Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 6-5-09

FEATURED STORIES

Crist signs growth bill, sells Florida down the river
By Howard Troxler
St. Petersburg Times
In the defining moment of his career Monday, Gov. Charlie Crist sold the state of Florida right down the river.

Bailing Out the Land Speculators
By Alan Farago
Counterpunch
As Democrats approach a filibuster proof US Senate, every race will be a heated battle. In 2010 one of the key contests will be in Florida where a governor perceived to be moderate, Charlie Crist, is locked in a primary against the former House Speaker in the Florida legislature, Marco Rubio.

Group looks to bring drilling vote to ballot
By Michael Peltier
The News Service of Florida via FloridaEnvironments.com
With efforts stalled over whether to allow drilling off Florida's Gulf Coast, the fight may go directly to Florida voters.

FWC sets June 17-18 meeting in Crystal River
Press Release
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
Take action: Email turtles@myfwc.com and urge support for the freshwater turtle ban.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will meet at the Plantation Inn in Crystal River June 17-18. FWC meetings are open to public participation.

What next for Florida's springs after bill dies?
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Former state biologist Jim Stevenson said he recently asked a teenager who had grown up in Tallahassee if he'd ever been to Wakulla Springs.


Editorial cartoon by Andy Marlette, Pensacola News Journal

MORE GREEN NEWS

River pipe postponed until dioxin level drops
By Peter Guinta
St. Augustine Record
Georgia-Pacific's paper plant in Palatka will not be allowed to build its proposed new 40-million-gallons-per-day pipeline into the middle of the St. Johns River until the company lowers its discharge of dioxin, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection said Monday.

New jobs or healthy river: Which is more important?
By Ron Littlepage
Florida Times-Union
I'm fearful that we will soon face a classic confrontation - the health of the St. Johns River vs. jobs.

Crist Environmental Enforcement Initiative Fizzles
Press Release
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
The Crist administration's touted 2007 pledge to toughen anti-pollution enforcement in Florida has been a failure, according to an analysis of state enforcement statistics released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Judges: South Florida water managers did not violate Clean Water Act
The Associated Press
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Related: Earthjustice criticizes Okeechobee reversal
A federal appeals court has reversed a Miami judge's ruling that Florida water managers violated the Clean Water Act by pumping contaminated water from farmland into Lake Okeechobee.

Zoning Commission gives nod to expanding rock mining in Everglades
By Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Rock mining would claim more former Everglades land under a development plan endorsed by the Palm Beach County Zoning Commission on Thursday.

Progress Energy warms up to solar energy
By Robert Trigaux
St. Petersburg Times
Hard to believe, but the electric company that once routinely panned solar power as too expensive and inefficient is about to introduce a whole bunch of new solar initiatives for its customers and eventually market it all here under a brand name called SunSense.

What we think: Kill destructive water bill
Editorial
Orlando Sentinel
It's a tough slog getting water managers today to meet or even think about meeting their responsibility to safeguard Florida's water supply.

MORE SB 360 NEWS

Taxpayers will feel the cost of sprawl
By Charles Pattison
Tallahassee Democrat
This year's growth management bill, SB 360, was opposed by most of the leading newspapers and conservation, planning and advocacy organizations, including 1000 Friends of Florida, the Florida League of Cities and the Florida Association of Counties. The governor signed the bill Monday afternoon, despite many requests to veto it.

Crist's environmental record hurt by growth legislation, critics say
By William March
Tampa Tribune
Reader poll: Is the governor still green?
Gov. Charlie Crist's long-standing reputation as an environmentalist could take a hit because of his signing this week of a controversial bill on growth management.

Gov. Crist changes his colors
By Mark Lane
Daytona Beach News-Jouranl
Gov. Charlie Crist has worked hard to get out from under his party's image as reflexively anti-environment. Until this week, it kind of worked.

Great news for developers, not so good to everyone else
By Ron Littlepage
Florida Times-Union
Legend has it that Juan Ponce de Leon came to Florida looking for the Fountain of Youth.

Home building and construction is to Florida as opium production is to Afghanistan
By Gimleteye
Eye On Miami
Opium production is 60 percent of the economy of Afghanistan.

Crist's environmental image takes a hit
By Beth Reinhard
Miami Herald
Gov. Charlie Crist waited until 5:05 p.m. tonight to quietly send out a press release saying he had signed a "growth management'' bill that environmentalists say will result in worsening sprawl.

Crist refuels the bulldozers
By Kenric Ward
TC Palm
Gov. Charlie Crist cleared the way for developers by signing Senate Bill 360. Watch out, Treasure Coast.

Governor Gridlock
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
Gov. Charlie Crist just made it easier to pave over what's left of Florida.

Reckless rollback
Editorial
Florida Today
Brevard County residents, you've just been had. And you can thank Gov. Charlie Crist and Republicans in the state Legislature for guaranteeing that you'll get stuck with the bill for more urban sprawl and traffic gridlock when growth returns to Florida.

Gov. Charlie Crist made a bad call on growth limits
Editorial
Miami Herald
A new growth-management law signed by Gov. Charlie Crist this week broadly redefines ''dense urban land areas'' as land with less than one home per acre.

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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Florida environmental and wildlife news for the week ending 4-17-09

FEATURED STORIES

State decides to ban freshwater turtle harvesting
By Craig Pittman
St. Petersburg Times
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission press release
Humane Society of the United States press release
Center for Biological Diversity press release
The state's wildlife agency voted unanimously today to ban the harvest of freshwater turtles throughout Florida, the strongest such ban in the nation.

Senate includes Florida Forever funding
By Bruce Ritchie
FloridaEnvironments.com
Contact your legislators in support of Florida Forever via Progress Florida’s online action
Support the Florida Forever Coalition
Sen. Carey Baker and Sen. Al Lawson have found a way to put money in the budget for the Florida Forever land-buying program and appear to have the blessing of Sen. JD Alexander, the chamber's top budget writer.

Groups sue federal government over sea turtles
By Brian Skoloff
Associated Press
Earthjustice press release
Center for Biological Diversity press release
Palm Beach Post editorial
A half dozen conservation groups sued the federal government on Wednesday, claiming the agency that oversees the Gulf of Mexico fishery is violating the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect threatened sea turtles.

State rethinking growth laws
By Jim Saunders
Daytona Beach News-Journal
When lawmakers made major changes to Florida's growth-management system in 2005, the state was awash in development.

The state of sunshine
By Asjylyn Loder
St. Petersburg Times
Solar power in the Sunshine State has exploded in the past three years, providing millions of dollars in new projects and hundreds of jobs even as most of Florida's economy withered.

Renewable Power Needed, Not Nuclear
By Michael Dobson
Lakeland Ledger
Florida has a chance to lead, but not today.


Florida soft shell turtle in the Everglades

MORE GREEN NEWS

FWC concludes 2-day meeting in Tallahassee
Press Release
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission
Related: Peregrine falcon rules, controversy coming
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) wrapped up its two-day session Thursday, April 16, in Tallahassee.


Peregrine falcon

Monkeys in paradise
By Rick Folstad
Tampa Tribune
There's a small monkey staring at us from the trunk of a dead tree.

5 lawmakers ask Pres. Obama to protect panthers
Associated Press
Miami Herald
Five members of Congress have asked President Obama to protect the Florida panther.

Dry skies have water managers running low on options to protect faucets
By Paul Quinlan
Palm Beach Post
An unprecedented shortage of rain has water and utility managers pondering how to weather what could soon go down as South Florida's worst dry season ever recorded.

This plan helps politicians, does little for River of Grass
By Dexter W. Lehtinen
Orlando Sentinel
After his first and second new "visions" for Everglades restoration collapsed, Gov. Charlie Crist announced a third ill-conceived idea for buying U.S. Sugar Corp. land.

Rundown of Environmental Issues We Are Facing
By Geniusofdespair
Eye On Miami
Here is a quick rundown of what we are facing on the environmental front.

Call on Your Legislator to Pass Clean Car Laws Now
Audubon of Florida News
The Legislature is holding hostage bills that would adopt emissions standards for cars and light trucks to reduce the greenhouse gases.

Solving the energy crisis and ending bailouts- for real!
By Chris Hrabovsky
Creative Loafing
The truth is, “bailouts”, are not just limited to Wall Street thieves. Energy Companies like Progress Energy have been granted a “pre-emptive bailout”, for a boondoggle that hasn’t even been built yet

New Martin growth push is on
By Sally Swartz
Palm Beach Post
The latest push for more development in Martin County started on March 20, a Friday, when an inch-thick packet hit county commissioners' desks.

Alarming number of sea turtles wash ashore
By Caren Burmeister
Florida Times-Union
Dead and sick sea turtles are washing up on beaches at roughly three times the normal rate from Duval to Brevard County, and biologists don't know why.

Digging below the surface
Editorial
TC Palm
Call it the dumbing down of "environmental protection."

Growth 'solution' still a problem
Editorial
St. Petersburg Times
As the legislative session heads into its final two weeks, the most egregious efforts to dismantle growth management, wipe out impact fees and kill the state's planning agency may be fading.


Loggerhead sea turtle

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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Save Florida's Freshwater Turtles

From Audubon of Florida:
State Requests Public Input on Florida’s Freshwater Turtle Harvest

Turtle experts and conservationists are concerned about the status of Florida’s freshwater turtles, in light of recent reports of unusually large freshwater turtle harvests and a growing demand for wild-caught turtles as food and pets. Many of these turtles are slow-growing, slow to reach sexual maturity, and relatively easy to harvest. As a result, large harvests of adult turtles could have devastating, long-lasting population effects.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has implemented stopgap harvest limits while it develops a comprehensive management strategy for these turtles. Some turtle experts, however, have raised concerns that these restrictions will not be sufficient to protect Florida’s freshwater turtles from overharvest. Little data exists on the magnitude and geographic distribution of the current harvest. Accordingly, FWC is asking the public for reports or evidence of harvests across Florida.

At its Jacksonville meeting in September, the FWC limited the harvest of wild Florida freshwater turtles to five per day per person. Each fisherman with a commercial license will be allowed to harvest an additional 15 Florida softshell turtles per day, for a total of 20 per day.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
FWC will collect information from turtle experts, fishermen, and concerned residents regarding a long-term plan for the harvest of freshwater turtles at a meeting from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday, November 20 at the Tampa Port Authority Board Room, 1101 Channelside Dr. in Tampa. If you have information about freshwater turtle harvests in Florida, please share your observations with FWC at this meeting, or by email to bill.turner@myfwc.com.

RELATED NEWS STORIES
China gobbling up Florida turtles
A rising demand in China for turtles for food and medicine has led to the round-up of thousands of turtles from Florida's lakes, ponds and canals.
St. Petersburg Times
October 6, 2008
Florida Turtle Market
China’s insatiable demand for turtles is prompting hunters to trap tens of thousands in Florida and export them to Asian markets.
Associated Press
WMBB News Panama City
October 6, 2008
Turtle hunters face new limits
Those with a taste for turtles can only harvest five native Florida freshwater turtles per day. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission passed the new turtle harvest limit Wednesday during its regular meeting in Jacksonville.
Florida Today
September 18, 2008

MORE INFO AND WAYS TO HELP
Support the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust and click here to read their September 29th press release.
Support The Lake Jackson Ecopassage.
Support The Gopher Tortoise Council.
Check out the Center for Biological Diversity report: Unsustainable Commercial Harvest of Southern Freshwater Turtles.

 
 
 Wildwood Preservation Society is part of the Florida Endangered Species Network.

Wildwood Preservation Society is a non-profit 501(c)(4) project of the Advocacy Consortium for the Common Good. View/subscribe to our blog here.

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