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SWFL ENews:
Feb 15 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

ATV riders may be allowed to return to Picayune Strand
DIANNA SMITH /Naples Daily News /February 5, 200
The battle for land in Southern Golden Gate Estates continues, but state Rep. Mike Davis believes he can help end it. ...

Debate begins over value of habitat plans
By ERIC STAATS /Naples Daily News /February 15, 20
They're just three capital letters, but they could change the way Collier County preserves nature. County commissioners are set to talk about Habitat Conservation Plans, or HCPs, at a workshop today on how to protect endangered or threatened wildlife. ...

Study would help make wildlife crossings safer
By ERIC STAATS /Naples Daily News /February 5, 200
Transportation officials for the state and Collier County say they are open to making wildlife crossings part of their road-widening plans. "It's just exciting that everybody's coming to the table to talk about it," said Nancy Payton, ...

Park rangers ban airboats from preserve
Staff /NBC2 News /February 01, 20
The Big Cypress National Preserve will be off limits to airboats next week, two months earlier than usual. Park officials usually close the airboat trails in April, but because it is so dry, they are going to be closed February 7th. ...

Swamp owner who refused sale for Everglades project gets 60 days to prepare cas e
ROBERTO SANTIAGO /Miami Herald /Feb. 09, 2005
A court has ruled that a man who refused to sell his swamp land to the state for an Everglades restoration project can have 60 days to prepare for a hearing that will determine whether he can be forced off the property. ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Lee officials present case for Babcock land purchase
By JULIO OCHOAm /Naples Daily News /February 15, 20
It might be hard for some residents of Estero to understand how the proposed purchase of a huge piece of private property in northeast Lee and southeast Charlotte counties could benefit them. ...

Lee officials stress Babcock's value
DENISE L. SCOTT /The News-Press /Feb 15, 2005
Lee County officials told Estero residents on Monday that saving the Babcock Ranch is important to them even though most of the property lies in Charlotte County. ...

Commissioners to finance study for basin board for Lee County
By CHAD GILLIS /Naples Daily News /February 16, 20
The effort to establish a basin board for Lee County or possibly expand the Big Cypress Basin in Collier County to the Fort Myers area is again in the works as county leaders voted Tuesday to finance a feasibility study. Lee County commissioners voted unanimously to have the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council consider the economic and political pros and cons of having a basin board for L ...

Study blames Estero Bay decline on development
CHAD GILLIS /Naples Daily News /February 6, 200
It's been more than a decade since the Florida scrub jay became extinct in the Estero Bay watershed. Wading bird and brown pelican rookeries are on the decline, as is overall water quality and commercial fishing success. The state's first designated aquatic preserve is decaying, and scientists don't expect that downward trend to slow, let alone stop, anytime soon. ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

A desire for land draws line in sand
NEGRETE AND MORGAN /Miami Herald /Feb. 09, 2005
Florida City's designs on a large swath of South Miami-Dade wetlands prompted an outpouring of concern Tuesday from environmental groups, neighboring Monroe County and two federal agencies who warned county commissioners that a boundary change could lead to damaging overdevelopment. ...

Heaven and hell in the Everglades
Alan Farago /orlandosentinel /February 1, 200
ASR represents nearly three-quarters of the new water promised from the Everglades restoration project, but it will take a decade or more to know whether ASR will even work. In the meantime, the only feasible contingency, using the sugar fields in the Everglades Agricultural Area for surface water storage, could be lost -- I note, will be lost -- to bulldozers, builder associations and campaign co ...

Florida water managers agree to strategy for land acquisition plan
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /February 9, 200
faced with rapidly rising land costs and a lack of funding from President Bush's latest budget, water managers on Tuesday agreed to a land acquisition plan that doesn't include a major element of local Everglades restoration efforts. ...

Officials tell water panel to buy land to aid 'Glades
Suzanne Wentley /sun-sentinel /February 10, 20
The Martin County Commission pleaded with state water managers on Wednesday to continue buying preserve land as part of the local Everglades restoration. ...

President's budget supports Everglades, hurricane tax break
William E. Gibson /sun-sentinel /February 8, 200
President Bush proposed a relatively tightfisted federal budget on Monday that would slash 150 programs and boost defense spending, while favoring the Everglades and hurricane victims in the influential state of Florida. ...

Scientists want moth to eat ferns
Suzanne Wentley /sun-sentinel /February 13, 20
Without limiting factors like the moth, lygodium spread rapidly, from a few patches in 1973 to 10,000 acres throughout Florida in the mid-1990s, to 110,000 acres in 2000. ...



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