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SWFL ENews:
Mar 24 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Guest commentary: My home, my heritage has no selling price
By JESSE HARDY /Naples Daily News /March 13, 2005
Many of you have heard my name. Numerous articles have been written about me, especially during the past few years, as different environmental agencies have tried to make their voices heard in protest of my property rights. ...

Offroad vehicle issue at Big Cypress not new to incoming superintendent
By ERIC STAATS /Naples Daily News /March 12, 2005
Karen Gustin is trading in snowmobiles and sandstone cliffs for swamp buggies and cypress sloughs. ...

Collier riders protest plans to site possible ATV park in Hendry County
By DIANNA SMITH /Naples Daily News /March 19, 2005
The search for land to satisfy off-road vehicle owners is leading some to Hendry County, where local officials plan to tour a site that could be the next play park for riders. ...

High water forces endangered birds from Corkscrew Swamp
By KEVIN LOLLAR /The News-Press /Mar 23, 2005
The dense and intense green of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary was interrupted only occasionally Tuesday by the red blur of a cardinal or motionless purple explosion of an iris. ...

Protect the panther
Opinion /Miami Herald /Mar. 24, 2005
The Florida panther is having enough trouble holding on to its habitat without flawed research from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that puts it in further peril. ...

FWS official: agency slow to fix faulty science
By ERIC STAATS /Naples Daily News /March 22, 2005
A top U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said Monday that the agency has been slow to fix faulty science it has used to pave the way for roads and homes in habitat for the endangered Florida panther in Southwest Florida. ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Farmers, ranchers may feel pressures of growth in rural Southwest Florida
CHARLIE WHITEHEAD /Naples Daily News /March 18, 2005
In recent weeks Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council planners have begun reviewing proposed growth management plan changes that would leave Glades and Hendry counties with seven or eight times the population that state prognosticators have predicted. ...

Lee may sue water managers over Okeechobee water releases
CHARLIE WHITEHEAD /Naples Daily News /March 16, 2005
Lee County commissioners say they need a plan of attack to deal with the South Florida Water Management District, one that could include suing the federal government. ...

Scientists: red tide not going away
By CHAD GILLIS /Naples Daily News /March 15, 2005
Toxic red tide outbreaks are getting more intense, longer in duration and seem to be fed by pollution flowing down some of the state's most protected estuaries. ...

Red tide blamed on upstream pollution
By PAM WITMER /The News-Press /Mar 15, 2005
A preliminary scientific study of the cause of red tide in Lee County traces a lot of the problem to sewage and dairy farms. ...

Recent rains provide some temporary relief for region
CHAD GILLIS /Naples Daily News /March 12, 2005
The Southwest Florida coast received a drenching dry-season rain this week, with some areas garnering 2 inches of precipitation during a time of year when even a trace of rain is considered a blessing. Weather experts and water management officials weren't expecting the recent system, and it looks as though the region's drought index is dropping while aquifer levels are rising. ...

Lee, state will conserve Estero Bay land
DENISE SCOTT /The News-Press /Mar 17, 2005
The Boomer property in Estero will soon become part of the 10,000-acre Estero Bay Buffer Preserve — at a bargain price of $14.5 million. ...

Study to examine role of oysters
Byron Stout /The News-Press /Mar 12, 2005
Bob Wasno's scientific study of the ecological value of oyster bars definitely would fall under the tongue-in-cheek category of, "tough job, but somebody's got to do it." ...

Officials to back new manatee zones
WENDY FULLERTON /The News-Press /Mar 15, 2005
Lee County commissioners are expected to vote this morning to support new state manatee speed zones minus the recommendations of a local committee that would have relaxed some of the rules. ...

Red tide bloom moves into northern Collier County waters
BILLY BRUCE /Naples Daily News /March 23, 2005
A red tide bloom located in the Gulf from Tampa Bay to Lee County may have contributed to the death of more than a dozen manatees and may be headed toward Collier County, local environmental specialists warn. ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Water Quality Improved for Runoff into Florida's Lake Okeechobee
Guest and Fuller /Earthjustice PR /Mar 23, 2005
Water quality for Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida will improve, thanks to a ruling today in a lawsuit challenging the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's efforts at reducing phosphorous levels in Lake Okeechobee. ...

Send windfall to Lake O
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /March 21, 2005
State legislators concerned about Lake Okeechobee are collaborating on some measures to help the lake and, ultimately, the coastal rivers that often are forced to accept its polluted waters. ...

Okeechobee Pulse Releases Begin
Staff /Unknown /March 2005
In an attempt to keep the water level in Lake Okeechobee lower on average, and to avoid the massive discharges of the past, water managers have started pulse-style releases this week into both the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. ...

Coalition: Discusses Lake O' water levels
Pete Gawda /Okeechobee News /March 2005
Regulation of lake levels was one of the topics of discussion at Thursday's meeting of the County Coalition for Responsible Management of Lake Okeechobee and St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries and Lake Worth Lagoon. ...

Measures taken to lower level of Lake Okeechobee
Suzanne Wentley /sun-sentinel /March 17, 2005
Water managers took two steps Wednesday to keep Lake Okeechobee at a lower level while trying to protect the St. Lucie Estuary from massive discharges of fresh water. ...

Another storm victim: Lake O
Sally Swartz /Palm Beach Post /March 16, 2005
Since the hurricanes, some say, Lake Okeechobee is the color of a popular chocolate drink. "If you fill a Yoo-hoo bottle with lake water," said Paul Gray, who heads Audubon of Florida's Lake Okeechobee office, "nobody would be able to tell the difference." ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

Glades project in disarray, feds say
CURTIS MORGAN /Miami Herald /Mar. 22, 2005
After five years, the federal agency in charge of restoring the Everglades is behind schedule, over budget and at serious risk of losing congressional support. ...

Army Corps raises concerns about River of Grass restoration
Unknown /Miami Herald /Mar 22, 2005
The five-year-old, $8.4 billion project to restore the Everglades is saddled with construction delays, a soaring budget and growing skepticism from Congress, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers internal memo said. ...

Everglades Restoration Stuck In The Mud
Chas Offutt /PEER /Mar 21, 2005
Five years after its inception, the ambitious plan to restore the Everglades is at risk of foundering, according to a memo by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers official in charge of the project and released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). This remarkably candid memo admits ballooning costs, blown deadlines and growing scientific uncertainty as the massive $12 bill ...

Hearing delayed on widening U.S. 1 in the 18-mile stretch into Keys
Catherine Wilson /Sun-Sentinel /March 21, 2005
A hearing regarding a request to block a $268 million road-widening project along the "18-mile stretch" into the Florida Keys was indefinitely delayed Monday because of an unspecified medical emergency involving the judge. ...

Effort under way to help restore river
Suzanne Wentley /sun-sentinel /March 20, 2005
Hobe Sound · Think of Bridge Road as Martin County's Tamiami Trail. ...

Everglades project hits federal snag
CRAIG PITTMAN /St. Petersburg Times/March 19, 2005
Five years after the massive Everglades restoration project was launched amid great fanfare, the federal government has produced little more than paperwork, according to an internal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers me ...

Foley: Include Indian River Lagoon in water act
Larry Lipman /Palm Beach WB /March 17, 2005
Foley was one of 15 House members who appeared before the water resources and environment subcommittee to urge inclusion of the local project in the massive Water Resources Development Act legislation. ...

Elkhorn, staghorn coral may be listed under Endangered Species Act
CATHY ZOLLO /Naples Daily News /March 14, 2005
For the first time, government officials have proposed protecting coral under the Endangered Species Act, and conservationists hope it's a first step toward staving off their extinction. ...

Environmental Groups Say Developers Sopping Up Wetlands
MIKE SALINERO /Tampa Bay Tribune /March 2005
Wetlands are being drained and filled by developers at an alarming rate, according to environmental groups throughout the state. ...

Mercury in our fish
Rosalyn Scherf /Miami Herald /Mar. 22, 2005
Mercury in our fish has been a problem for decades. Abnormal levels of mercury were detected in Everglades wildlife as early as 1971. In 1992, Florida and 17 other states had mercury fish-advisory warnings for people consuming the fish they caught in waterways. ...

Florida DEP won't stiffen mercury emissions rules
CATHY ZOLLO /Naples Daily News /March 16, 2005
State environmental regulators applauded the mercury rule the Environmental Protection Agency launched Tuesday while those in the environmental community said it's bad news for Florida and the nation. ...



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