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SWFL ENews:
May 26 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Commission OKs destruction of mangroves
Eric Staats /Naples Daily News /May 17
Collier County is taking the bite out of rules to protect mangroves at a mobile home neighborhood near Everglades City. The move is prompting environmental advocates to worry about setting a precedent for a retreat from rules that have been in place since 1973 to protect some 56,000 privately owned acres called the Big Cypress Area of Critical State Concern in Collier and Monroe counties. ...

Caught in government's vise
Henry Lamb /WorldNetDaily /May 21
"We can win this, Jesse, if you can just hang on," one attorney advised. Of course, there was no guarantee that Jesse would win, and the case, filed in federal court, could take years. Jesse's only income, besides a small disability check he receives from the military, was the sale of dirt from the excavation of what he planned to be four 20-acre fishing lakes he was building on his property. ...

Birders zoom in on the unusual
Mike Clary /Sun Sentinal /May 23
Armed with binoculars, a powerful telescope and 60 years of experience, one of America's top birders took a walk through the Wakodahatchee Wetlands west of Delray Beach recently, spotting in minutes more species of feathered wildlife than most people will see all year. ...

Festivities planned Saturday for kickoff of Lake Trafford dredging
Eric Staats /Naples Daily News /May 19
Lovers of Lake Trafford are celebrating this summer's scheduled start of a long-awaited restoration project and remembering the woman credited with making it happen. ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

'Red tide' poisons Gulf Coast tourism
John Lantigua /Palm Beach Post /May 22
"We're not accusing agriculture, but we want research done," Chiles says. "We want it studied and without regard to whose ox gets gored."Florida's two biggest industries are tourism and agriculture. The possibility that one issue may set them against each other makes no one happy, in either camp. But that's what it may come to. ...

Lee official blasts water district for project delay
Charlie Whitehead /Naples Daily News /May 20
Again, representatives of the South Florida Water Management District tried to assure Southwest Florida politicians they're working hard on the region's piece of Everglades restoration. Again, the locals weren't buying it. Janet Starnes is the project manager for the Southwest Florida Feasibility Study, the local piece of the plan to help restore the Everglades. She told members of the Southwest F ...

Above-Normal 2005 Hurricane Season Predicted for Atlantic
staff /All American Patriot/May 17
"NOAA's prediction for the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season is for 12 to 15 tropical storms, with seven to nine becoming hurricanes, of which three to five could become major hurricanes," said NOAA Administrator Conrad Lautenbacher. "Forecaster confidence that this will be an active hurricane season is very high." ...

Pressure for permission
C Pittman & M Waite /St Pete Times /May 23
In the mid 1990s, Florida politicians wanted to build a new university on swampy land near Fort Myers that was owned by an influential campaign contributor who wanted to develop all the land around it. ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

The Big O needs help, but the right help
Robert E Coker /The News Press /May 19
To focus on the right solutions, it is important to have the right information on the lake's condition. The hurricanes and heavy rains have stirred up nutrient-rich sediment from the lake bottom. Water entering the lake from pastures, dairies and cattle ranches north of the lake carries soil sediments with extremely high phosphorus loads. Soil sediment, not farm fertilizer, is the primary source o ...

Lake Okeechobee releases scrutinized
Chad Gillis /Naples Daily News /May 23
Spring water releases from Lake Okeechobee are always met with opposition in Lee County, and this year is no different as resource watchdogs continue to monitor estuaries affected by massive influxes of lake water. The South Florida Water Management District started a round of water releases from the lake last week that will slowly taper off. More releases are expected between now and June as dist ...

Keep focused on long-term solutions for lake
Robert E Coker /Sun Sentinal /May 23
We applaud the thorough reporting that Neil Santaniello has done (May 12) regarding Lake Okeechobee's condition and plans by the South Florida Water Management District to try to nurse it back to health. ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

State to lead study of Everglades Agriculture Area
Hector Florin /Palm Beach Post /May 18
County commissioners on Tuesday handed the state the responsibility of leading efforts to study theEverglades Agricultural Area, the large, predominantly farming region that cuts through westernPalm Beach County.At 700,000 acres, or about the size of Rhode Island, the area is seen as the nextfrontier for county growth. But how those plans will develop remains to be seen.Tens of thousands of acres ...

How's the Indian River Lagoon's health? Just ask the fish
Suzanne Wentley /TC Palm /May 22
With the help of a new technology that uses underwater microphones, Gilmore is documenting the sounds of snook and spotted sea trout to study how water quality, Lake Okeechobee releases and human activity affect spawning in the estuary. His work, which is being conducted as part of a pilot project this month, will be used to determine how local Everglades restoration projects help the environment. ...

They won't say no
C PITTMAN & M WAITE /St Pete Times /May 22
"It's time to stand the history of wetlands destruction on its head," the first President Bush declared in a 1989 speech on the policy.Yet since the policy took effect in 1990, at least 84,000 acres of Florida wetlands have disappeared, the St. Petersburg Times has found.While the government says destroyed wetlands were replaced, the claims are based on creative accounting and questionable science ...

Specter of four lawsuits clouds Scripps go-ahead
Cadence Mertz /Sun Sentinal /May 25
Though Tuesday's unanimous decision to begin construction on Scripps Florida's headquarters eliminated one obstacle clouding the county's dreams of biotech riches, other challenges remain: four outstanding lawsuits. ...

State says long-term phosphorus reduction on track
Curt Anderson /Gainseville /5/25/05
The Everglades restoration project has prevented more than 2,000 tons of phosphorous from entering the vast wetlands and is on track to reduce the harmful nutrient to low long-term levels required by court order, state officials said in a court filing Wednesday.The filing in U.S. District Court by the Department of Environmental Protection and the South Florida Water Management District acknowledg ...

Scripps is a good idea, proposed location isn't
Charles Pattison /Tallahassee Democrat/May 26
In addition to Scripps, new proposals have been announced for more than 20,000 new homes and 4.3-million square feet of commercial and research space for lands that were designated as rural and agricultural in the county's Comprehensive Plan. If Mecca Farms goes forward, it will be legally challenging for the county to stop this tidal wave of new development. At the same time, the state is launchi ...



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