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Saturday, Jan. 7th, 2012 # 1175 |
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Daily Eco-Voice Emailed Digest of news, views and events.
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This digest brought to you by the
http://www.collieraudubon.info/index.html
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The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has a long history monitoring and protecting our water, including the first landmark Naples Bay study conducted in 1979. Water quality monitoring and research are still large parts of the work we do.
Throughout the five-county region, we work with planners and decision-makers to ensure they are educated on the that stringent water management tools and best practices are in place, utilized and enforced across the region, and that they base their decisions on best-available science.
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 | Chasing Moments
As I reach for a moment to claim it as mine It's no longer mine to hold When I look back to see where it went I realize it was a moment wasted When I try to anticipate the moment and reach for it before it arrives it is not the moment I had hoped for But when I live in the now and neither reach nor hold back I find I can spend an eternity in a single moment Mark Renz photo art and words |
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Red Tide Shellfish Warning
Fort Myers, FL- Lee County Health Department continues an advisory against harvesting and eating shellfish due to poisoning from red tide toxins in local waters that has been present since November. |
Reports and background information on Caloosahatchee conditions are available online at:
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Environmental advocates praise Gov. Rick Scott's commitment to restore central Everglades
ByChristine Stapleton
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Distinguished Everglades activists, policy makers and politicians who have witnessed decades of stalled projects and broken promises applauded Gov. Rick Scott this evening when he held firm on finding $40 million in this year's state budget to spend on restoring the Everglades.
"It's an exciting time as long as you are an optimist," Scott said during the opening reception at the Everglades Coalition's annual conference.
As for the $40 million, "I'm very optimistic we will get there," Scott said.
The audience included Nat Reed, a former assistant U.S. secretary of the interior; Maggie Hurchalla, a former Martin County commissioner and an outspoken environmentalist; Hershel Vinyard, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection; Melissa Meeker, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District; and Col. Alfred A. Pantano, director of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville office.
"He has learned Everglades-speak and he recognizes all the important players," said John Marshall, a longtime environmental activist and chairman of the Florida Environmental Institute.
Marshall joined other environmentalists in praising Scott's plan to restore the central Everglades, an area long overlooked for projects at the northern and southern ends of the subtropical wetlands.
"We are happy as pigs in slop over the central Everglades proposal," Marshall said.
Scott's recent devotion to Everglades restoration has caught many environmentalists off guard. Scott bridged a long-strained relationship between state and federal agencies in October when he went to Washington and unveiled his own plan to top Obama administration officials, including U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar.
Although the restoration was planned as a state and federal partnership, Florida has taken on most of the financial, legal and engineering efforts to date.
In a show of federal support for restoration, the administration has sent two of its top environmental officials to the conference.
Lisa Jackson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will give keynote remarks Friday. Nancy Sutley, who leads the White House Council on Environmental Quality, also will speak.
After speaking from the dais for about 15 minutes, Scott stepped off the stage and took questions from the audience. When asked if he would reconsider his decision to get rid of the Department of Community Affairs, the defunct agency that protected environmental interests by overseeing development statewide, Scott said he would if necessary.
In response to a question about buying more land for the restoration, Scott said he would consider it if the land is needed.
On a question about recent efforts to privatize Florida's water supply, Scott said he was confident those he had appointed to oversee the state's water supply would uphold the state's 1972 Water Resources Act, which designates water to be a public resource, rather than a private commodity.
"I'm going to hold him to that," said Richard Pettigrew, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives in 1972. "I think he's gotten on board with Everglades Restoration."
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 | Meadow crooner
Eastern meadowlark
Mark Renz photo
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Florida House of Representatives - House Redistricting Committee
Redistricting Amendments for January 9 Subcommittee Meetings
Amendments were filed for most, but not all, of the proposed redistricting bills being heard Monday by the Congressional Redistricting Subcommittee and House Redistricting Subcommittee. You can download a summary of the amendments byclicking here.
Maps, data and more regarding the amendments are accessible via the "Redistricting Bills" button atwww.floridaredistricting.org or directly athttp://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Redistricting/Redistricting2012.aspx. Look under the "Pending Amendments" section.
To watch Monday's meetings live, make sure to visit The Florida Channel athttp://thefloridachannel.org/ on January 9.
What: Congressional Redistricting Subcommittee Meeting
Date: Monday, January 9, 2012
Time: 12 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EDT
Location: 404 House Office Building, Tallahassee, FL
What: Senate Redistricting Subcommittee Meeting
Date: Monday, January 9, 2012
Time: 12 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EDT
Location: Morris Hall (17 House Office Building), Tallahassee, FL
What: House Redistricting Subcommittee Meeting
Date: Monday, January 9, 2012
Time: 3 p.m. - 6 p.m. EDT
Location: 404 House Office Building, Tallahassee, FL
As always, please let us know if you have any questions or need for additional information.
Sincerely,
Benjamin M. Fairbrother
House Redistricting Committee
Florida House of Representatives
400 House Office Building
O: (850) 921-8831
www.floridaredistricting.org
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Definitions
PRESERVE: To keep safe from injury, harm or destruction Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary
PRESERVE: Balance conservation with the active use of the land...with such uses as logging, farming, cattle ranching, oil exploration and drilling and hunting with access via off-road vehicles.
Source: U.S. CongressPhoto and observation by Mark Renz
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Here is a statement from Clyde Butcher and Friends of Big Cypress
To Whom It May Concern:
In regards to the Big Cypress National Preserve Addition Lands lawsuit, Friends of Big Cypress has concluded to support the National Park Service in this challenge.
While we are sympathetic to the need to protect our environment, we also realize that Big Cypress National Preserve was not created as a National Park, but was created as a PRESERVE. The purpose of this Preserve is to balance conservation with the active use of the land inside its boundaries, The National Park System was directed to provide for these uses as dictated in the enabling legislation written by Congress. This means that the Preserve has uses, such as hunting, and traditional occupancy by Native American tribes, that are not found in our National Parks. We respect the fact that several open public hearings and extensive debate have produced a compromise between the differing factors. The thoroughly reviewed plan for the Addition Lands accomplishes reasonable approaches for land use between the two opposing factions. We feel the compromise is correct and justified because they are in keeping with the intended uses of the Preserve.
The Addition Lands do NOT consist of wilderness as Sierra Club and NPCA claim. Certain areas of the Addition Lands are more difficult to reach and therefore have less "use" activity in them and therefore 47,000 acres have been set aside by the Preserve as a wilderness area. However, the majority of the land has been in use for many, many years. The area has been home to logging, farming, cattle ranching, oil exploration and drilling and hunting with access via off-road vehicles.
For many years prior to the area becoming part of the Preserve the land was privately held. The private landowners and their lessees used ORV's to access their seasonal camps (100 camps) and roads to year around homes (20). There appear to be approximately 130 miles of pre-existing trails. These pre-existing trails would be created into "authorized" trails for ORV use by the Preserve. The Addition Land plan is NOT creating new trails. If all the trails on the Addition Lands were combined together in acreage, they would cover 190 acres out of 146,000 acres.
BCNP has staff trained as biologists and evaluates trails to ensure that the potential of impact on protected species is minimized. In the last decade in the Preserve, with oversight by BCNP, species that were once endangered have begun a come-back. All of this has happened in the presence of hunters, ORV, hikers, kayakers, campers, businesses & homes. There is no reason to believe that this will not continue in the Addition Lands.
The Sierra Club and NPCA also claim that Superintendent Pedro Ramos was biased in his review of the Addition Land issues and that the land should be managed more restrictively than the rest of the Preserve allowing no access at all. This is contrary to the purpose of the Preserve. During the time Pedro Ramos has been with Big Cypress National Preserve, species that were once endangered have begun a comeback. The Florida Panther population has increased threefold; the wood stork population is increasing; the red-cockaded woodpecker is increasing in BCNP, but decreasing elsewhere. And contrary to the press release the Sierra Club put out into the public.. .there never have been crocodiles in the Preserve.
In conclusion, we believe this lawsuit is not justified due to the fact it's main purpose seems to be the Sierra Club and NPCA's continuing effort of driving the hunters out of the Big Cypress National Preserve. Since the original legal agreement with the Federal Government insures the active use of the Preserve, this lawsuit seems to have the intention of creating animosity where there is no reason for it to exist. The animosity being created by this unfounded lawsuit is causing hunters and ORV users to distrust the legal documents and agreements put forth by the Federal Government. This attitude is bleeding over into other land acquisition areas of needed environmental preservation.
Currently in the Kissimmee basin Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge is under consideration, in cooperation with conservation-minded ranchers and with hunting assured for outdoorsmen. The majority of the outdoorsmen have been in favor of this achievement. However, now that another attack on their legal rights to use BCNP is under way, hunters wonder if they do help to save more land with the agreement that they can still use it, will they eventually end up in court fighting for their rights as they are in Big Cypress National Preserve?
The outdoorsmen of our country understand the need to ensure a balanced environment. Without it species would not be able to survive and hunting would end. Friends of Big Cypress is an environmental group and we encourage all people who love the environment to join together with compromises so that land can be saved and species can grow in numbers. We cannot do this alone. We need to work together.
Sincerely,
Clyde Butcher
President - Friends of Big Cypress
237 Warfield Ave.
Venice, Florida 34285
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 | Foreclosure moth
I owe, I owe (IO Moth)
Mark Renz photo
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Debunking the "Job Killer" Myth: How Pollution Limits Encourage Jobs
Yesterday, CBF released its latest report. Entitled Debunking the "Job Killer" Myth: How Pollution Limits Encourage Jobs in the Chesapeake Bay Region, this 17-page report is the product of data from state and federal agencies, published studies and reports, and interviews with experts, and includes 84 source citations.
The gist of the report is that contrary to what opponents of the federal/state Bay pollution limits and plans say-and they say the result will be economic Armageddon-environmental regulations spur economic activity and create jobs. In fact, our report concludes that stormwater and sewage plant upgrades intended to help implement the federal/state plan would create nearly 250,000 jobs in the Bay region. And we profile three individuals who are newly employed because of the plan and are thus able to provide for their families as well as one farmer who increased his herd by a factor of three, reduced polluted runoff from his cows, and created jobs for 25 workers who constructed a new barn and two manure pits on his farm.
The opposition is already trying to dismiss the findings of our report. According to E&E Publishing, Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory relations for the American Farm Bureau, is reported to have said in an e-mail, "If more regulations created jobs-then the Obama administration's track record should be explosive economic growth and full employment."
To Mr. Parrish, I say, "Have you not heard of the meltdown in the credit markets and its impact on unemployment? This is the classic uninformed rhetoric we have been putting up with from the anti-environment lobbyists for years. Our report is excruciatingly well documented and footnoted. Let's see you do the same before you sound off next. Facts are facts."
I hope you will read the report and let your local, state, and federal officials know that you do not believe the "Job Killer" myth, and that you want clean water, healthy rivers and streams, and a restored Chesapeake Bay.
Sincerely,
Will Baker
President
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
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DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION EVERGLADES WEST COAST BMAP MEETING
DATE AND TIME: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 9:30 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
PLACE: South Florida Water Management District , 2301 McGregor Boulevard, Ft. Myers, Florida 33901
FAW ID: #10738305 Notice of Meeting/Workshop Hearing
... GENERAL SUBJECT MATTER TO BE CONSIDERED: This is a public meeting to discuss technical issues related to the Everglades West Coast Basin Management Action Plan (BMAP) in Hendry Creek and Imperial River basins. The primary topics for discussion are the projects submitted by the stakeholders and the calculation of Total Nitrogen reductions towards the TMDL. A copy of the agenda may be obtained by contacting: Ms. Beth Alvi, Department of Environmental Protection, Watershed Planning and Coordination Section, 2600 Blair Stone Road, MS 3565, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-2400 or via phone at (850) 245-8559. Pursuant to the provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this workshop/meeting is asked to advise the agency at least 48 hours before the workshop/meeting by contacting: Ms. Beth Alvi at (850) 245-8559. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency using the Florida Relay Service, 1(800)955-8771 (TDD) or 1(800)955-8770 (Voice). |
http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/
Please save the date of Tuesday, January 17, 2012 to join several hundred business & civic leaders, sportsmen, government officials and representatives from the conservation community for the Everglades Foundation's Everglades, Jobs and Water Supply Summit in Tallahassee.
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Eco-Voice, Inc.
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