Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 8-7-09

FEATURED STORIES

Florida Bay's ecology on the brink of collapse
By Brian Skoloff
The Associated Press
Boat captain Tad Burke looks out over Florida Bay and sees an ecosystem that's dying as politicians, land owners and environmentalists bicker.

Pipeline Leak in Gulf: Oil Spills Do Happen
Staff Report
Lakeland Ledger
Some 63,000 gallons of crude leaked from a cracked oil pipeline 30 miles off the Louisiana coast late last month.

Chance at $2.3B a year spurs Florida politicos to rethink oil-rig opposition
By Aaron Deslatte
Orlando Sentinel
Congress is offering Florida potentially billions of dollars in royalties if the state bows to the growing clamor to expand oil and natural gas exploration in the Gulf of Mexico.

Both Major Candidates for Florida Governor Oppose Offshore Drilling (audio story)
By Tom Flanagan
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
Neither the Democratic nor Republican candidates for Florida governor seem impressed by the growing clamor for oil and gas drilling off the state's coast.

Charlie Crist cooling on climate change
By Marc Caputo
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Gov. Charlie Crist is cooling to global warming.

Judge to decide next step for U.S. Sugar land deal
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
Water managers once hoped their plan to borrow as much as $2.2 billion for Gov. Charlie Crist's land deal with U.S. Sugar would breeze through judicial approval, setting aside just three hours for the hearing seven months ago.

Study points to carbon-capture benefits of Florida public lands
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Florida's state parks, forests and other public lands some day could pay millions of dollars to the state annually for the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are captured and stored in plants and soils, according to a recent study.

Navy Does FL Right Whales a Wrong (includes audio)
By Glen Gardner
Public News Service Florida
Groups in Florida committed to protecting the North Atlantic right whale say the Navy has made an end run around environmental protections in announcing construction of its Undersea Warfare Training Range off the Florida and Georgia coasts.

DEP requests approval of Levy Co. nuke plan
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Take action: August 11th Tallahassee meeting info from Southern Alliance for Clean Energy
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is asking the governor and Cabinet to approve Progress Energy's site application to build a nuclear power plant on 3,105 acres in Levy County.


From nature coast to nuclear coast: groups working to oppose Progress Energy’s Levy County nuclear plant include Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the Green Party of Florida and NoNuke.org.

MORE GREEN NEWS

Burmese Python Hunt Extended
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Related: Governor visits FWC
The open season on Burmese pythons is being extended past its October 31st end date.

Neither Sink nor McCollum endorse Crist climate goals
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
With CFO Alex Sink and Attorney General Bill McCollum ahead early as the leading candidates for governor, neither is being specific on whether they would keep the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals put in place by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Clyde Butcher continues to capture mystique of the Everglades
By Jeff Klinkenberg
St. Petersburg Times
As much as I love Clyde Butcher's Everglades photographs, I think I love watching him take a photograph even more.

Panther killed on I-75
By Eric Staats
Naples News
A Florida panther was struck by a semitrailer and killed overnight near mile marker 90 on Interstate 75 in Collier County, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.

Brazen Young Panther Killed a Long Way From Home
By Lisa Rab
Broward New Times
​Males. When they're young and brash, trying to mark their territory and impress girls, there's no telling what they'll do. Run off to Georgia, even, and get themselves killed.

Rough year for turtle hatchlings
By Kate Spinner
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Dozens of sea turtle nests are hatching now, but street and residential lights are drawing hundreds of them away from the water, according Mote Marine Laboratory.

Anglers Divided Over New Florida License Program
By Damien Cave
New York Times
One of the few things Eddy Corea enjoys since being laid off 18 months ago is fishing from the shore.

Scientists searching for elusive largetooth sawfish
By Neil Johnson
Tampa Tribune
Scientists will spend the next three months looking for what may be a phantom with fins.

State parks feeling budget cuts
By Amanda Nalley
Tallahassee Democrat
Stabilizing the Lake Overstreet trails at Maclay Gardens State Park is high on the park's priority list for maintenance requests. The estimated cost: $30,000.

Experts reduce hurricane season forecast
By Eliot Kleinberg
Palm Beach Post
El Niño's emergence has led the Colorado State University team of William Gray and Phil Klotzbach to reduce their forecast for this hurricane season.

Dispute over Everglades funding finally settled
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
After eight years of bickering, the state and the federal government have finally shaken hands on how to split the massive bill to restore the Everglades.

Public needs a voice in land-use changes
By Daniel Shoer Roth
Miami Herald
The epic battle waged by Lowe's to build a superstore on land protected by Miami-Dade's Urban Development Boundary ended last week when Gov. Charlie Crist and the Florida Cabinet voted against the home-improvement chain.

The truth about Florida Hometown Democracy
By George Niemann
Hernando Today
The person on the street, pretty much anywhere in Florida, will attest to the fact that we all have seen the way we live change significantly as a result of Florida's booming growth.

Offshore drilling risks offset rewards
By Roland Loog
Gainesville Sun
Related editorial: Messy business
With our economy facing many challenges, offshore oil drilling has become an increasingly important topic for Floridians.

The Gulf and the 10th Amendment (audio story)
By James Call
WFSU Public Radio Tallahassee
Pressure is growing to allow drilling off Florida's Gulf coast.

Push back on drill push
Editorial
Palm Beach Post
The bill is labeled "The Domestic Energy Security Act of 2009," but the more accurate name would be "The Help Louisiana and Alaska at the Expense of Florida Act of 2009."

Nothing slick about spills
Editorial
Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Some 63,000 gallons of crude leaked from a cracked oil pipeline 30 miles off the Louisiana coast last weekend.

Keep Florida safe from offshore drilling
Editorial
Miami Herald
When the Florida House of Representatives this spring passed a bill to allow oil and gas drilling three miles off Florida's coast, Senate President Jeff Atwater called the measure ``dead in the water,'' and it went nowhere.


Endangered wood stork soaring above Fred George Basin, June 2009.

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"

Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 7-31-09

FEATURED STORIES

Report ranks Florida 9th in U.S. beachwater quality
By Kevin Barnard
Tampa Tribune
Click here to see how the NRDC report rates your beach.
Water quality at nine beaches in Hillsborough County failed to meet Florida's daily maximum bacterial standards during sampling in 2008, the Natural Resources Defense Council says in a national report released Wednesday.

Opposition squares off on growth amendment
By Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
Click here to visit Florida Hometown Democracy and learn more about Amendment 4.
City and county governments have treated growth-management plan changes "like Halloween candy" for developers and voters need a "veto," the head of a controversial constitutional-amendment campaign said Thursday.

Florida Cabinet thwarts plan to alter Miami-Dade development boundary
By Mary Ellen Klas
Miami Herald/St. Petersburg Times Tallahassee Bureau
Click here for the National Parks Conservation Association/Clean Water Action press release.
Gov. Charlie Crist and Cabinet members sent Miami-Dade and other urban counties a message Tuesday when they rejected the county's attempt to move the development line west to accommodate a Lowe's Superstore.

Pollution still feeding Gulf dead zone
By Kate Spinner
Sarasota Herald Tribune
The vast oxygen-starved dead zone in the northern Gulf of Mexico shrunk by more than half its typical size this year, but scientists see nothing to celebrate.

An Advocate’s Guide to Growth Management Advocacy After SB 360
Audubon of Florida
The Florida Legislature passed SB 360 in 2009, despite objections from environmental and growth management advocates.

An Advocate’s Guide to Navigating Permit Program Changes at Water Management Districts
Audubon of Florida
The Florida Legislature passed SB 2080 in 2009, changing the water management district (WMD) permit approval process, despite objections expressed by Audubon and the conservation community.

DEP requests approval of Levy Co. nuke plan
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is asking the governor and Cabinet to approve Progress Energy's site application to build a nuclear power plant on 3,105 acres in Levy County.

Supporters of drilling eyeing area off coast
By Lesley Clark
Miami Herald
Two senators from oil-producing states have introduced legislation that would bring oil drilling to within 45 miles of Florida's Gulf coast.


Coming to a beach near you? Gooey blobs of oil washed ashore on Texas beaches last week. The source has yet to be identified.

MORE GREEN NEWS

Ala. Governor Warns Utility on 3-State Water Feud
By Ben Evans
The Associated Press
Alabama Gov. Bob Riley is warning utility giant Southern Co. to stay out of the region's tri-state water war.

Postcard from The Everglades
By Tim Padgett
Time Magazine
This is the everglades that they put in brochures.

Study points to carbon-capture benefits of Florida public lands
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Florida's state parks, forests and other public lands some day could pay millions of dollars to the state annually for the carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are captured and stored in plants and soils, according to a recent study.

Powerful sides face off over Florida's power-saving plan
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
An energy conservation plan affecting millions of Floridians' electric bills is sparking a fight between big power companies and environmental activists.

FPL: State's growth calls for new gas pipeline
By Bill Cotterell
Tallahassee Democrat
Florida's population growth and economic prosperity will require a gas pipeline, angling down the peninsula from near the state line to south of the Space Coast, a Florida Power & Light Co. executive testified Monday.

Would Florida recycling plan raise local trash pickup costs?
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
For people to buy into recycling, maybe they need meters on their trash cans, a Florida agency says.

Cabinet to consider first "rural lands" purchase
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet on Tuesday will consider approving the purchase of a 690-acre conservation easement in Flagler County, the first purchase under a state program aimed at preserving agricultural lands.

Everglades restoration in danger from inland-port plan, groups say
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
The fight over where to build Florida's proposed "inland port" has Palm Beach County considering allowing more industrial development on former Everglades land, even if the coveted distribution center goes elsewhere.

Army Corps begins dumping Lake O water as drought turns to fears of a glut
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
The drought just ended last month, and already, fresh water is being emptied to sea.

Navy gets OK for Florida sonar range, but faces obstacles to use it
By Steve Patterson
Florida Times-Union
The Navy is finalizing plans to build a $100 million training range off Jacksonville's coast - but may be years from getting permission to use it.

Saving the sawfish
By Cindy Swirko
Gainesville Sun
George Burgess is so associated with sharks that he often can be seen explaining the beauty of the fearsome creatures during the Discovery Channel's annual Shark Week programming, the summertime favorite that begins Sunday.

At biofuel summit, Bronson says oil drilling is needed
By Keith Laing
News Service of Florida via FloridaEnvironments.com
Drilling for old-fashioned oil in near shore Florida waters should be part of the nation's energy diet, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Bronson said today at a conference about increasing the use of newer fuel types.

Crist declines to say how close is too close for oil drilling
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Gov. Charlie Crist this morning declined to say how close is too close for oil drilling off the Florida coastline.

Eric Draper on off-shore drilling (audio story)
By Mitch E. Perry
WMNF Community Radio Tampa
Eric Draper from the Florida Audubon Society is a candidate for the Democratic nomination for Agriculture Secretary next year.

Oil Fight Rages
By Whitney Ray
Capitol News Service
Legislation allowing oil drilling 45 miles off the coast of Florida is making waves in congress.

Area legislators, business owners oppose drilling
By Lee Logan
Bradenton Herald
Local legislators and business owners are worried the latest push to open Florida’s Gulf Coast to oil drilling might harm the environment and tourism industry.

Is the python hunt all hype? Scientists try to squeeze some truth into snake search
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
One week after a pet python escaped its terrarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in Sumter County, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson unfurled a 16-foot python skin at a congressional hearing and warned, "It's just a matter of time before one of these things gets to a visitor in the Florida Everglades."

Supporter, opponent of growth amendment sling mud in debate
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
A founder of a proposed state constitutional amendment on growth said during a debate today that supporters face "greedy" opponents, while a spokesman for an opposition group said the founder has shown people they can have any opinion "as long as it's her's."

People need veto power of Hometown Democracy
By John Hedrick
Tallahassee Democrat
Architect Steve Jernigan opposes the Hometown Democracy Amendment No. 4 to the Florida constitution, which will be on the Nov. 2, 2010, ballot.

There is no need to drill off Florida's Gulf Coast
Editorial
Pensacola News Journal
Why would senators from Alaska and Louisiana lead the latest congressional effort to end legislative protection for Florida's coastline from offshore drilling?

Time for Obama to squelch offshore drilling
Editorial
Bradenton Herald
Once again, we’re engulfed in a battle over drilling off Florida’s Gulf coast.


Endangered wood storks nesting in Fred George Basin, June 2009.

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"

Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 1-2-09

FEATURED STORIES

2009 a big year for the Everglades
By Kevin Lollar
Ft. Myers News-Press
By September, the South Florida Water Management District will know whether it is financially strong enough to borrow $1.34 billion so it can buy 180,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp.

Walton County restoration featured in "Wildlands Philanthropy" book
By Bruce Ritchie
Florida Environmental News
M.C. Davis said he'd forgotten the visit about six years ago by a photographer and author who interviewed him and took photographs of his property, about 48,000 acres in Walton County.

State report backs nuclear power as clean energy
By Christine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post
Florida's energy future should be "clean" - not just "renewable" - and include nuclear power as a source of green energy, according to recommendations from the staff of utility regulators released Wednesday.

Climate change increases problems for Florida reefs
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
The last, largest stands of ancient elkhorn coral survive in shallow waters off North Key Largo, where rough seas sometimes expose thick golden branches reaching toward the sunlit surface.

Asia appetite for turtles seen as a threat to Florida species
By Kim Christensen
Los Angeles Times
The turtle tank at Nam Hoa Fish Market is empty, but not to worry: The manager of this bustling Chinatown store says he has plenty in back.

Live softshell turtles from Florida are on sale at a fish market in Chinatown, Los Angeles.


MORE GREEN NEWS

Sugar deal renews hope for the Everglades
By Sara Fain
Tallahassee Democrat
In recent weeks, we've seen plenty of criticism about the details of the proposed purchase by the South Florida Water Management District of 181,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corp. land for the benefit of Everglades restoration.

Groups seek 'critical' habitat for manatees
By Jim Waymer
Florida Today
About a dozen popular manatee hangouts in Brevard County -- many in residential canals -- could be added to a federal habitat protection list if environmentalists get their way.

Climate change increases problems for Florida reefs
By Curtis Morgan
Miami Herald
The last, largest stands of ancient elkhorn coral survive in shallow waters off North Key Largo, where rough seas sometimes expose thick golden branches reaching toward the sunlit surface.

Florida's Sawfish Population In Sharp Decline
By Neil Johnson
Tampa Tribune
With its imposing size, prehistoric appearance and unique barbed snout, the sawfish once was a common sight in Florida waters, often hauled to docks as a trophy catch or dispatched by fishermen when nets ensnared the toothy bill.

Hometown Democracy vs. Smart Growth (includes video)
WJHG NBC News 7
Panama City
War is raging between two groups pushing controversial amendments for the 2010 ballot. Hometown Democracy and Smart Growth want to limit the power city and county governments have over new developments.

Right whale rescued
By Dinah Voyles Pulver
Daytona Beach News-Journal
State and federal officials rescued an endangered right whale off the northeast Florida coast during the weekend, successfully disentangling hundreds of feet of rope and fishing gear from the whale.

Shy, rich farmers thrust in spotlight as players in U.S. Sugar deal
By Susan Salisbury
Palm Beach Post
The buzz in the close-knit Florida grower crowd started in 2000: A wealthy Missouri farmer was buying groves. Lots of groves.

As some seek to cool their bills, energy savings debate between FPL, environmentalists boils
By John Dorschner
TC Palm
In all the complex discussions about how to combat global warming, Vicki Eckels does her small part in her Fort Lauderdale home: She sets her air conditioning thermostat at 85 degrees, has stuffed extra insulation into her roof and runs the water heater only 90 minutes a day.

Mine obstacle in U.S. Sugar deal
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
Gov. Charlie Crist's $1.34 billion bid to repair the Everglades by buying nearly all of U.S. Sugar Corp.'s farmland comes with a small demand that could lead to big headaches: Forget plans for a 7,000-acre rock mine on the property.





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"