Kristina Trotta

Miami-Dade transportation planners voted unanimously to support the Everglades Skyway, an 11- mile elevated road across Tamiami Trail. The Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) composed of the Miami-Dade County Commission and officials from the county?s largest municipalities also voted to send the recommendation to Governor Crist, leaders of the Florida legislature and the South Florida U.S. Congressional delegation.

The resolution was backed by the Everglades Skyway Coalition, a diverse group of local governments, business organizations and environmental interests. The Skyway is a visionary plan to elevate 11 miles of Tamiami Trail. The plan not only leads to Everglades restoration, but also brings a variety of benefits to our local community.

?Building the Skyway is a crucial step towards restoring America?s Everglades,? said Debbie Matthews, chair of the Miami Group of the Sierra Club. ?By gaining the support of the MPO, it shows our state and federal legislators that Miami-Dade County is behind doing this project the right way the first time.?

An aging road, Tamiami Trail must be renovated, and what better way to do so than to provide for scenic vistas of a restored Everglades. The Skyway is also a large construction project that will bring millions of dollars in business sales and provide more than 6,000 new jobs for South Florida. The Skyway is supported by 36 organizations including five Miami- Dade municipalities, Monroe County, Chamber South, the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, as well as a number of local environmental and community groups.

Sponsor of the MPO resolution, Mayor Kevin Burns of North Miami, stated, ?The Everglades Skyway is a chance for us as statesmen to leave a permanent, positive mark on the landscape. This is something that will be there for generations, that we can point to and say, ?We envisioned that.??

There will be another meeting at the MPO on March 22nd, 2 pm Government Center - about the Skyway. We once again need folks to come out and show their support!

Susan Etchey (azaroa40@earthlink.net)

With a sense of urgency, a determined group of Glades and Hendry County residents, joined by prominent environmental groups, are confronting elected officials with the unpleasant specter of a coal- burning power plant being sited in a pristine area of Florida once described as ?gloriously natural? Glades County.

In an effort to educate Floridians, and the small population of this county that borders Lake Okeechobee, about pollutants emitted from burning coal that are deposited into waterways and into the air that we breathe, an organization has been formed called Save It Now, Glades, Inc., (SING).

The goal is to halt FP&L from building a 1,960 megawatt coal plant that the electric utility claims will not harm the environment or the health of the citizens in South Florida, or cause irreparable damage to the Everglades National Park and the Caloosahatchee estuaries.

?Coal is the hands down dirtiest method by which to generate electrical power. Hand-waving promises by FP&L and the watered down EPA aside, this proposed Glades County coal plant will pollute in many, many ways,? said Dr. William Louda, associate scientist and Environmental Chemistry professor at Florida Atlantic University. ?This pollution will not be just a local occurrence, but it will spread in the air and the water throughout South Florida and is contraindicated in light of the national 10 billion plus dollar effort to rejuvenate the Everglades and associated watersheds.?

The purpose of this organization is to oppose the construction of any new coal-fired power plant in Glades County, or anywhere in the state of Florida, due to the serious consequences to public health, global warming, and climate change, and over concern for the deterioration of this region?s pristine natural heritage.

SING members also agree there are alternative and cleaner forms of energy that should be used in place of a coal-fired power plant. This power plant, being called the Glades Power Park, is currently under review by the Department of Environmental Protection.

SING President, Rhonda Roff, an environmental scientist, founded the group in December 2006, and the membership has grown in numbers as people begin to understand the issue.

?Our beloved Everglades ecosystem and the health of its inhabitants are at risk from the pollution FP&L?s proposal would cause if constructed. In a state in which all of the coastal, and most of the interior fish are on the ?do not eat? list due to mercury contamination, even the cleanest coal-fired power plant near Lake Okeechobee, its ?Liquid Heart,? is unthinkable,? said Ruff.

The proposal is expected to take up to 18 months of review and if approved, FP&L will commence construction on 5,000 acres of land in 2010. Despite projections of economic development for a county that is considered one of the poorest in the state, the members of SING are convinced the environmental damage is not a tradeoff that anyone can afford.

The Glades County commission met for months with FP&L representatives without public hearings and changed the permitted uses under the agriculture zoning designation to allow for a power plant.

Robinson

Washington State becomes the 21st state in this country to adopt specific goals and timelines for renewable energy. Their goal is to generate 15 percent of their energy through renewables by 2020.

Florida has a golden opportunity to join this trend by providing market-based subsidies to consumers to produce clean energy like SOLAR energy. Coal, nuclear power, and other fossil fuels receive hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies each year. It is time to level the playing field by providing equal financial incentives for SOLAR.

The Sunshine State should maximize its use of our primary asset, the SUN!

Susie Caplowe

Florida legislators agree the planet is heating up.

We want you to know that the majority of legislators get that the planet is heating up. It is refreshing that we don?t have to convince most legislators that global warming is real; we just have to educate them about the least destructive/invasive solutions.

Right now, they are convinced that the solutions to achieving energy independence are market-driven solutions. We need to keep up our steady message of conservation, building energy efficient homes and buildings, and using the sun in the SUNSHINE State.

I created the legislative tracker to keep members aware of progress on bills that are going through the legislative process. Keep checking back with the tracker. I update it regularly!

Just read the bills we have posted, click on the bill or on ?find more,? and you will then be on the next page for that particular bill. Click on the other features and you will be taken into the legislative bill information, where you can read the bill history, bill language, find out who the sponsors are, and more.

Greg Bush

The City of Miami Public Hearing is addressing the Master Plan for Virginia Key. This is an important meeting that the public should attend.

• March 29, 2007 6-8pm
• Univ. Miami Rosenstiel School Auditorium
• 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway

The following are some of the issues that need to be addressed: -Should the Marine Stadium be revived? Should it become highly commercialized? -What should happen to the Jimbo's area? Should there be any commercial development? What are the principles of keeping any commercial development within a low impact human scale?

Should a high school be placed next to Mast Academy?

The Everglades Awareness Campaign is an ongoing endeavor to build public awareness and involvement for environmental issues - with a focus on South Florida.

March, 24 2007 at 4th Annual Everglades Awareness Benefit Concert at Tobacco Road 626 S. Miami Ave., (Community Fundraiser & Artistic Showcase), Florida 33132 Cost : $10

As part of the Everglades Awareness Campaign, Ploppy Palace Production and The Wallflower Gallery are utilizing Art Activism to match the political and grassroots efforts of various organizations like the Sierra Clubs Miami Chapter, Clean Water Action, the Marine Animal Rescue Society (MARS), the Miami- Dade Green Party, Emerge Miami, Florida PIRG, FIU Students For Enviro Action, Institute for Regional Conservation, Animal Rights Foundation Of Florida and other progressive groups.

Maria Papazian

The third annual Sierra Club Miami Group fundraising dinner is scheduled for Friday, May 5th, 2007. The first year that this fundraising event was held, it was in October of 2004 and called the Harvest Moon Dinner and Silent Auction. The second year, we had it planned for November 2005, but Hurricane Wilma dropped by 11 days prior to our event, and as you may recall, we had to reschedule it to March 2006. As a result, ExCom decided to change the Harvest Moon to the Spring Fling and avoid the hurricane season all together.

This year, the Spring Fling Dinner and Silent Auction will be held on the 20th floor of the Double Tree Hotel on South Bayshore Drive surrounded by great views. The buffet and open bar will be accompanied by music for your dancing and listening pleasure, and a silent auction. It all begins at 7:30 PM and lasts until 11:30 PM.

The cost per person is $100 and includes valet parking, although there are limited parking meters to self-park on the street, if you prefer.

We are once again reaching into the Sierra Club?s tradition of grassroots participation, to pull it all off. We have many jobs to accomplish before the big day, many from the comfort of your own home. Some of the tasks include:

• Invitations
• Responses
• Publicity
• Center Pieces
• Speaker
• Silent Auction

To volunteer to help with the 2007 Spring Fling, contact Maria Papazian at mdpapazian@msn.com or at 305-519-0877.

Meetings will be kept to a minimum; most communication will be via email.

Jeff Tucker

EarthSave Miami?s vegan potluck dinner & program. Sat., March 31, 6:30 PM. Speaker: George Eisman, RD Topic: ?Hazards of Low Carb Diets?.

Medical and nutritional authorities don?t agree on the science of carbohydrate consumption but author, dietician and Vegetarian Hall of Famer Eisman provides valuable insights you can take home.

Bring a vegan dish (free of animal products) and your own place setting. Everyone welcome. Members & first-timers- Free, Non-members- $5.

Where: Riviera Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall, 5275 Sunset Drive, So. Miami. For more info call 305 228-1116.

Last October, we told you about the South Miami-Dade Watershed Study and Plan. This Plan seeks to guide development to protect Biscayne Bay while achieving environmental, economic and social sustainability in southern Miami-Dade County. After years of research and discussion, the study the Miami Dade Commission in 1996, is expected to be released this month. Hold the Line coalition efforts are needed to ensure the appropriate growth objectives of the Watershed Plan are adopted by the county.

In April, new applications to amend the Miami-Dade County Comprehensive Development Master Plan will be filed. As we await the inevitable applications for development outside the Urban Development Boundary (UDB), Hold the Line is gearing up for any challenges that may be coming and we will need your help.

Will we protect our vibrant communities, existing neighborhood character, and water supply or will we build out completely like Broward County until no wetlands, farming, or open space remains and Biscayne Bay is polluted?

By applying the Plan's strategies we can protect our quality of life and the environment from damaging development patterns. The table below outlines the Plan's projections for future residential units through the year 2050 with many communities seeing less than 100 new units per year. The plan does not mandate or encourage growth, but controls how the additional 30,000 persons expected annually in Miami- Dade will least impact our schools, traffic and infrastructure. The alternative is to let developers build unrestrained for their own profit at the expense of our communities.

Ken Smith

Sierra Singles are individuals that are concerned about the environment who wish to meet others for fun and entertainment. Always try to bring at least two single friends with you to our events. Couples are welcome to participate in all our events but please bring those single friends along.

Activity schedule March /April 2007

• March 24**Everglades Awareness Concert
• March31**Movie Night International Film
• April 6** Coral Galbes Glalery night Books and Books
• April 10** Spanish Night**Las Culebrinas 2890 SW 27th Ave
• April 14** Earth DAy Picnic**AD Barnes Park
• April 17**Sierra and Beer**Titantic Brewery
• April 18** Theatre On the Town**Ring Theatre UMiami
• May 8th**Opera Anna Karenina**Carnival Center

Our Outings list keeps its exponential growth pace! Do you feel Like you need to get away and into NATURE? Join us for an outing!

Saturday & Sunday, April 14, 15 Prairie Lakes Backpacking. Overnight trip to Prairie Lakes for backpacking. Easy fun trip for all. Leisure. Limit 8. $25 members, $30 non-members. Dan Cruse, 305- 661 2975, 6580 Santona St. #27, Coral Gables,33146. Asst: TBA

Saturday, April 21, 4 PM - Ecowalk at Frenchman's Forest Natural Area in Palm Beach Gardens. We will walk, with frequent stops to look, listen and absorb, for about 1½ hours and hopefully, see some of the spring migration. Bring your water, hat, sunscreen and binoculars. There are NO facilities at this natural area. Frenchman's Forest is located on the west side of Prosperity Farms Road, one mile north of PGA Boulevard. FREE. Leisure. Limit 10. Lisa Hanley, 561-732-9578, lisa.hanley@Juno.com

Saturday, May 5, 9 AM - Butterfly ecowalk at the Lantana Natural Area. This lovely little preserve is full of butterflies and birds and we hope the Jamaica Capers will be in full bloom. Meet in the parking lot and bring your water, hats, sunscreen and binoculars. The Natural Area is on the north side of Lantana's Ocean Ave, between the bridge and A1A. FREE. Leisure. Limit 20. Lisa Hanley, 561-732- 9578, lisa.hanley@juno.com.

Sunday, May 20 Biscayne National Park Snorkel. Snorkel a beautiful reef five miles from Elliot Key with a gourmet supper afterwards in Biscayne National Park. Moderate. Limit 15. $55 members, $60 non-members. Diane Jacobs, 305 667 6962, diane@cobb-ebin.com. Lee Jacobs, 305 667-6962, eeljac@earthlink.net. Note: Must sign up and pay in full no later then May 1!

If you are interested in a trip, call or e-mail the trip leader and ask for details or come to the signup table at the general meetings.

Our outings are listed as Leisure, Moderate, or Strenuous. Be realistic about your physical condition and the degree of challenge you enjoy. Come ready to paddle, bicycle or hike and share the work. There are no passengers on our outings, only participants. Family trips are open to everyone. Once you have made a reservation, we ask that you make a serious commitment to attend the trip. Cancellations are detrimental to our program. Our outings leaders are unpaid trained volunteers.

Please sign up early for planning purposes. All reservations must be accompanied by a non- refundable deposit. Make all checks payable to Sierra Club Outings. Please write the name and date of your trip on your check and include your phone number. Deposits are $10 on trip fees of up to $100 and $20 on trips over $100 Fees on trips of $15 or less are to be paid in full with your reservation. Full payment is due 30 days in advance of the trip. Please send all payments to the trip leader.

If you must cancel, call the leader or assistant leader as early as possible. If you cancel 30 days or more in advance, your deposit will be refunded. If you cancel less than 30 days in advance, you lose your deposit. If you cancel 7 days or less in advance, you will forfeit all fees.

April 2007 James Wood, RecycledPCParts.com, "Recycling electronic equipment" He will collect recyclable electronics( cell phones, old palms, PC?s, laptops, monitors) Free T shirts for oldest and newest items.

May 2007 Maria Papazian Miami Dade Public Schools Education Awards

It's a new year with new opportunities! Do you know someone who wants to speak to your Sierra Club-Miami Group?? Contact Ken Smith 305-758-3121

email: miamisierra@gmail.com

web: http://florida.sierraclub.org/miami/