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SWFL ENews:
Jul 25 / go to archive


BIG CYPRESS

Last of Everglades outlaws recalls 19th-century forebears
Jim Robison /Orlando Sentinal /Jul 17
Back before the late 1800s, when canal digging and dredging linked the lakes of northern Osceola County with the meandering Kissimmee River and opened steamboat travel into Southwest Florida, most of the land around St. Cloud and Kissimmee wasn't much different from the land of the Everglades and Ten Thousand Islands. ...

Certified ecotour providers expands
Meghan Nutter /Marco Eagle /Jul 13
When Stop learned about a new organization called the Society for Ethical Ecotourism in Southwest Florida (SEE), her curiosity was peeked. SEE offers a certification program to ecotourism providers. ...

Rare woodpecker is one tough egg to track
Tom Uhlenbrock /St Louis Post /Jul 17
"You come to see the ivory bill, but fall in love with the woods," he said. ...

Dumping ground for dredge material suggested as possible ORV park
Dianna Smith /Naples Daily News /Jul 3
Hills of dried muck from the bottom of Lake Trafford could turn into Collier County's first park for off-road vehicles. The Big Cypress Basin, the local division of the South Florida Water Management District, promised local riders last year that it would find 640 acres for them by October. The land would have to be suitable for motorbikes and all-terrain vehicles and could not be environmentally ...

A scenic stroll In the wilderness
Steven Barnes /Orlando Sentinal /Jul 16
But Florida has its own long-distance trail, one that winds 1,400 miles from Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida to the Gulf Islands National Seashore near Pensacola. ...

Florida black bears concentrated in six areas of state
Associated Press /Bradenton Herald /Jul 21
A new study by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimates 2,042 to 3,213 black bears have been concentrated in the Apalachicola, Ocala and Osceola national forests, Big Cypress National Preserve, St. Johns River area and Eglin Air Force Base's military reservation. ...

The Everglades: Big Cypress Swamp
Meghan Nutter /Naples Daily News /Jul 22
This vast wilderness comprises 2,400 square miles. It really isn't a swamp at all, but a diverse area with cypress trees (mostly the dwarf pond cypress) covering one-third, and the rest comprised of hardwood hammocks, marshes and mangrove forests. ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

S.W. Florida tired of being used as sewer
Editorial /The News Press /Jul 2005
The current situation may largely be the result of exceptional weather that has agitated Lake Okeechobee into a fetid soup and raised the lake to dangerous levels.But it is also because the health of the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary have been given a low priority by the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. ...

House passes bill funding beach, environmental projects in SW Florida
Amie Parnes /Naples Daily News /Jul 15
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Water Resources Development Act on Thursday, which will allow the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin work on several key environmental and beach renourishment projects in Southwest Florida and credit the cost of work already performed in Lee County. ...

West Coast treated fairly in Big O runoffs
Carol Ann Wehle /The News Press /Jul 2005
Extreme conditions call for correct, decisive actions that will not compromise human health and safety. When the lake reaches these excessive levels during a very wet summer and active hurricane season, flood protection becomes the utmost of considerations. ...

Dennis pushes red tide bloom from Lee, Collier
Chad Gillis /Naples Daily News /Jul 18
The southern boundary of a lingering red tide bloom has been pushed out of Lee County by Hurricane Dennis, to the relief of local water quality agencies. ...

Management of bays, estuaries to be reassessed at DEP workshop
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jul 17
DEP officials are hosting a public workshop Tuesday at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve south of Naples to hear what locals have to say about the waters' health and how they should be used. The officials are canvassing the state in an effort to rewrite the management plans for Florida's 41 aquatic preserves within the next five years. ...

Bonita council weighs in on route for 951 extension
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jul 21
If approved, C.R. 951 would follow Bonita Grande Drive from just north of Bonita Beach Road, heading roughly due north and staying a few hundred yards east of the Citrus Park community. Near the city's northern limits, the road would jog to the west slightly before veering north again. ...

Estero's West Bay Club earns Audubon International designation
Julio Ochoa /Naples Daily News /Jul 13
Golf courses aren't normally associated with environmental preservation. But if they are designed, built and managed with nature in mind, golf courses can be more environmentally friendly than many other forms of development. The West Bay Club in Estero used those guidelines for its course and in doing so, earned a designation from Audubon International as a signature cooperative sanctuary program ...

Regulators traveling state seeking revamp of preserve management
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Jul 20
An effort to develop better regulations for the management of Southwest Florida's most pristine waters will get derailed without adequate funding, participants at a public workshop said Tuesday night. ...

Lake release spells trouble for Caloosahatchee estuary
Chad Gillis /Naples Daily News /Jul 14
The releases basically mean that the Caloosahatchee estuary will be flushed out to the Gulf of Mexico. Instead of a transitional area in the river where fresh and saltwater churn into a brackish mixture, the entire estuary is being washed out to sea. Marine species and plants that thrive in the estuary either move or die. ...

Bad water management kills tarpon fishery
Pete Quasius /News Press /Jul 25
Is the death of what was one of the biggest tourist events for Southwest Florida, and at least part of the basis for our claim as the fishing capital of the world, yet one more result from the mismanagement of the South Florida Water Management District officials?The world's richest tarpon tournament, which since the 1980s brought millions of tourist dollars to our economy each year is no more, du ...

West Palm Beach company purchases Babcock Ranch
Chad Gillis /Naples Daily News /Jul 22
A public effort to purchase the largest remaining undeveloped tract in south Florida still in private hands is officially over now that a West Palm Beach company is under contract to purchase the entire 91,000-acre Babcock Ranch. Kitson & Partners, along with the Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund, plans to develop portions of the environmentally sensitive land, a chunk of real estate that's nearly t ...

Editorial: Babcock Ranch
Editorial /Naples Daily News /Jul 23
The chief of the Kitson firm is quick to say it will set aside as much of the environmentally delicate lands as possible. He says that will mean working with state and local growth regulators — whether it is Kitson or smaller developers who buy into the deal who will be doing that work. ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Lake Okeechobee discharge angers people near outlets
Neil Santaniello /Sun Sentinal /Jul 14
Once the lake level reaches 18.5 feet -- when its levee can spring leaks -- it becomes a cause for "more serious concerns," said Steve Duba, chief of engineering for the Army Corps Jacksonville District. "18.5 feet is a place we really don't want to go." ...

Glades counting on grants to help build water plant
Rochelle Brenner Gilken /Palm Beach Post /Jul 14
The cost of bringing clean water to the Glades is hovering around the $50 million mark, a higher-than-planned price tag that's putting further burden on the county's poorest cities. But officials say they are determined to find someone to pay for the $23 million-plus difference so the Lake Region Water Treatment Plant project stays afloat. ...

Glades affords many spectacular views of big Lake O
L.J. Margolis /Palm Beach Post /Jul 20
That big hill around Lake O is the Herbert Hoover Dike, built because of the devastation to the area and loss of more than 3,000 lives in the hurricanes of 1926 and 1928. The levee's construction was started in the 1930s and completed by the late 1960s. The construction of that levee has made it possible for us to have homes and agri-businesses around The Lake, but it has also radically changed th ...

Water managers did not 'fail to lower' Lake Okeechobee
Carol Wehle /Col Robert Carpenter /Palm Beach Post /Jul 17
We strongly disagree, however, with the editorial's assertion that this action has been caused by water managers "failing to lower the lake during the winter and early spring." In fact, releases from the lake were nearly constant over a 10-month period, which began in September 2004. ...

Dike restoration being planned
MaryAnn Morris /NewsZap /Jul 2005
In 2002 through 2003, emergency repairs to the Dike were made to stop water from coming up on the land side of the Dike near South Bay, but the water already in the ground made that solution fail. Although the dike was built state-of-the-art in the 1930s, today the gravel, limestone and shell would not be used. Better methods of judging materials are used today than the engineers of the 1930s had. ...

Planned roadway causing debate
Andy Reid /Sun Sentinel /Jul 16
A new road could allow Palm Beach County suburbia to move onto agricultural land that buffers the Everglades from development. The proposed Western Way Road would stretch north of Southern Boulevard along the L-8 Canal to the 5,000-acre Indian Trail Groves property, where GL Homes plans to build 4,000 homes. ...

Okeechobee's ill outlook deepens
Byron Stout /News Press /Jul 23
The condition of Lake Okeechobee often described as the liquid heart of southern Florida is causing grave concern.At stake is recreation that the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimated was worth more than $400 million in the 1990s. ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

Water managers aim to borrow $1.5 billion
Robert P King /Palm Beach Post /Jul 13
South Florida water managers are poised to borrow $1.5 billion to help restore the Everglades. In return, they want some respect. ...

Water storage plan approved as part of Everglades restoration
Neil Santaniello /Sun Sentinel /Jul 14
South Florida water managers agreed Wednesday to finish building a water-banking well west of Boca Raton to help fully investigate a controversial, costly and still uncertain pillar of their Everglades rescue plan.The South Florida Water Management District board approved spending $2.24 million to complete the project, which would pump water from the adjacent Hillsboro Canal 1,225 feet below the g ...

U.S. House to vote on Indian River Lagoon project
Amie Parnes /TCPalm /Jul 14
After a decade-long delay, the U.S. House is poised today to approve $1.2 billion for the Indian River Lagoon restoration project as part of a large water projects bill. ...

Cash could flow to Everglades
William Gibson /Orlando Sentinel /Jul 15
Two Everglades-related restoration projects got a big boost Thursday when the House approved a major water-resources bill that would authorize federal spending to restore 170,000 acres of wetlands near the Indian River Lagoon and the Picayune Strand. ...

A little Great Lakes unity
Opinion /Toledo Blade /Jul 20
A tentative price tag of $20 billion has been put on this project, although Benjamin Grumbles, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's assistant administrator of water, would not, or more likely could not, verify that figure.By comparison the Florida Everglades restoration project, in one of the fastest-growing states in the nation, is estimated to cost $8 billion. That figure might put the ten ...

Patience wears thin on St. Lucie River's plight
Rachel Harris /Palm Beach Post /Jul 20
Echoing many of the 70-odd residents at Tuesday's meeting, Negron asked why water managers couldn't send more of the lake's water to the south, which has received virtually nothing so far. Since Thursday, the St. Lucie Canal, which empties into the St. Lucie River near Stuart, has taken on about 2.4 million gallons of fresh water a minute from the lake. ...

Filthy water, hostile residents
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Jul 20
A half-dozen politicians and a few old-timers, sign-waving veterans, joined the crowd at Flagler Park in Stuart on Saturday afternoon. But many of the estimated 500 people at the hastily organized Rally for the River were first-timers: New residents, horrified to see the St. Lucie River the color of a root-beer float as billions of gallons of dirty water from Lake Okeechobee pour into it; families ...

Everglades Restoration: U.S. Judge to Determine Next Steps
Associated Press /Natural Resource Def/Jul 18
Miami U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno has concluded that excessive phosphorus discharges violate that original court agreement and ordered hearings beginning Monday to determine what should happen next. ...

No quick fix for river
Opinion /Miami Herald /Jul 18
The outdated,overburdened drainage system is due for an overhaul as part of the $8 billion Everglades cleanup plan.Unfortunately, the series of reservoirs that will hold and cleanse the lake's runoff can't be created overnight. The first isn't scheduled to come on line until 2009. ...

Federal judge to determine next step in Everglades restoration
Curt Anderson /Bradenton Herald /Jul 17
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, which have a reservation in the middle of the Everglades, and a coalition of environmental groups are seeking ironclad guarantees from Florida and U.S. officials, enforced by Moreno, that would set out deadlines and updated, tougher phosphorus reduction requirements. ...

NORTHERN EXPOSURE
Jennifer Babson /Miami Herald /Jul 17
Last month, Miami-Dade County commissioners voted to override a veto from Mayor Carlos Alvarez that aimed to block Florida City's annexation of 1,727 acres outside of the county's Urban Development Boundary, which is designed to contain development and limit sprawl. ...

Key dates in the Everglades restoration court case
Assoc Press /Tallahassee /Jul 17
Key dates in the court case resulting in a consent decree requiring cleanup of the Everglades. ...

Louisiana is washing away into the Gulf of Mexico.
staff /Rocky Mountain News /Jul 16
Louisiana is washing away into the Gulf of Mexico. From 1932 to 2000, the state lost 1,900 square miles, mostly wetlands, to open water. Without intervention, it could lose another 900 square miles by 2050. ...

Slime Coagulates Residents and Visitors
staff /Florida Sportsman /Jul 17
Ever try to work a topwater through half an inch of surface algae? Or consider jumping into an estuary choked with the anaerobic goo? How do you explain the pollution to your grandkids or others?These are a few of the questions that folks are mulling over and asking the South Florida Water Management District and politicians. ...

Legislators vow to join fight to save estuary
Charlie Reed /TCPalm /Jul 20
State lawmakers vowed Tuesday to continue fighting to clean up the St. Lucie Estuary, which is growing more polluted every day as fresh water from Lake Okeechobee continues to pour into local waterways. ...

Part of Everglades closed to protect deer
Associated Press /The News Press /Jul 18
To protect deer seeking refuge from high waters unleashed by Hurricane Dennis, state wildlife officials have closed 730,000 acres of the Everglades to the public. ...

Guest columnist: Nature knows what works best for river
Tony Chatowsky /TCPalm /Jul 25
There are two potential solutions for improving the quality of the river, a short-term step that may have immediate effects and a long-term one that should have lasting effects. These solutions are not new, have been discussed for years, but given the condition of the river, they deserve increased focus. ...

A high price for rerouting 'glades water
staff /Daytona Beach Journa/Jul 24
In a misguided quest to control Mother Nature, civil engineers constructed an elaborate system of canals and dikes in the Everglades in the 1940s that would make the rich land useful for farming, orchards and human habitation. Draining the marshlands boosted development for cities as far north as Orlando, which sits in the northern part of the Kissimmee watershed. ...

Sides gear up for fight over Everglades development boundary line
Mc Nelly Torres /Sun Sentinel /Jul 23
Gray's frustration foretells a battle over growth. As developers increasingly eye untouched land in western Miami-Dade County, environmentalists worry that politicians will soon allow the sprawling housing developments and congestion that has clogged much of South Florida to invade the Everglades. ...



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