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SWFL ENews: Sep 10, 2006 SWFL ENews:
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BIG CYPRESS

South Florida wildlife management areas
Steve Waters /Sun Sentinel /Aug 25
Conditions are much drier than last year, when hurricanes soaked South Florida and forced the closure of several wildlife management areas to hunting because of high water levels. Bowhunters might have to do a little wading when the archery season opens Saturday at the J.W. Corbett, Holey Land, Rotenberger, Everglades and Francis S. Taylor WMAs, but that beats the waiting they've done since deer season closed eight months ago. BIG CYPRESS Area: 565,848 acres. Archery: Sept. 2-Oct. 1 in all units and Nov. 11-Jan. 1 in Deep Lake. Muzzleloader: Oct. 7-22, except Deep Lake. General gun: Nov. 11-Jan. 1, except Deep Lake.Small game: Jan. 2-Feb. 4. Spring turkey: March 3-April 8. Permits: A quota hunt permit is required to hunt in the Bear Island, Stairsteps, Loop, Corn Dance and Turner River units Nov. 11-19, Nov. 20-26 and Dec. 22-Jan. 1 and Nov. 27-Dec. 21 in Bear Is ...

Growers delighted that Ernesto fizzled
Laura Layden /Naples Daily News /Aug 31
Local growers remember Wilma. They can’t forget Charley. But there won’t be much to remember with Ernesto. As the Tropical Storm dumped rain on Southwest Florida on Wednesday, it was like almost any other summer day for growers. Except, most took a day off midweekafter scrambling to prepare for a hurricane that wasn’t. Ernesto never strengthened into a hurricane. As it pushed through South Florida on Wednesday morning, the weakened storm brought little more than drenching rain. “We’re happy,” said Gene McAvoy, a regional vegetable agent with the Hendry County Extension Office in LaBelle. Wednesday morning the highest winds he recorded were 12 mph. And there had been 2 inches of rain overnight in growing areas, as the storm churned toward Florida. “Everybody is breathing a sigh of relief,” McAvoy said. “We haven’t had any more unusual weather than what we normall ...

Underpasses expected to reduce panther deaths
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Sep 5
Two wildlife underpasses under construction on State Road 29 will help reduce the Florida panther death toll on the bloodiest road for the endangered cats, transportation officials say. An astounding 23 panthers were killed on the highway between 1979 and 2005, nearly double the total for any other individual roadway, according to statefigures. The $7.2 million plan calls for raising the two-lane road at Bear Island Grade, about five miles north of Interstate 75, and at Pistol Pond, about 6˝ miles north of the interstate. Since June, when construction began, workers have diverted traffic along the two spots onto a newly built temporary road on the west side of the existing roadbed. The project should be finished in about a year, said Florida Department of Transportation spokeswoman Debbie Tower. The underpasses are a first for S.R. 29. The highway already has fou ...

In the muck
Nicholas Spangler /Miami Herald /Sep 5
It took a long time to get out to Clyde Butcher's gallery on theTamiami Trail, and at the end of the drive, Clyde wasn't even there. ''Out back,'' somebody said.Out back was his 13-acre swamp spread and beyond that, 729,000 acres more of the Big Cypress National Preserve: home to alligators, snakes, egrets, hawks, hogs and even the reclusive swamp ape, according to some not necessarily authoritative sources. So Clyde, who started selling his nature photographs out of his Collier County gallery in the early 1990s, was somewhere out there walking around, and a lot of other people were too. It was the 13th annual Muck-About. There were movies, T-shirts for sale and a storyteller with an eye patch. But the chief attraction, as always, was mucking about in the swamp. All mucking was guided and, if you were lucky, you got a ranger named Lisa Andrews. Andrews spends a lot of he ...

Hotline established to report flooding
staff /Naples Daily News /Sep 6
The South Florida Water Management District has activated a hotline so residents can report flooding and get information regarding water conditions. The management district activated the Citizen Information Line, which will be in effect for the 16-county region. Hours of operation will be based on call volume and weather conditions, water managers said. The number is toll-free (877) 429-1294 or (561) 682-6234. Officials said canals throughout the region have been lowered to accommodate the increased stormwater runoff. ...

Up to 'here' with flooding
Editorial /Naples Daily News /Sep 8
Golden Gate Estates residents rightfully ask: What’s going on? They acknowledge they’ve seen heavy rains before, even ones of the magnitude of the past two weeks. But they have not seen such widespread, heavy flooding for at least 11 years. When homes are in danger and streets are blocked to motor vehicle traffic, thus putting people in potential danger, they are entitled to answers. Is it really the rain, or something else? Is it a result of a drainage system newly manipulated to reduce pollutants heading east to Naples Bay? Or is it due to some alteration of the land amid some of Collier County’s most explosive development?Either way, Estates residents have a right to expect some action. They’re already paying for it. In fact, they pay three times for it. Fundamental drainage service is expected in exchange for taxes they pay to Collier County, the South ...

Estates residents urged to boil water
staff /Naples Daily News /Sep 5
Golden Gate Estates residents who see standing rainwater near their private wells or covering their well heads are advised to boil their water as a health precaution against contamination. The Collier County Health Department issued a boil water advisory today for residents of the Estates with possible well water contamination or they can disinfect their water by adding 8 drops of plain bleach to each gallon of water. Allow the water to stand for 30 minutes before using it. For the boiling option, residents need to let the water come to a rolling boil for at least one minute. Another option is to use bottled water.Heavy rain has led to standing water of 2 to 6 inches in portions of DeSoto,Everglades and Wilson boulevards and drivers are advised not drive on these roads. "The flooding started last Thursday and continues to rise to the point where it is flooding peoples' wells ...

Struggling refuges face more cuts
Jeremy Cox /Naples Daily News /Aug 28
Layne Hamilton resisted the idea of managing two wildlife refuges from the third floor of a hotel near an Interstate 75 off-ramp until she saw the advantages. The Comfort Inn and Suites on Collier Boulevard is halfway between Florida Panther and Ten Thousand Islands national wildlife refuges. Every hotel guest she meets in the elevator or lobby is a potential refuge visitor. And the continental breakfast is always free. Making do is a large part of what Hamilton does as the manager of two refuges in the western Everglades that are high on natural beauty and low on money. It's about to get tougher. With the war in Iraq and Hurricane Katrina recovery topping the federal priority list, National Wildlife Refuge managers across the country are looking to the future with continued cutbacks in mind. In June, high-level managers across the refuge system's Southeast regi ...

Ave Maria gets go-ahead from Army Corps of Engineers
staff /Naples Daily News /Aug 24
Ave Maria University and its neighboring town have cleared their last big hurdle with federal environmental permitting agencies.The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetlands permit gives the go-ahead for the university and town to eventually cover some 5,000 acres of farm fields and pastures south of Immokalee. The Army Corps issued a permit in 2005 for a first phase that is already under construction northwest of the intersection of Oil Well and Camp Keais roads. People could start moving into the town in mid-2007. The campus is set to open in fall 2007.Barron Collier Cos. and Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan are partners in developing Ave Maria, which is generating international buzz about Monaghan's conservative religious beliefs. Ave Maria is the first Roman Catholic university to be built in the United States in more than 40 years.The federal permit review was strictly earthbound an ...

SOUTHWEST COAST

Crabs return to Caloosahatchee
Kevin Lollar /News Press /Aug 24
As a bloodshot dawn laced the sky and southbound traffic trudged across Caloosahatchee bridges Wednesday, Ron Davis pulled his first trap. Loaded with blue crabs. The next trap, loaded. Most of his 100 traps were loaded — six, 10, 15 crabs each.Blue crab catches have fallen off from the past few weeks, but they'restill far better than last year.• Ron Davis harvests a blue crab from the Caloosahatchee River. "Last year at this time, you'd get one crab in a trap," said Davis, 68, a commercial fisherman for 45 years. "This is a big improvement, no doubt." The difference is the lack of freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee. Last year's extremely wet rainy season raised lake levels to the pointwhere water managers had to release massive amounts of water down the Caloosahatchee to prevent flooding in the Okeechobee region. That nutrient-laden fresh water caused serious environment ...

It's a hot time for fishing in Southwest Florida
Byron Stout /News Press /Aug 24
Fishing’s not too bad, but baitfish are thinning out in the bays, water temperatures are at their annual peak, red tide still is a factor, andafternoon thunderstorms are doing their part to confound the fishing picture. All of which means getting an early start, or waiting for thepost-rain cool breeze off the Gulf will enhance the chance for asuccessful outing. Anglers willing to run way, way offshore have a shot at big grouper, Spanish mackerel are abundant inshore and in the bays, and mangrove snapper usually will bite under the bushes, even if the redfish won’t. On Lake Okeechobee, “Nobody’s coming in grumpin’ or growlin’,” according to Don Gussler at Scott Martin’s Anglers Marina, and Lake Trafford also is starting to show signs of happier days. CHARLOTTE HARBOR: King Fisher bay boat charters out of Fishermen’s Village in Punta Gorda have been fishing the eastern ...

Gang of gator terrorists take three
Byron Stout /News Press /Aug 25
Why would anyone call the Caloosahatchee River Jurassic Park? Marcus Haupt does because he pulled a 13 foot, 2-1/4-inch dinosaur out of it. Last Saturday night Haupt, 20, of North Fort Myers, and friends Kevin Rossi and Everett Henkel had the gator hunt of their lives. Their adventure started with the mega gator’s eyes reflecting a Mag-Lite beam back toward their heavily armed bay-style boat. Marcus cast a four-barbed hook beyond the gator and raced it back, snagging the beast in its relatively softer underside.So far, the event was routine. Haupt and brothers Nick, 26, and Josh, 23, and sister, Mirian 18, already had taken an 11-footer, a 10, two8-footers, a 7 and a 6-9 hunting near Orlando, beginning Tuesday night, Aug. 15.But when the Caloosahatchee monster exploded, giving the men a look at its fearsome head, they knew they were hooked to no routine reptile. ...

The legal brains behind Babcock Ranch deal
Devona Walker /Herald Tribune /Aug 10
CHARLOTTE COUNTY -- First came major league baseball, then a brand new stadium for the Miami Dolphins, then Ave Maria, and now there's Babcock Ranch. Legal architects Akerman Senterfitt have designed and brokered many of Florida's landscape- and culture-changing deals.On Aug. 3, Syd Kitson of Kitson & Partners accomplished three Herculean feats. For between $430 million and $500 million, he bought 91,000 acres of prime real estate from the Babcock family -- a deal the state of Florida failed to make. He then sold 74,000 acres of that land to the state for $350 million -- establishing the largest natural preserve in Florida history. Simultaneously, he carved out about 17,000 acres on which he plans to build a city. Behind each maneuver was Akerman Senterfitt, an Orlando-based firm with 475 attorneys offices in Florida and around the nation. The firm cleared numer ...

Florida hunters set full court press
staff /Suwannee Democrat /Sep 2006
Florida hunters are actively working to preserve their hunting heritage, andthanks to their efforts, results favoring this group are showing up in recent state legislation and on the ground. Since last fall’s 2005 Summit on the Future of Hunting in Florida-a meeting involving the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC),representatives from the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) and many others from the state’s hunting community-four hunter-friendly bills were passed and signed into law this summer by the state’s governor.House Bill 125 makes it easier for hunters to have a voice in state politics by making voter registration applications readily available where hunting and fishing licenses are sold. No net loss of Florida’s public hunting land is ensured through HB 265. A third bill, HB 471, approved the purchase of Florida’s Babcock Ranch to be mana ...

Prime harbor polluters are area residents
Brian Gleason /Sun Herald /Sep 8
Down the street from my house, an ochre strip crosses the sidewalk from a neighbor's lawn to the swale. The strip illustrates a growing problem for Charlotte County and its waterways: nutrient pollution. The brown patch on the sidewalk comes from fertilizer running off the lawn into the swale, leaving a rusty wake. Phosphate mining and agriculture are big targets for environmentalists, but in reality, the area's biggest polluters are its residents. "In terms of nutrient impairment, most of the nutrient impairments are in areas of residential development," said Lisa Beever, executive director of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. The CHNEP released a study concluding that rapid residential development was the biggest threat to Charlotte Harbor and the rivers and creeks that form a vast estuarine system that runs from Venice to Estero Bay."The biggest problems in our ...

Rain, sheet flow swamp rural homes
Kevin Lollar /News Press /Sep 7
Before the roads and houses were built, rain falling on Charlotte County's C.M. Webb Wildlife Management Area and Telegraph Swamp rolled to the Caloosahatchee River in creeks. The water also drifted as sheet flow, the slow, steady movement of water across land. But development stopped the natural flow. Old private roads with insufficient culvert systems have virtually blocked Popash and Stroud creeks, two main tributaries of the Caloosahatchee, thus causing water to back up. Another problem is that plant debris — either building up naturally orfrom dumping — and exotic vegetation clog creeks and culverts.Finally, roads block sheet flow. When heavy rains fall, all of these elements add up to flooding in North Fort Myers. Lee County has an ongoing project for cleaning vegetation out oftributaries and has hired Boyle Engineering to conduct a $500,000 project to determine ...

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Sugar land may evolve from raising cane to raising kids
John Lantigua /Palm Beach Post /Aug 21
BELLE GLADE — Pepe Fanjul Jr., senior vice president of sugar giant Florida Crystals, points from the cockpit of his corporate helicopter down at a large swath of his property on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. "That's the land we're talking about," he yells. The land, about 800 acres, is covered with tall stalks of cane right up to the hem of the Herbert Hoover Dike. Fanjul's firm is in the process of annexing that plot, plus another 200 acres, into the adjacent city of Belle Glade. "We don't have a business plan yet, but yes, we are open to developing it," Fanjul says. "From the beginning, we've talked about affordable housing.... I think we'd be among the first, if not the first." He means he may be the first of the region's large sugar growers to use that much cane land to accommodate new residents and businesses. The important word there is "may." But Fanjul's words about hi ...

Only Corps' Plan Six can end destructive Lake O releases
W.E. "Ted" Guy /Palm Beach Post /Aug 23
While Plan Six would require Big Sugar to give up a little of its land leased from the state to share in the adversity, it is the only fix for the estuaries that Big Sugar is ruining by insisting on no lake water flowing south where it used to flow. Plan Six would not flood any towns; it would flow between South Bay and Clewiston. Big Sugar would have you believe otherwise, but the growers are wro The South Florida Water Management District, dominated by Big Sugar, is wrong in opposing the Corps of Engineers' Plan Six. The Rivers Coalition is promoting Plan Six as the only fix. ...

Lake Okeechobee ecosystem improving
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /Aug 20
With the level of Lake Okeechobee lower than it's been in more than four years, the ecosystem damaged by murky, polluted waters has finally begun to improve, scientists and anglers said.Just in the past week, state biologists have reported the first new underwater plants growing on the lake's edges since the 2004 hurricanes. Dry, calm weather has allowed the water to start clearing, allowing sunlight to reach the bottom of the lake — which last week dropped to below 12 feet above sea level for the first time since May 2002, except for a quick dip in depth just a few weeks ago."We're seeing some positives, finally," said Don Fox, a biologist at the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "I'm afraid I'm going to jinx it." Eel grass, tape grass, hydrilla, pigeon grass and chara — all submerged plants that help stabilize the muddy lake bottom and cre ...

Glades residents dream of luring tourist dollars to Lake O
John Lantigua /Palm Beach Post /Aug 22
PAHOKEE — Jim Sheehan stands on the dike overlooking Lake Okeechobee and sees barrier islands breaking the shining surface of the water. They don't exist yet, but they will if Sheehan's development dreams come true. More: Westward Ho! The lure of the lake "They would provide habitat and recreational opportunities, and they would help protect the dike," says Sheehan, a partner in Everglades Adventures, the firm that along with the municipal government operates the marina complex in Pahokee. "I figure it would cost about $1.5 million per acre to dredge and build them, and that's cheap for waterfront property." Sheehan, who was wiped out by the hurricanes of the past two years, is rebuilding, although he's doing it this time with big storms in mind.The floor of his new restaurant will be 28 feet above sea level, which should jack it above the reach of most windswept waters. The do ...

You can help save your river, estuaries
Editorial /News Press /Aug 25
Improved conditions in the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary should not obscure the likelihood of more damaging releases of polluted fresh water from Lake Okeechobee in the future. With those releases we can expect more devastating effects on our environment and on a tourist industry and outdoor way of life that depend on clean, productive water. A key battle in this war is over new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposals for how to manage lake water. That plan aims to balance several competing interests, but in the great tradition of South Florida watermanagement, coastal estuaries like ours get short shrift. There were public hearings on the plan in July, and a written comment period endsOct. 2. In the meantime there will be another round of public hearingsnext month, including one in Fort Myers.The comment period and the second round of hearings will give peop ...

Corps keeping the lid on dike data
Robert King /Palm Beach Post /Aug 27
The Army Corps of Engineers is refusing to release detailed historical information about leaks in the Herbert Hoover Dike, saying the data could prove useful to terrorists or saboteurs. But one South Florida congressman and a state-hired dike expert disagree, saying the data could help inform residents about the dangers they face from the leak-prone berm around Lake Okeechobee. They say the information also could shed light on whether the corps is focusing its repair efforts on the sections of dike most in need. "I'm somewhat perplexed by this homeland security argument," said U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fort Pierce, who has promised to seek money from Congress to accelerate the corps' $300 million-plus dike repair project. "How can I authorize help for them if they won't tell me where they're most susceptible?" The corps' refusal came last week in a pair of letters to The Palm Beach Post, ...

Okeechobee dike expected to weather Ernesto
Kate Spinner /Herald Tribune /Aug 29
Whether it crosses Florida as a hurricane or a tropical storm, Ernesto coulddump more than 7 inches of rain on Lake Okeechobee on Wednesday and kick up a 4- to 5-foot storm surge. But because near-drought conditions have kept the water level in the lake low, emergency officials say they don't expect the surge to top or even stress the Herbert Hoover Dike.The 143-mile earthen dam, built and managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, protects 40,000 people from the lake's flood waters. The 730-square-mile lake, which covers a land mass larger than Charlotte County, lies in south central Florida. The dike that surrounds the water body received national attention in late April after a team of engineers reported that itspoor condition posed a "grave and imminent danger to the people and the environment of South Florida." The dike is about 35 feet tall. The risk to th ...

Plan 6 only restoration plan worth implementing
Editorial /TCPalm /Aug 30
A recent guest column article from Ms. Carol Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, indicates a need by that organization to sell its programs to the public and justify its billion-dollar-plus taxpayer budget this year. Let's look at what the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, SFWMD and the state doesn't want you to know.First, SFWMD is still run by a nine-member board of governors comprosed of members like Malcolm Wade, senior vice president of U.S. Sugar. So, until this conflict of interest travesty is changed, no "restoration" project or water-related decision will ever inconvenience Big Sugar. Second, if all the reservoirs Ms. Wehle is selling were completed tomorrow, they wouldn't hold 10 percent of what is needed to stop the massive releases we've had during excessive water years. Third, the recent "revision" of releases from the Corps stil ...

Dike is rotten to the Corps, but keep it a secret
Fred Grimm /Miami Herald /Sep 3
Not that the best darned bass fishing destination in the world shouldn't be ranked high on Osama bin Laden's to-do list. An attack on bass fishing would surely constitute an attack on afundamental American religious pursuit. Preachers around Lake Okeechobee would admit that -- among the men, anyway -- the lakeattracts a bigger congregation on Sunday morning than any church in the vicinity. But there was something slightly fishy about the Army Corps of Engineers' refusal to release historic repair information on theHerbert Hoover Dike, the 140-mile earthen dam built to keep the lake from flooding the countryside. The Corps notified The Palm Beach Post two weeks ago that it would not release maps and a database that chronicle leaks in the 70-year-old dam over the last decade. The Corps stated, ``To reveal this type of information would only assist those who might seek ...

Okeechobee levee in danger of collapsing, flooding area
Carol Williams /Los Angeles Times /Sep 6
PAHOKEE - It's been the backyard hill that children rolled down,with a popular hiking path above canals and cane fields stretching to the horizon. The grass-covered ridge affords townsfolk a soothing breeze off the broad, shallow waters of Lake Okeechobee. Now the levee circling Florida's largest lake looms as a landmark of potential disaster. The crumbling, 70-year-old earthen barrier known as the Herbert Hoover Dike has been called "a grave and imminentdanger" that could breach during a hurricane and inundate the 40,000 people living and working in its flood path. In April, engineering experts forecast a 1-in-6 chance of the dike's failure this hurricane season, a report that prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to urge federal authorities to speed up repairs and local agencies to draft evacuation plans for residents living south and east of the 700-square-mile lake. The alarm bells ...

Lake group discusses dike and ASR wells
Pete Gawda /News Zap /Sep 2006
There are no floodplain maps for the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) the County Coalition for Responsible Management of Lake Okeechobee-St.Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries and the Lake Worth Lagoon discovered at their Thursday meeting. The organization, consisting of commissioners from Okeechobee, St. Lucie, Martin, Lee, Palm Beach, Hendry, Glades, Highlands and Osceola counties meets quarterly to discuss topics of mutual interest concerning the area’s waterways.The collation also heard a presentation on the need for a science-based plan for future use of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and an update on South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) projects. Okeechobee County Commissioner Clif Betts, told the coalition that hiscounty was working with SFWMD on stormwater treatment areas (STAs). Healso announced that at the Sept. 14 commissioners meetin ...

State might fund Lake O cleanup
Suzanne Wentley /TCPalm /Sep 8
OKEECHOBEE — Instead of pressing for an increase in the property tax to benefit state water managers, a group of nine county commissioners on Thursday agreed to ask state legislators to fund water quality projects for Lake Okeechobee. The proposed funding method is similar to the work of the St. Lucie River Issue Team and the Loxahatchee River Preservation Initiative, two groups that prioritize construction and research projects to create a packaged request for inclusion in the state budget. This year, the state allocated $27.7 million for local river improvement projects. With the help of lobbyists from the South Florida Water Management District, the Nine-County Coalition members, focused on the health of Lake Okeechobee and its estuaries, hope to receive even more. "I'd love to have us develop a list of what we think is most important to the area," said ...

EVERGLADES RESTORATION

Officials seek input on Everglades plan
staff /Miami Herald /Aug 24
More than 20 members of the public were on hand Aug. 14 to sharetheir opinions on future recreational opportunities in the Florida Everglades. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District are taking public comment for the Master Recreation Plan for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Examples of recreational opportunities include fishing, boating,hiking, camping, photography, bird-watching and youth educational activities. According to the CERP website, they will seek to identify, evaluate and address the impacts of its implementation on existing recreational use within the South Florida ecosystem and identify and evaluate potential new recreation, public use and public educational opportunities. ''A particular focus will be on the identification of additionalpublic use and recreational opportunities to compensat ...

Challenge in the Glades is getting growth right
Editorial /Palm Beach Post /Aug 25
The growing momentum toward development of the Glades, prompted in part by public investment, is a good thing. But the public must be wary that it doesn't become too much of a good thing. There's no question that the impoverished regions in and around Belle Glade, South Bay and Pahokee merit a new hospital and water plant, $50 million projects driving optimism. As a four-part series in The Post showed, despite concerns over the Lake Okeechobee dike, residents are beginning to believe they can cash in on the growth that has missed the Glades while driving the coastal economy for dec They cite two critical factors beyond the hospital and water plant: construction of locks to connect local waterways to Lake Okeechobee and its famous bass fishing and rising demand for affordable land as coastal supply dwindles and prices skyrocket. Land prices are lower in the Glades after years of econom ...

Big Sugar plays rough in governor race
M Caputa & B Reinhard /Miami Herald /Aug 26
Of all the ''special interests'' that Jim Davis bashes on the campaign trail, none has caused him so much trouble as theagricultural and political juggernaut that is U.S. Sugar. With hard-hitting campaign mailers and television ads, the Clewiston company has plowed $1.7 million -- and still counting -- into the race to tear down the Democratic candidate for governor and his ''anti-agriculture platform,'' while propping up his rival in the primary, state Sen. Rod Smith. The massive spending on behalf of the underdog is reminiscent of the advertising blitz by teachers' unions on behalf of a little-known lawyer named Bill McBride in the last Democratic primary for governor. The difference: Teachers are not reviled by environmentalists for polluting the Everglades. ''It's remarkably unhealthy to have a company like U.S. Sugar trying to buy a campaign for govern ...

Everglades activists fire back with TV ad
Jason Garcia /Orlando Sentinel /Aug 31
TALLAHASSEE -- With a giant South Florida sugar grower pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the Democratic campaign for governor, a group of Everglades activists will respond today with a statewide advertising blitz of its own.The group, the Save Our Everglades Trust, plans to air television commercials targeting state Sen. Rod Smith of Alachua, who is vying with U.S. Rep. Jim Davis of Tampa for the Democratic nomination Tuesday. Smith's campaign is being aided by U.S. Sugar Corp., which is spending heavily on groups that are producing television, radio and mail ads attacking Davis. Save Our Everglades Trust is led by Mary Barley and Thom Rumberger, both longtime Everglades activists who have warred for years with U.S. Sugar and other agribusinesses. Rumberger would not reveal specifics about the ad campaign ahead of a formalannouncement set for this mornin ...

Alligator hunt season going smoothly
Ed Killer /TCPalm /Sep 7
OKEECHOBEE -- The annual Florida alligator hunt is off to a solid start three weeks into the season, according to hunters and state officials.Don Patnaude, of Stuart, said that he has been pleased with the quantity and size of the alligators he has been able to locate and kill. "The water levels in some of the spots in Lake Okeechobee have been low and the gators have been pretty easy to find in some of the ditches," Patnaude said. "It's a lot different than last year." The past two years, hunters were stymied by poor weather and high water levels. Higher water levels make it easier for the alligators to spread out, causing hunters to search longer to find larger reptiles. "This is probably the best hunting season we've had in six years," said Lewis Clanton, a Fort Pierce hunter and guide who has been out on the Stick Marsh in Indian River County, Lake Monroe ...



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