on "energy security" - reducing dependence on oil imported from hostile or politically unstable countries by encouraging alternative fuels.

Bush said he isn't thinking of running for national office and said he only wanted to be governor.

"I loved every minute of it, and when I finished, I finished," he said. "I don't have any burning ambitions" beyond his foundation, which advocates education testing.

Bush also predicted Democrats would find a way to seat Florida and Michigan delegations at their national convention this summer, and he took a swipe at Florida's alligators.

Bush told the Texas audience how he repeatedly vetoed spending state money to market alligator meat.



Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. Click here to learn more.

"it's all connected"