|
|
|
Sunday, Feb. 5th, #1203
It's FREE! |
 | |
Feathers & Friends Gala
Ding Darling -- Mark Renz photo
|
|
Feathers & Friends Gala
|
Thursday,
February 9, 2012 · 6:30pm |
| | Location |
|
|---|
| | Created By |
|
|---|
| | More Info |
Come out and support Collier County Audubon Society and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary by attending our Feathers & Friends Gala 2012. With keynote speaker, award winning author, Carl Hiaasen, hors d'oeuvres and dinner, it's an evening not to be missed! |
|---|
 |
This week's Caloosahatchee Condition Report.
Scientific information about the condition of the Caloosahatchee and estuary.
Pulse releases averaged only 308 cfs (cubic feet per second) the past week. Surface salinity at Ft Myers increased from 12.9 to 15 psu, salinity at Beautiful Island/I75 was 8.1 psu and the Franklin Lock (S79) salinity dropped to 3.7 psu. The salinity at Ft Myers has exceeded the 30 day MFL moving average for the past 37 days establishing the 5th consecutive year of MFL exceedences.
Salinities are increasing overall and in the upper estuary remain too high for tapegrass reestablishment or support of emerging tapegrass. Despite the new release schedule which alternates 900 cfs days with 0 flow days, the overall flow is not enough to meet the biological targets and keep salinity below the harm threshold of 10 psu at Fort Myers. Salinities in the lower estuary also exceeded the preferred salinity range for oysters.
Past reports and background information on Caloosahatchee conditions are available online at: http://www.sccf.org/content/201/Caloosahatchee-Condition-Reports.aspx
|
|
Swamp stomp:
Everglades Seafood Festival takes over E-City this weekend
By LANCE SHEARER
EVERGLADES CITY - "Imagine 50,000 people in a town with a permanent population of 500," said the press release from the Everglades Seafood Festival. "That's what happens during the first weekend in February when Everglades City holds its Seafood Festival."
As it has ever since 1970, Everglades City, the minuscule metropolis surrounded by Everglades National Park, and Collier County's original county seat, will invite one and all this weekend to its annual blowout celebration. With limited accommodations and accessed only by miles of two-lane roads, the festival presents unique logistical challenges, for both organizers and attendees.
Once you arrive at the Seafood Festival, you're smack dab in the middle of the biggest honkytonk fair you ever set your eyes on. Country music and Florida seafood are the twin anchors of the Seafood Festival, and both are sure to be consumed in mass quantities. The performance stage hosts a non-stop lineup of performers, including national stars and Southwest Florida musicians..
Everglades City is the unofficial capital of the stone crab fishery, with a fleet of crabbers that supplies the signature local delicacy to everybody from Joe's Stone Crabs in Miami to Truluck's in Naples. Crab claws will be available, as well as every kind of seafood that can be pulled out of the sea, from shrimp to oysters, blue crabs to bouillabaisse, crayfish to catfish, grouper and snapper. Oh, and don't forget frog legs and gator tail, the even more local products of the Everglades. No word if Burmese python is on the menu.
The seafood items will be augmented by all the usual suspects of carnival cuisine - kettle corn, corndogs, cotton candy, nachos, barbecue, and ice cream. You can also count on copious supplies of everyone's favorite amber colored fermented beverage (yes, beer).
Vendors will hawk their wares at over 100 arts and crafts booths, with everything from kitschy souvenirs such as rubber alligators, to one of a kind paintings, cowboy hats, and of course t-shirts. What's the point of coming to a cultural event if you don't have the proper apparel for bragging rights afterward? There is a carnival midway with a full complement of rides for the kids, or the adventurous.
Admission is free, and parking is provided by local charitable organizations. The festival was started, back in the '70s, as a fundraiser to provide playground equipment for McLeod Park, now the epicenter of the Seafood Festival. To get there from Marco Island, head east on US 41 to SR 29, turn right, and head south four miles with everybody else.
Some other weekend, before it warms up too much, come back and actually see Everglades City.
The Everglades Seafood Festival opens on Sunday at 11:00 a.m.
Information: www.evergladesseafoodfestival.com
or 239-695-2277.
|
 |
Miocene time machineEducational outreach at phosphate mine adds another
dimension to Florida's past
Eco-Voice volunteer photo storyteller Mark Renz wears many caps.
He donned a hard-hat recently to volunteer as a fossil guide for PeaceRiverExplorations.com. The Hardee County organization had permission to collect fossil sharks teeth on CF Industries property near Wauchula. Some of the group's finds are pictured below.
Mark Renz photo
|
|
|
Science Coordination Group-sponsored public workshop
for Central Everglades Planning Project
Feb. 13 and 14
A Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) workshop sponsored by the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force's Science Coordination Group (SCG) will be held Feb. 13 and 14 from 9:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. at the South Florida Water Management District Headquarters in the Governing Board Auditorium, Building B-1, 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, FL 33406.
The public workshop is being sponsored by the SCG to engage the public in science issues related to Central Everglades Planning Project. The Task Force will provide feedback from the workshop to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) during the Central Everglades Planning Project.
|
|
Please hold Wednesday, March 7, 2012 for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Meeting. The meeting will be held at the Coral Springs Marriott located at 11775 Heron Bay Blvd. in Coral Springs, FL 33076. |
|
House approves Florida water pollution rules
By www.naplesnews.com
TALLAHASSEE - Legislation that would clear the path for a pair of state water pollution rules supported by business, agriculture and utility interests won approval Friday from the Florida House. Some environmental groups, though, say the rules are too weak and prefer tougher federal standards.
Technically, the bill (HB 7051) would waive a legal requirement for legislative approval of the rules. The Florida Department of Environment Protection drafted the rules as an alternative to the stricter standards proposed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
The bill now goes to the Senate, where it's also expected to pass, and then on to Gov. Rick Scott, who supports the state rules.
That, however, won't be the final word on the matter. The environmental groups have filed an administrative law challenge. They also need final ratification by EPA, which has given them preliminary approval.
Both sets of rules would set numeric nutrient criteria to replace the imprecise verbal standards the state now uses. Environmentalists, though, contend the state's version would do little or nothing to prevent or clean up algae blooms choking many of Florida's lakes, rivers and other inland water bodies.
Nutrients from such pollutants as sewage, animal manure and fertilizer feed the algae.
Opponents of the federal rules argue they will be too costly. A study commissioned by the state estimates they'd cost utility customers and businesses from $298 million to $4.7 billion a year while the state proposal would range from $51 million to $150 million.
The EPA, though, has estimated its rules would cost only $135 million to $206 million.
The federal rules are the result of an agreement EPA made in 2009 to settle a lawsuit by the environmental groups. They assert EPA was violating federal law by failing to require the state to implement numeric limits for nitrogen and phosphate.
Sierra Club Florida, the Florida Wildlife Federation, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida and St. Johns Riverkeeper now are asking a state administrative law judge to reject the state's rules.
The groups allege they are arbitrary and contradict existing law. A hearing is set for next week, but the environmental groups are seeking a delay until late February.
|
 |
Connecting with the pastFifteen million years may have passed since a massive megalodon
shark lost this tooth. Phosphate mines, such as CF Industries,
can act as educators to draw attention to Florida's fascinating past.
Mark Renz find and photo
|
|
|
An expedition being led by photojournalist, Carlton Ward Jr., filmaker Elam Stolzfus and bear biologist Joe Guthrie, has been undertaken to highlight the need for a Florida Wildlife Corridor. They will be hiking 1000 miles over a 100 day period from the Everglades to the Florida/Georgia border. For more information and to follow their progress: http://www.floridawildlifecorridor.org/
|
Come join the Hendry-Glades Audubon Society at the Clewiston Museum on Feb. 13th, at 7:00 p.m., The evening will begin with a presentation by Mary-Bird Hansen of the Ah-Tha-Thi-Ki Museum and Boardwalk about an "Audubon Special". Then the guest speaker, Dr. Paul Gray, will present "The Human and Natural History of Okeechobee," an historical insight into Lake Okeechobee's rich past as well as an environmental perspective to its future. Mr. Gray will relate the lake's history through the eyes of a naturalist and expound on the many intricate environmental issues that currently challenge Lake Okeechobee.
Dr. Paul Gray is the Science Coordinator of Audubon of Florida's Lake Okeechobee Watershed Program. He has been employed with Audubon for 17 years and worked around Lake Okeechobee with agencies and stakeholders on Okeechobee water management, water quality, aquatic plants and fire management since 1988. Dr. Gray has also written numerous popular and technical articles on Okeechobee-related issues.
|
South Florida just had its driest January on record,
' but water supplies are holding steady thanks to a soggy fall, water managers said Wednesday.
South Florida averaged just .16 inches of rainfall during January, about 8 percent of the average rainfall for the 16-county region that stretches from Orlando to the Keys.
That was the lowest January rain total since record keeping began in 1932, according to the South Florida Water Management District.
While lack of rain may have lawns turning brown, regional water supplies from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades remain "adequate," according to the district...... |
 | Whale of an epoch
A whale vertebra at CF Industries is a reminder that Florida has been submerged by ocean many times. Phosphate mines uncover the remains of ancient whales, sharks and reptiles. Some mines, such as CF Industries in Hardee County, offer educational groups a chance to learn more about our prehistory.
Mark Renz find and photo |
|
CCAS is now on facebook. Please log in and "Like" the CCAS page to stay updated on our news and activities during our 50th anniversary season.
|
The goal of the Central Everglades Planning Project is to deliver within two years a finalized plan, known as a Project Implementation Report (PIR), for a suite of restoration projects in the central Everglades to prepare for congressional authorization as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). USACE is leading this planning effort in partnership with the South Florida Water Management District.
More information on CEPP may be found at the following web links:
-- Read the Notice of Intent (NOI) published in the Federal Register on Dec. 2 at http://1.usa.gov/thVkIf
-- Read the fact sheet at http://bit.ly/uTojzM
The Everglades ecosystem encompasses a system of diverse wetland landscapes that are hydrologically and ecologically connected across more than 200 miles from north to south and across 18,000 square miles of southern Florida. In 2000, the U.S. Congress authorized the Federal government, in...
|
|
|
 Promote Your Event You too can promote your organization's upcoming event - complete with a link to your web site - for seven days, by sponsoring the Daily Digest with a donation of $25. Send your message, date(s) of your event , and logo to sponsorship@Eco-Voice.org. |
|
|
|
|
|
Sincerely,
Eco-Voice Moderator
Eco-Voice, Inc.
|
|
Eco-voice, Inc. is an independent, volunteer-run organization and provides this website as a public service. The opinions of those posting on this site are not necessarily those of the site managers or their sponsors.
License to solicit: A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES By CALLING TOLL-FREE (800-435-7352) WITHIN THE STATE. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE.'' REGISTRATION# CH31394. " |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Post Online |
To post to the website: Email suggestions for posts to ecovoicemoderator@msn.com . Add dates and specific locations to your messages if appropriate, and they will display on the site map and calendar. If posting media material please include link to the original publication.
| | at Eco-Voice.org |
|
|
