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SWFL ENews: Apr 10, 06 SWFL ENews:
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BIG CYPRESS

Big cats no big deal, many in Copeland say
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Mar 27
COPELAND — Life hasn't changed much in Copeland more than five weeks after biologists apprehended a menacing Florida panther within pouncing distance of several homes. And that's the problem. Dogs wander the streets freely. Fences blown down during Hurricane Wilma haven't been mended. Children play outside after sunset. A week after the panther's capture, residents received notices on National Park Service letterhead, urging them to harden their livestock pens, keep pets on leashes and take other protective measures. "It has been proven that once attractive prey, such as livestock and pets, have been properly secured that the wild predator will return to hunting natural prey," wrote Karen Gustin, superintendent of Big Cypress National Preserve. Not everyone is heeding the scientists' advice. ...

Florida’s cats at a crossroads
Will Rothschild /Herald Tribune /Mar 26
OCHOPEE — The future of the Florida panther is playing out here on Loop Road, a 26-mile route carvedthrough the middle of Big Cypress National Preserve.Considered the most endangered mammal on the planet when it numbered perhaps two dozen a decade ago, the panther has rebounded to about 80 today.The number of people living in South Florida also has climbed dramatically in the last 10 years, from 250,000 to more than 300,000 in Collier County alone. And with more people moving into subdivisions chiseled into the scrubby pinelands and hardwood hammocks that once buffered panthers from urban life, a growing chorus of observers say Florida has reached its limit of cats.Indeed, sustaining the recovery promises to be much trickier, hinging as much on social and political considerations as scientific ones. How those questions are answered could determine whether panthers hang on ...

Off-roaders’ trail cause losing traction
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Mar 28
Southern Golden Gate Estates might be placed off-limits to off-road vehicles, despite calls from outdoor enthusiasts to reopen the area's labyrinthine network of roads to weekend fun. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has rejected a state Division of Forestry proposal that would have given visitors at least12.3 miles of trails designated for riding. According to the federal agency's letter, off-road vehicle play is "inconsistent" with the goals of the $10.8 billion Everglades restoration project. The Southern Golden Gate Estates project is part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, a list of 68 projects that state and federal officials agreed to undertake in 2000 to fix South Florida's ailing ecosystem. In the 1960s, a developer transformed the 55,000-acre tract's marshes and hammocks into an interlacing pattern of roads and canals that resembles a car radiator ...

Deputies sweep popular ATV-riding site
Jennifer Brannock /Naples Daily News /Mar 27
All was quiet Sunday throughout the white, dough-like sand dunes and abandoned, rusting train tracks that make up the Railhead Scrub Preserve, an irresistible tract on the Lee/Collier County border for all-terrain vehicle motorists to ride and play. The ATV hot-spot, part of the Conservation Collier property off Old 41Road, usually plays host to 20 to 30 motorists on any given weekend — especially on a perfectly clear, cool day like Sunday, Collier County sheriff's deputies said. Even though the roughly 1-by-one-half mile parcelwas strangely silent, the telltale signs of illegal motorists laid scattered across the ground throughout the preserve. "They must have known we were coming," Collier County sheriff's Deputy Carmine Marceno said,examining a heap of empty beer bottles, cans and other debris. ...

Low water levels force airboats out of Big Cypress
staff /Naples Daily News /Mar 29
Low water levels have prompted officials to close a portion of the Big Cypress National Preserve to airboat travel. Officials announced today that Zone 4 within the preserve will be temporarily closed beginning April 3. Park rangers and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are reporting low water levels in the area. Many of the areas designated as airboat trails are nearly dry throughout the zone, officials said. Zone 4 within the Preserve is located south of Loop Road, a popular driving tour route, and is the only area within the preserve where airboats are allowed. ...

Stand strong against vehicles in the Addition
Lauren MacDonald /Sun Sentinel /Apr 10
Threatened by swamp buggy drivers and hunters, the Addition Lands of the Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida need aggressive environmental protection or face potential destruction of the land and its wildlife inhabitants if the area is opened freely to recreational activities. Claiming that swamp buggy culture is at stake, hunters want to roam the Everglades territory, killing deer and wild hogs. This self-interested group's recreation would damage the land, destroy the natural habitats of wildlife and demolish the existing tranquility. Our nation continuously fights for the protection of national wildlife reserves. So what makes this situation so different? Although swamp buggies are part of the Everglades culture, the use of these and other off-road vehicles carves damaging ruts into the wilderness, causes soil erosion, and creates areas where non-native vegetation can gro ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Local runoff flowing into the Caloosahatchee
staff /NBC2 /Mar 27
LEE COUNTY: Lehigh Acres is worried about their current septic systems because every year thousands of gallons ofcontaminated water flow through the ground into the canals and streams which eventually flow into theCaloosahatchee River.Southwest Florida Doctor Kurt Harclerode explained that the materials used for pest control and lawn care are bigcontributors in the pollution of local ground water."We are seeing more local runoff contributing to what is in our estuary than what is in Lake Okeechobee," saidHarclerode.A growing percentage of that runoff is coming from Lehigh Acres. To make matters worse, not only is the surfacewater getting contaminated, so is the water deep below the surface which is where septic tanks do their job offiltering our waste.A lone septic tank is environmentally friendly, but when you have thousands of them problems can arise. ...

Tarpon fishing losing its bite
Byron Stout /News Press /Apr 1
Anglers starting the official tarpon season today in Boca Grande Pass will have to abide by special rules designed to alleviate crowding problems. That point is pretty much technical, though. No tarpon have been reported in the world-famous pass this year, although divers saw a few during an annual cleanup March 20-21. Four tarpon were caught in Pine Island Sound about that time, but thatfishing dried up with last weekend’s cold front. It’s still early, but fishing guides, marinas, tackle dealers and chambers of commerce are anything but confident about this year’s tarpon season. The combination of degraded habitat from freshwater dumping down the Caloosahatchee River and intense pressure on the fish at Boca Grande seems to be working a double whammy. Producers of the Florida Sportsman TV fishing shows asked Cape Coral Tarpon Club angler Mike Wrenn to guide them to t ...

Babcock water will go south
Walter Hammer-OP /Herald Tribune /Apr 4
The Babcock Ranch proposal is a done deal. I can see it now: As the Charlotte County commissioners vote yes on the proposal, someone will say that "although there's no guarantee of access to Babcock's water, the state will surely grant Charlotte access in the future."But we will not get the water. The water will go to Miami (which has a lot more political clout than Charlotte) and to the Everglades restoration project (much more important to Florida and environmentalists than Charlotte's water needs). Note that the bill to approve Florida's share of the Babcock purchase is flying through the Legislature. Also note: No bill has been submitted to bypass theregional water authorities and approve Charlotte's access to Babcock water. The commissioners should require Syd Kitson to pay the $400 million in transfer density fees or reduce the size of his project if Babcoc ...

Dry weather good for Caloosahatchee
Melanie Payne /News Press /Apr 9
Forget about parched lawns and bone-dry wells. There's an upside to the stretch of rain-free days in Southwest Florida. The Caloosahatchee River and estuary are on the mend, the oysters are coming back and it could be a great year for endangered wood storks.To prevent flooding during the rainy season water managers release huge amounts of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee down the Caloosahatchee River.That nutrient-laden water causes environmental problems in the river and estuary — the area of brackish water between the river and the Gulf ofMexico. But with all the dry weather, the releases from the lake have turned to trickles making the water downstream clearer and saltier, said Steve Bortone, director of the marine laboratory for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. "If we can keep this up for a long time, then things will get back to normal," he said. ...

Estero Bay gets low grades in estuary report
staff /Naples Daily News /Apr 3
If Estero Bay was a student it would be on probation, on its way to flunkingout.In fact, the state's first-ever aquatic preserve got the worst grades of any of the 10 Southwest Florida estuaries examined by the Conservancy of Southwest Florida's Estuary Report Card. Jennifer Hecker, natural resources policy manager for the conservancy, delivered the news to Lee County commissioners today. She said 68 percent of the estuary and its watershed, which stretches almost from the Caloosahatchee River to south of the Collier County line, is polluted because of high nutrient levels of low dissolved oxygen levels. The bay earned a C- for wildlife and a D- for water quality. The culprit, Hecker said, is the rapid growth around Florida Gulf Coast University. ...

Land-buy proposal comes with a catch
Pittman and Waite /St Pete Times /Mar 14
Last fall, when state officials voted to spend $350-million to buy a Charlotte County ranch that's home to panthers and bears, environmental advocates worried that the Florida Forever land-buying program would run short of cash. So state Rep. Trudi Williams, R-Fort Myers, has filed a bill to double the amount the state spends buying environmentally sensitive land. But there's a catch: The bill also calls for the state to take over the federal job of issuing permits to destroy wetlands of 10 acres or smaller. Developers say the change will speed up government permission to wipe out wetlands. "This will trim the bureaucratic nightmare," said Pensacola developer Dan Gilmore, leading the Florida Home Builders Association's push for the bill. The prospect outrages environmental advocates."I don't think the state is institutionally capable of turning down a permit," said Les ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Lake-release help is on the way, but more is needed
Burt Saunders /News Press /Mar 29
The releases of large quantities of turbid, high-phosphorus-content water from Lake Okeechobee continue tocause incalculable damage to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and their estuaries. This has negatively impacted the quality of life of literally millions of Floridians. Immediate and long-termsolutions must be implemented to stop the damage. A review of the causes of the problem necessitating large water discharges from the lake will help lead us to viable immediate and long-term solutions.The vast bulk of water flowing into Lake Okeechobee comes from the Kissimmee basin north of the lake. The drought of 2000-2001 is an example of the problems faced by the water managers. In April 2000, following several years of very high lake elevations that severely impacted the lake’s ecological health, water- management officials lowered the lake by a foot, releasing water ...

Discharges from Lake Okeechobee should continue, panel says
staff /Bradenton Herald /Mar 30
FORT PIERCE, Fla. - Discharges from Lake Okeechobee should continue for at least the next several months in an effort to lower water levels that remain murky and polluted from past years of pounding hurricane seasons, a state advisory board said.Environmentalists concede that the releases into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries will harm the waterways, but most agree the small releases will help the lake in the long run, and in turn, restore cleaner water to the rivers."Pulse-style" discharges to the St. Lucie Estuary were halted on March 21.The idea is to shrink the swollen lake to allow more sunlight to reach the floor in order to nourish the lake's fish and plant population, and to protect the estuaries from large future deluges."We don't have many years ahead of us to make decisions. ...

Score one for the good guys
Editorial /News Press /Mar 31
A determined push by state Rep. Trudi Williams, backed by officials and citizens from Southwest Florida, has rescued House Bill 1241 —at least for the time being. That bill would create an independent, broad-based advisory council to study environmental problems created by the release of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee. Those releases triggered devastating algae blooms in the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary in Lee County. The bill looked last week like it might die in the House Water and Natural Resources Committee, where some members believed it added an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy. It does not, and Williams, a Fort Myers Republican, and representatives from Lee County, the city of Sanibel and others persuaded the committee that the council will provide a badly needed new perspective on the problems of the lake and rivers. It passed out of the ...

Pumping promises relief for beleaguered rivers
Sen Burt Saunders /TCPalm /Mar 30
The releases of large quantities of turbid, high-phosphorus content water from Lake Okeechobee continue to cause incalculable damage to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and their estuaries. This has had negative impact on the quality of life of literally millions of Floridians. Immediate and long-term solutions must be implemented to stop the damage. A review of the causes of the problem necessitating large water discharges from the lake will help lead us to viable immediate and long term solutions.This current crisis has the potential for destroying valuable habitat for southwest Florida fisheries, destroying the beautiful recreational water resources within the influence of the Caloosahatchee and the St. Lucierivers, reducing property values and crippling significant parts of Florida's tourist economy both on the east coast and west coast.Fortunately, relief ...

Tribune thumbs up, thumbs down
Editorial /TCPalm /Apr 1
THUMBS DOWN: KILLER IDEA: A state advisory panel said this week that discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries need to continue at least for the next several months to lower the lake level and help submerged plants and fish to recover. That decision means that while efforts are made to improve the quality of the lake, the quality of the rivers will continue to deteriorate, potentially killing the rivers to save the lake. That is unacceptable, but not surprising. For years, the state of the lake has taken precedence over the state of the rivers. Environmentalists concede that they know of no quick actions that could be taken to protect both Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries, but hope thatdrawing down the murky water from past hurricanes will lead to cleanerwater in the future for the estuaries. That is, some environmentali ...

Activists back plan to save Lake Okeechobee
Suzanne Wentley /Sun Sentinel /Apr 2
Stuart · Forget the $10.5 billion statewide Everglades Restoration plan and its reservoirs and stormwater treatment areas. What is really needed to save Lake Okeechobee, the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries is a wide swath of wetlands through farm fields that would allow lake water to flow slowly to the south as it did historically, according to members of the Rivers Coalition. The concept of a "flow-way" was the subject of a 1994 Army Corps of Engineers study and included in a 1974 book, but a meeting last week marked the first time river activists unanimously backed the plan.Since Florida is faced with a decades-long wet weather trend associated withchanging ocean temperatures, coalition members said water managers should revisit the idea and change the plans to build a 117 billion-gallon reservoir in the path of the proposed wetland. "There's only one thin ...

Activists resigned to Lake O discharges
Suzanne Wentley /Sun Sentinel /Mar 30
FORT PIERCE · St. Lucie River advocates faced a grim reality Wednesday. With Lake Okeechobee still so high and murky from the 2004 hurricanes that plant and fish continue to die, river quality activists on a water management district advisory board asked for lake discharges into the estuary to continue for the next few months. Even though the polluted, freshwater releases are bound to cause further harm to the estuary, they said the lake must stay as low as possible through the rainy season so a drastic lake restoration project can begin next spring. Just as they did during previous wet periods, river quality advocates told officials with the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers that the estuary will continue to suffer as long as the lake is unhealthy -- especially if large lake discharges are in the future. "It's all we can do," said ...

More harm is likely in store for estuary
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /Mar 29
FORT PIERCE — St. Lucie River advocates faced a grim reality Wednesday. With Lake Okeechobee still so high and murky from the 2004 hurricanes that plant and fish continue to die, river activists on a water management district advisory board asked for lake discharges into the estuary to continue for the next few months. Even though the polluted, freshwater releases are bound to cause further harm to the estuary, they said the lake must stay as low as possible through the rainy season so a drastic lake restoration project can begin next spring. Just as they did during previous wet periods, river advocates told officials with the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps of Engineers Wednesday that the estuary will continue to suffer as long as the lake is unhealthy — especially if large lake discharges are in the future. "It's all we can do," ...

Rivers Coalition wants Lake O water sent south
Suzanne Wentley /Herald Tribune /Apr 1
STUART — Forget the $10.5 billion statewide Everglades Restoration plan and its reservoirs and stormwater treatment areas. Advertisement What is really needed to save Lake Okeechobee, the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries is a wide swath of wetlands through farm fields that would allow lake water to flow slowly to the south as it did historically, members of the Rivers Coalition said Friday.The concept of a "flow-way" of water through the Everglades Agricultural Area isn't new — it was the subject of a 1994 Army Corps of Engineers study and even included in a 1974 book — but Friday's meeting marked the first time river activists unanimously backed the plan. Since Florida is faced with a decades-long wet weather trend associated withchanging ocean temperatures, coalition members said water managers should revisit the idea and change the plans to build a 117 bil ...

Water Managers Urge Court to Not Extend Federal Permitting Over State Water Tra nsfers
SFWMD /MAPUSER /Apr 5
Final Arguments will be heard Thursday on extending Federal Permitting to the S-2, S-3 and S-4 pump stations on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee. These stations help provide critical flood control and water supply in the region.In a case which will have nation-wide consequences, U.S. District Court Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga in Miami will hear final arguments on Thursday as to whether to require the State to obtain National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for the South Florida Water Management District's S-2, S-3 and S-4 pumping stations just south of Lake Okeechobee.“We strongly believe that an adverse ruling would constitute a misapplication of the law,” said Nicolas Gutierrez, a board member and immediate past chairman of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board. Mr. Gutierrez, a Miami attorney said, “Congress never intended for governmental ...

Death of an Estuary
Karl Wickstrom /Florida Sportsman /Apr 2006
They are immense cradles of life. Historically, the two provided astounding numbers and variety of fish, plus a whole panoply of activity, human and otherwise. And in the crass world of money, they are worth a great deal of it. Man, in the form of government, is systematically killing them, but not, as you may well suspect, by simply allowing too much development, concrete or growth.Death comes by discharges.Both estuaries are turned into non-estuaries by intentional floods of dirty fresh water shot into the east and west estuaries in staggering quantities that water managers prefer not to discuss in terms that ordinary folks understand. Instead, they talk in “acre feet” and “cfs.”Translated, those cubic feet per second totaled 855 billion gallons of water discharged last year from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and the St. Lucie rivers. The sheer volume of fresh water, nev ...

Environmentalists and state argue over Lake Okeechobee pollution
Brian Skoloff /Bradenton Herald /Apr 6
MIAMI - Polluted water being pumped into Lake Okeechobee is contaminating drinking water and poisoning the second-largest freshwater lake in the contiguous United States, environmentalist lawyers argued in court Thursday. State water managers say the water already is polluted and that it must go into the lake to prevent floods.The federal lawsuit contends that the South Florida Water Management District should have to get pumping permits under the U.S. CleanWater Act. That could force the district to clean or divert the polluted water and cost money and time. The plaintiffs want the district to halt discharges until it gets a permit. "The water being pumped is creating toxic byproducts and a public health threat to consumers of water around the lake," attorney David Guest said in closing arguments for the Florida Wildlife Federation. The suit was filed by the federati ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

U.S. cool to ending judge's Everglades cleanup role
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Mar 31
Gov. Jeb Bush's bid to end a federal judge's oversight of the state's $1.1 billion Everglades cleanup is getting an increasingly chilly reception from his brother's administration in Washington, according to government sources familiar with the case. That means Florida probably would have to go it alone if it asks U.S. Judge Federico Moreno to lift the 1992 court order that governs much of the state-run cleanup, including deadlines that take effect at the end of this year. Moreno ruled in June that the cleanup already has violated some of its goals, and has warned lawyers for the state that he is "a jailing judge and not a fining judge." State leaders maintain that their efforts have met the court order's requirements, dramatically cleaning the runoff flowing into the Everglades from sugar farms, suburbs and Lake Okeechobee. They've suggested that strict federal permits, not e ...

Muddy Waters
John Mitchell /Washington Post /Apr 2
In recent years, writers have devoted a lot of ink to the tortured history of south Florida's Everglades. But no one has nailed that story as effectively, as hauntingly and as dramatically as Michael Grunwald does in The Swamp , a brilliant work of research and reportage about the evolution of a reviled bog into America's -- if not the world's -- most valuable wetland. Grunwald, a prize-winning reporter for The Washington Post, explains that the true, original Everglades were not a swamp in any botanically correct sense of the word but rather a marsh, "a vast sheet of shallow water spread across a seemingly infinite prairie of serrated sawgrass," often called the River of Grass. But Grunwald's sweep is bigger than that. It embraces the entire south Florida hydrosystem, a 100-mile long funnel that seeps from the Kissimmee lakes near Orlando, spills into Lake Oke ...

Swamped by Civilization
David Fleshler /Sun Sentinel /Apr 2
In late 2003 Michael Grunwald left his desk at The Washington Post, moved toMiami Beach and set to work on a book on the Everglades.The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida and the Politics of Paradise is a superb narrative of human attempts to master the southern Florida wilderness, from the early Spanish explorers to the 20th century real-estate hustlers to the modern engineers, activists and politicians collaborating on an uncertain plan to save what's left. At The Washington Post, Grunwald wrote award-winning investigative stories on the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that corseted the Everglades in levees and canals, opening the way for the construction of Pembroke Pines, Weston, Wellington and the rest.As he takes you briskly through 400 years of history, you can feel in your bones what a miserable place the Everglades was for human intruders, with its snakes ...

Everglades superintendent earning high marks
Curtis Morgan /Miami Herald /Apr 5
Not long after he'd taken over as superintendent, Dan Kimball was leading a tour at Everglades National Park when a flock ofcormorants flew over and decided to discharge some payload. Poop rained on Kimball and his VIP guest, a general in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the park's federal partner in the $8.4 billion Everglades restoration project. Kimball laughed recalling his own reaction -- not disgust, but relief because the splattering had been equally distributed. ``It told me we're all in this together. It was a real bonding moment.'' Two years later, the guano seems an omen of the bigger mess nature would soon deliver with back-to-back hurricane seasons that lefttens of millions in damage to both parks under Kimball's charge,Everglades and Dry Tortugas. ...

Broward road extension into county placed on hold
Hector Florin /Palm Beach Post /Apr 6
WEST PALM BEACH — County commissioners put a temporary halt to the extension of a Broward road that would run through a key piece of Everglades restoration land in southern Palm Beach County. For years, traffic officials have tried to identify which roads, including the proposed Coral Ridge Drive extension discussed Wednesday, could link western Broward to Palm Beach County. Yet Coral Ridge would knife through the eastern edge of 1,660 acres the South Florida Water Management District bought in 1996. The district is now preparing plans to build a reservoir on the land. Just south of the proposed reservoir, private landowners are seeking to build more than 2,800 homes on 1,436 acres — 20 times the number now allowed — on the Broward County line south of Lox Road, and there are questions whether any other road extensions would accommodate the traffic. An additional 513 acres may ...

Groups want corps to review western projects
Hector Florin /Palm Beach Post /Apr 7
State and local environmental groups are calling for a federal agency to take a comprehensive look at the explosive growth slated to hit northwestern Palm Beach County over the next two decades.Nearly 25,000 homes are planned on 15,000 acres, and the massive development could affect Everglades restoration, water quality, wildlife and lifestyle, according to a letter sent to Tuesday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The letter, also sent to Palm Beach County commissioners, suggested a thorough environmental study of the pending development should substitute for individual project approval. The corps reviews and issues permits for developments that could have effects on the environment. Two of the groups — the Florida Wildlife Federation and Sierra Club — succeeded in a federal lawsuit against the corps to stop the development of The Scripps Research Institute on Mecca Farms withou ...

Park's new perk: Chekika is reborn
Charlene Calloza /Miami Herald /Apr 9
More than 400 nature lovers got together Saturday to celebrate the restoration of Chekika -- a recreational area in Everglades National Park -- with a symbolic ''March for Parks,'' free food, a live Florida panther showing and tours of the historic area. ''Most people who are here have never been to the parks before,'' said Marisa Jaffe, a spokeswoman for the National Parks Conservation Association. ``Hopefully people will fall in love with the park,learn about the ecosystem and become life-long advocates and park users.'' Buses provided free transportation to the park from sites acrossMiami-Dade. At least half a dozen community organizations joined in. They included Urgent Inc., an Overtown-based group that works with youth. ''This march has been very educational for me, and I think it will help me out in the long run,'' said Quniecia Hall, 13, a member of ...



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