Murray Beatts and Joan Wuischpard landed these nice snapper. They also caught some grouper, which they threw back.

If you feel like you're cooking in the September heat, imagine what the fish are experiencing in near 90-degree water.

I talked to a few captains who went to the humps over the holiday weekend. They report scattered dolphin catches, but the blackfin tuna and wahoo are virtually nonexistent.

Fishing on the wrecks has also been on the slow side. A few mutton snapper are making their way into fish boxes along with some large jack crevalle in the 20- to 25-pound range.

I understand there's been a cold-water upwelling that has put a damper on the wreck fishery. When this subsides, the fishing will be good again. This occurrence has pushed the bottom-dwelling wreck species up onto the reef. Although this makes them more accessible, it tends to spread them out, ultimately making them more difficult to target.

Many anglers fishing for yellowtail have been surprised with a good-size mutton in their slick. One of the best ways to target the larger muttons is to cast-net or hair-hook the ballyhoo that are showing in tremendous numbers along the reef line. Send one to the bottom with a 20-pound-class spinning rod and you'll most likely be rewarded with a delicious mutton snapper.

There are also numerous cero mackerel attacking the ballyhoo with abandon. Twenty-pound tackle works well for these macks. If you prefer more sport, use your yellowtail equipment with a small treble hook and a short trace of wire. Cast a live ballyhoo back on the surface of your slick, where it will inevitably be attacked by the toothy speed demons.

I've seen fair numbers of good-size yellowjacks among the yellowtail and cero mackerel. They always make for a nice bonus to any fish box and are delicious on the dinner table.

There are plenty of mangrove snapper in the bay. Those willing to venture to a wreck or two will be rewarded with quite the variety of fun species. Everything from medium-size jack crevalle, bluefish, ladyfish, Goliath grouper to Spanish mackerel, lane and mangrove snapper, and even the occasional cobia and permit, are waiting to bend your rods.

When targeting the snapper and grouper, be sure to use circle hooks, as they are mandatory in Gulf waters. Live pinfish is the bait of choice, but cut chunks of ballyhoo or pinfish will also work well. Either shrimp or crabs will attract the permit.

Sharks are hanging at the Gulf wrecks in abundance. You can attract them with a freshly filleted jack crevalle drifted back in your chum slick or a live blue runner hung from a kite. The kite tactic is especially entertaining, as multiple blacktips will attempt to catch the blue runner on the surface. We like to fish for the blacktip sharks with 20-pound spin tackle or 25-pound conventional tackle.

The week's best catches

This time of year is typically sluggish for charter fishing, but we did receive a few reports.

In the Upper Keys, Capt. Greg Poland, based in Islamorada, reports excellent bonefishing on the shoreline in upper Key Largo. He has also been finding small tarpon in the Everglades.

Capt. Jimmy Gagliardini, of High Caliber Charters out of the Hammocks in Marathon, put his anglers on the snapper bite on the reef.

Capt. Jeff Shelar, of Catch-em-All Charters based at Captain Pip's Marina and Hideaway in Marathon, had success on the reef with snapper and a few keeper black grouper. In the Gulf, his anglers have been catching lots of big Goliath grouper while targeting other species. Shelar's catch of the week goes to Jennifer Black of Ann Arbor, Mich., who caught six permit in one day ranging in size from 12 to 25 pounds.

The SeaSquared hit the reef for snapper and grouper charters last week. The Eric Peavey group from Miami caught a nice mess of yellowtail and mangrove snapper, some cero mackerel and a bonus 15-pound yellowjack.

Murray Beatts and his wife, Joan Wuischpard, from Tampa caught yellowtail snapper in the 14- to 20-inch range and a big 17-inch lane snapper. They threw back some short red and black grouper.

In the Lower Keys, Capt. Kevin Wilson, of Knee Deep Charters out of the Geiger Key Marina, took his groups to the reef, where they got their limits of yellowtail snapper. Separately, Wilson and his wife, Barbie, had quite the spearfish harvest last week: Red and black grouper, hogfish, mutton and gray snapper.

As always, the waters of the Florida Keys offer a multitude of fishing opportunities to get out there and enjoy it. If you have a report you'd like to contribute, please email it to us.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The impact of the BP oil spill on the region's land and water resources will be the subject of an expert panel Sept. 14 at the University of Florida's Bob Graham Center for Public Service.

"The Impact to the Land and the Sea from the Gulf Oil Disaster" will take place at 7 p.m. in Pugh Hall's Ocora. It will feature three of the Sunshine State's leading experts on coastal habitats, the Everglades, the economy and the Gulf of Mexico.

Hosting the discussion will be Jim Murley, chairman of the Florida Energy & Climate Commission, a former Secretary of the Florida Department of Community Affairs and director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University; Edith Widder, Ocean Research and Conservation Association senior scientist and CEO; and Ian MacDonald, Florida State University professor of oceanography.

The BP spill, the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history, released an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil in the Gulf before the damaged Deepwater Horizon drilling rig was finally capped in August. But the effects of the spill on Florida's economy, plant and animal wildlife, as well as its people, are still being felt.

"Florida made the decision a number of years ago that our economic interests were going to be in the protection of our coasts," said former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, who is co-chairman of the presidential commission investigating the oil spill. "The Panhandle beaches are some of the most beautiful and pristine in the world. But they're at risk because the federal policies have proven to be ineffective and insufficient to protect these coasts."

Scientists and government officials are still examining and debating the permanent damage from the spill, and it's not known how much oil is still loose in the Gulf. Meanwhile, damage claims from fishermen, hotels, restaurants and other businesses affected by the spill are coming in and could eventually top $20 billion. The spill has raised profound questions about the effects of deep-sea offshore oil drilling, government regulation and the importance of science in pursuing public policy.

"I think the spill is playing itself out in a way that I think people may be able to identify more with what are the costs of a carbon-based economy," said Murley, one of the state's leading experts on growth management.

This panel discussion will also be streamed live on Sept. 14 from the Bob Graham Center website, www.bobgrahamcenter.ufl.edu.

The Bob Graham Center provides students with opportunities to train for future leadership positions, meet policymakers and take courses in critical thinking, language learning and studies of world cultures. Its mission is to foster public leadership and solve issues related to the Americas and homeland security. It also serves as a magnet to attract distinguished scholars and speakers to Florida.

National award-winning environmentalist Audrey Peter-man will be the keynote speaker at Operation Green Leaves' 20th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser, Friday, Sept. 24, 2010 at the beautiful Solares Garden, 3635 N.W. 78 Ave., Miami, Fla. Peterman, winner of the 2000 "Environmental Hero of the Year" Award from Vice President Al Gore and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, will address the topic, "Is Haiti's environmental devastation the future of our world?"

As one of the leading African American environmentalists in the country, Peterman brings a wealth of experience of the natural, cultural and historic treasures that are protected in our national parks, forests and wildlife preserves. Finding that Americans of color are uninformed about these places and the tremendous capacity they have for enriching lives and stabilizing our environment, she has worked for 15 years to change these dynamics.

"Audrey has been a force in the movement to integrate our publicly-owned lands," says Nadine Patrice, founder and executive director of Operation Green Leaves. "From the grass-roots level here in South Florida, to Congress and the White House, there are few people in the country who are better known for leadership on this issue."

Patrice became an environmentalist and formed the non-profit organization 20 years ago, when she first got a glimpse of the future of Haiti that has now come to pass.

"It has been 20 years since I first returned to Haiti and saw that the Haitian people were rapidly reducing the forests to rubble as they cut down the trees for firewood," she says. "I realized that without trees to hold the soil together when it rained, the mud tumbling down the hillsides would bury hundreds of homes and people. Continuing out to sea, it would suffocate the coral reefs and leave them dead, unable to support sea life. I decided right then and there that I had to do something to bring more information to the people about the cause-and-effect relationship, and also to provide them with alternate resources."

The effects of the earthquake in Haiti this year were magnified by the unstable environment and substandard infrastructure. Many of the grassroots organizations OGL helped to develop in Haiti have been a resource for Haitians in the out-lying areas that are not being serviced by multi-national aid organizations. As the media focus has moved away from Haiti, these organizations remain desperately in need of assistance that OGL struggles to provide.

OGL's influence has been both national and international. The organization has simultaneously provided environmental education in the public school system and has introduced thousands of South Floridians to the national parks in their backyards: Everglades, Biscayne and the Dry Tortugas National Parks, and the Big Cypress National Preserve.

"We are a small group, with a paltry budget, and we are doing a huge job of bringing information and resources so people can make a positive difference in their environment, "says Patrice. "Many Americans are still unaware that we have a vital role to play if we are to stave off crises such as the recurring cycle in Haiti. I shudder to think where we might be in 20 years if we fail to act now."

As part of the fundraiser, Peterman will sign copies of her new book, Legacy on the Land: A Black Couple Discovers Our National Inheritance and Tells Why Every American Should Care. Part of the proceeds will be donated to Operation Green Leaves.

Here we go again, with "shared diversity."

That's the mantra from West Palm Beach, headquarters of the South Florida Water Management District, the agency with a big say in how water is distributed around the region.

"Shared adversity" is supposed to mean that when water is either too plentiful or too scarce, everybody feels some pain. But what it traditionally means is that the district's other interests get the shares, and we get the adversity.

A report in The News-Press today shows that "adaptive protocols" to be discussed Thursday in West Palm Beach call for no water to be released from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River in certain cases when low water levels could harm the lake environment.

But during such emergencies, agriculture will continue to get water from the lake.
That doesn't sound like shared adversity to us.

The Caloosahatchee system needs fresh water from the lake during dry periods to protect freshwater environments, which can be devastated by excessive salinity.

It's sort of the reverse of the problem we face in times of extreme high water, such as in 2004 and 2005, when vast amounts of polluted fresh water were released from the lake to avoid damage to the dike that protects lakeside communities.

Those releases caused algae blooms in the river and its coastal estuaries that devastated the environment.
Charles Dauray, who represents Southwest Florida on the district board, is unhappy with the protocols: "What bothers me and others is, when we go into a dry period, agriculture seems to come first. Even if we have none, they're getting some water."

We understand that there is real risk to agriculture in dry periods. But our river and marine environments are just as important to our economy as agriculture is to other areas.

The fact that Southwest Florida is getting the low priority is a continuation of the district's traditional bias in favor of agriculture over the environment and against Southwest Florida. That needs to end.

Wildlife officials are calling off this fall and winter deer hunting season on 100,000 acres in the Big Cypress National Preserve due to a dramatic decline in the size of the deer herd.

The National Park Service has been keeping a watchful eye on the decline in the preserve's southernmost region. The area is known as the Stairsteps Unit for its jagged shared boundary with Everglades National Park south of U.S. 41.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is responding by calling off the hunting seasons for certain parts of the park. Deer season is open, though, to other parts of the 729,000-acre preserve.

A task force will try to find out the reason for the decline. Theories include high water levels, disease and predators with an upper hand.

The massive growth in the population of some big birds, such as Canada geese and vultures, is leading to conflicts with people and challenging wildlife officials to develop solutions.

Although the most publicized problems with large birds have involved airplanes - notably when US Airways Flight 1549 was forced to ditch into New York's Hudson River in 2009 after geese were sucked into its engines - there are other problems, too. Vultures are short-circuiting power lines and damaging cars and homes, and cormorants are destroying land with their waste, according to state and federal wildlife officials.

Many of these birds thrive in human habitats such as golf courses, says Greg Butcher of the National Audubon Society.

"There is a consensus in the bird conservation community that some of these species are really overpopulated," he says. "The biggest question is what to do with these birds."

The non-migratory population of Canada geese along the eastern U.S. and Canada has more than tripled since 1990 to nearly 1 million, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 1980, the black vulture population has grown 2.5% per year nationally, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

In Tennessee, where the survey puts the annual growth of black vultures at 11%, the Tennessee Valley Authority is trying to keep the birds off transmission towers so they don't short-circuit power lines. It is equipping the towers with plastic strips, which the birds find uncomfortable for perching, says bird scientist Charles Nicholson.

In Florida's Everglades National Park, officials plan to use an arsenal of water guns, laser lights and noisemakers to scare off native vultures around parking lots. The birds rip the rubber off windshield wipers and sunroof seals, says David Hallac, chief of biological resources for the park.

Dave Sherman, a wildlife biologist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, says the waste of the double-crested cormorant kills off trees and vegetation on islands and can reduce fish populations. Ohio has been shooting them since 2006, he says, and "the islands look a lot greener."

Killing birds to reduce populations can be controversial.

In July, 350 to 400 resident Canada geese were captured and killed in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, says Carol Bannerman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, citing problems with birds hitting aircraft.

"Anytime there is a conflict between animals and people, the animals lose," says New York resident Patty Adjamine, who attended a memorial service for the birds.

Critics of the deal to buy U.S. Sugar's land received a rebuke last week - a sharply worded report that will guide a federal judge's decisions in how he should protect the Everglades.

John Barkett, special master for U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, found that water managers were correct to halt construction of a 16,000-acre reservoir in western Palm Beach County, even though they had spent about $280 million on the first phase of construction. The reservoir wouldn't help water quality, he concluded, and building it now would mean missing the opportunity presented by buying U.S. Sugar's land.

"It would be both disappointing and surprising if the state and the United States did not figure out a way to assist the district in truly re-creating the River of Grass," Mr. Barkett wrote. "Everglades? Or Neverglades? At some point, political and business leaders have to implement their commitment to save this Florida and United States ecological treasure; promises just won't do anymore."

Critics had attacked the South Florida Water Management District for dropping the reservoir, even though its location - given the U.S. Sugar purchase - is best suited for conversion into a shallow-water marsh known as a stormwater treatment area. Such marshes cleanse water, so it can meet strict pollution standards before entering the Everglades. The district stopped before a point of no return, and argued that the work just as easily could lay the groundwork for a treatment area.

Because of declining tax revenue, the water district has reduced its purchase of U.S. Sugar land to $197 million for 27,000 acres. Those two properties are meant to help with water treatment, not water storage.

U.S. Sugar competitor Florida Crystals, the Miccosukee Tribe and politicians seeking to capitalize on voter discontent, argue that the U.S. Sugar purchase wastes money and stops progress on ongoing projects.

Mr. Barkett disagrees: "The question presented is whether the district is allowed to change its mind on a remedial approach. The answer is a qualified 'yes.'" It's the right recommendation to Judge Moreno.

- Joel Engelhardt,
for The Palm Beach Post Editorial Board

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has filed two petitions seeking to change the way state and federal agencies handle water flows on the Caloosahatchee River.

In a petition to the state Division of Administrative Hearings, the group is asking a judge to invalidate a water use rule the group says allows agricultural interests in the Lake Okeechobee Service Area to take too much water from the river at the expense of citizens and the environment.

A second petition filed with the South Florida Water Management District seeks to have the agency revise the rule that sets a minimum flow of freshwater from Lake Okeechobee to coastal estuaries.

The rule, adopted in 2001, is not adequate to protect the river during dry seasons, causing environmental damage downstream, the group says.

By Bruce Dorminey
09/03/10

The endangered American wood stork is wading back toward better numbers in the swampy Southeast. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Pushed by human development onto the endangered list, the American wood stork is wading back to its historical haunts in the swampy Southeast.

Despite horrific recent images of oil-soaked pelicans, the Southeast can boast a conservation bright spot - the ongoing recovery of the endangered American wood stork.

After decades of threat from development and poor hydrological management in south Florida, this wetland-dependent wading bird is permanently moving north.

The stilt-legged wood stork is experiencing a tentative rebound in its historical habitat in south Florida's swamps and Everglades. At the same time, the stork is finding new homes along the coast of Georgia, South Carolina and even North Carolina.

"The current trend is that the wood stork's population and breeding range is increasing and extending north," said Bill Brooks, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist in Jacksonville. "Those are all signs toward recovery," he said, due in part to a long-term effort implemented by the USFWS.

While the wood stork is doing better than three decades ago, today's estimated U.S. population of 16,000 adult birds still doesn't approach the estimated 100,000 of a century ago, says Larry Bryan, a research biologist at the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory. Still, it's well up from the 2,500 breeding pairs in 1978.

Development, not climate change, is the culprit this time. The stork's decline has been due to hydrological change in south Florida, says Bryan, who studies the wood stork's use of nesting areas at coastal Georgia's Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge. "Trying to hold back water for the dry times was good for humans, but not for the wood stork."

Storks breed when water levels drop and their prey concentrates in ponds, marshes and streams. By using their legs and web feet to stir up their prey by feel, they can feed on fish in foot-deep waters both night and day.

"It's like the difference between trying to catch fish from a fish bowl versus a swimming pool," said Rena Borkhataria, a research biologist at the University of Florida's Everglades Research and Education Center. "When a fish strikes the stork's bottom mandible, it triggers a bill snap reflex. But fish have to be sufficiently concentrated for this mechanism to pay off."

For a given breeding season, a wood stork family of four - two adults and two nestlings - requires an average of 400 pounds of fish.

"Many storks are not initiating nesting until March," said Borkhataria. "When storks begin nesting that late in the dry season, juveniles may not have had time yet to mature and to develop flight capabilities when the [late spring and summer] rainy season begins. Rising water levels disperse the prey. It's crucial that wood storks begin nesting earlier in [south Florida's] dry season, preferably in November and December."

Borkhataria notes that stork parents will frequently abandon the colony once the rainy season starts in earnest, leaving their chicks to starve.

Since Florida received statehood in 1845, it has lost nearly half its wetlands. But it wasn't until the 1930s, when lumber interests moved into south Florida's Big Cypress area, that destruction of the stork's habitat began in earnest. Trees were often felled while storks were still nesting in their branches, decimating a significant portion of the birds' then-estimated breeding population of 20,000 pairs.

By the 1950s, construction near southern Florida's Lake Okeechobee had drained a good chunk of the Everglades.

Largely as a result, the USFWS listed the U.S. wood stork population as endangered in 1984. Even so, wood stork populations outside the U.S. - from as far south as Argentina up through Mexico, Central America and parts of the Caribbean remain healthy.

But the health of the U.S. stork population appears to be inextricably linked to the ecological fortunes of south Florida. The Everglades and nearby cypress wetlands appear to be very important to the Southeastern stork population as a whole, Borkhataria points out, and not just to the Florida colonies. Most of the storks she and colleagues tracked via satellite made use of the area's cypress wetlands and estuaries before returning north to breed.

Although the Everglades National Park is protected, most of the wetlands in the stork's core southwest Florida foraging area are on private lands still subject to land-use battles with developers and even governmental agencies.

"The willingness of all levels of government to grant permits to projects impacting significant wetland acreage within [southwest Florida's] core foraging area is readily apparent," said Jason Lauritsen, assistant director at the National Audubon Society's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples. He says one such project proposes destroying 645 acres of existing wetlands.

Yet in a 2007 internal USFWS five year-review, Brooks recommended that the stork's status be upgraded from "endangered" to the more sanguine condition of "threatened." Wood stork reclassification from endangered to threatened can be considered when, over a three year average, there are at least a population of 6,000 nesting pairs. That's a criterion that is currently being met.

The USFWS isn't the only entity tracking the rebound. Last year, it received a formal change-of-status petition from the Florida Home Builders Association with Brooks' 2007 report attached.

Brooks says that the USFWS is still in the process of responding to the petition and emphasized that no deadline has been set for a final decision. But he also noted that there would be no change in the stork's protection even if its status were upgraded from endangered to threatened.

Still, Bryan says the upgrade would mark the first step toward delisting the bird, a point that obviously hasn't been lost on the home builders.

As the association's general counsel, Keith Hetrick, explained, "Builders support appropriate species-protection measures supported by science, but builders do not support unwarranted restrictions on development activities resulting from unfounded designations that are either outdated or not supported by sound science."

There's no small irony that as the stork population fights its way back to something called normal, the human population around the Corkscrew sanctuary in Collier County has more than trebled - to over 300,000 - in just the last three decades.

"There can come a point where our property is rendered useless for development because of a species' designation," said Douglas Buck, the Florida Home Builders Association's director of governmental affairs. "Environmental advocates never want to remove restrictions regardless of a species' population. But when a species shows improvement and the regulations allow, then its status should reflect that."

Species hit hard by cold water during last winter

State wildlife regulators have decided to extend restrictions on snook fishing until Sept. 1, 2011, in Everglades National Park and along Florida's Gulf Coast after thousands of the temperature-sensitive sport fish died during January's cold snap.

The Florida Wildlife Conservation Commission voted unanimously Thursday to extend a catch-and-release policy on snook in the state's west coast waters, but to reopen the east coast to snook harvest season Sept. 17.

Thousands of the fish perished here in January when overnight temperatures hovered around freezing for about two weeks, dropping water temperatures into the 50s.

Biologists say the snook population on the west coast was hit hardest and has been slower to recover.

Charter guide Jamie Allen of Boca Grande agrees with the commission's decision and thinks the ban should last even longer, until the end of 2011.

"The concerns should be what's best for the fish," Allen said, "and what's best for the fish is to leave it closed."

The snook population monitored in North Captiva and Cayo Costa is down about 70 percent since last summer, he said.

But Kenny Brown, owner of Outdoor Resorts of America in Chokoloskee, said he thinks the snook population has increased in his area.

"We got a lot of snook ," Brown said. "There's plenty of fish down here."

He feels the ban should be lifted and said it has crushed the economy in Chokoloskee.

According to his own observations, fishing trips are down about 75 percent in the town and the surrounding area from five or six years ago.

Fishermen have simply stopped coming, he said.

"You'd think they'd come to fish for all kinds of fish, but it seems like snook drives the industry," Brown said.

The main draw of snook is the fight, he said.

"It's an unbelievable fight when you get the fish on," Brown said. "When they hit, the explosion is something that shakes you, gets your heart pumping."

The taste isn't bad either, he said.

"It's a great-tasting fish, very little bones," Brown said. "People don't really give snook away."

Between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 164,887 people bought snook stamps (permits to keep snook) in Florida; 11,374 of those were bought by Lee County residents.

09/02/10

LAKE OKEECHOBEE

Bass were biting topwater lures, lipless crankbaits and plastic worms around the outer grass lines. Look for schooling fish beyond the grass beds.

EVERGLADES/FRESHWATER

The best bass fishing in the Everglades has been at night in the canals along Alligator Alley by mile marker 41. Some bass also were biting in the Miami Canal out of Everglades Holiday Park.

FLORIDA BAY/10,000 ISLANDS

Redfish, sea trout, jacks and sharks were biting in the bay.

GOLD COAST OFFSHORE

Capt. Skip Dana said anglers on the Fish City Pride drift boat of Pompano Beach caught 30-40 yellowtail snappers, a few mutton snappers and a couple of dolphin Thursday afternoon in 90-115 feet off Hillsboro Inlet. Dana said kingfish should be close to the bottom in 120-200 feet.

PIERS

Dania Beach Pier had tons of blue runners, a few cero mackerel, snappers and snook. Deerfield had lots of runners and mutton snappers at night and early in the morning. Anglin's had bluefish, runners and mutton, yellowtail and schoolmaster snappers. Big Spanish mackerel were biting in the mornings at Juno. Lake Worth had mangrove snappers, barracudas, a few kingfish and runners.

THE KEYS

Dolphin up to 20 pounds were biting 10-20 miles offshore and blackfin tunas were still plentiful at the humps. Kingfish were biting just beyond the reefs. Bonefishing was good on the flats.

He's coming out of the swamps and moving to a neighborhood near you. Who? Clyde Butcher, one of the world's foremost black and white large format photographers. Clyde is leaving his long time home in Big Cypress and moving to Venice where he already has a studio and gallery. Thankfully, his fabulous Big Cypress Gallery in Ochopee, on the Tamiami Trail, will remain open to the public.

How much time he will get to spend in his Venice digs is speculative. Clyde is in constant demand for personal appearances by museums and organizations throughout the country. The Sierra Club presented Clyde Butcher with the prestigious Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography. Lawton Chiles, Florida's late governor, personally presented Clyde with Florida's Artist Hall of Fame Award, the highest award the State of Florida can bestow on a private citizen.

Clyde Butcher's work is in museums and private collections throughout the world. When his exhibit, "Visions for the Next MillenniuM" opened in the National Gallery of Art in Prague, Czech Republic, it was the largest ever for this venerable institution.

Most of us spend our working hours indoors. For more than 40 years, Clyde's business days have been spent outdoors, wading through swamps and trudging through woods while photographing the ever shrinking world of Florida's native habitats. He has since expanded his horizons, traveling to unique places from coast-to-coast.

Moonrise by Clyde ButcherAfter more than 40 years of capturing the world of nature on film, you would think he might become bored with this subject matter. But for Clyde Butcher, with his keen eye and unbridled enthusiasm for nature's unspoiled beauty, this world has taken on a deep spiritual meaning.

He travels with one or more of his "old timey" large-format bellows cameras like the one Civil War photographer Mathew Brady used for his historic pictures. In this digital age, Clyde's images are captured on a glass plate giving him the chance for only one exposure. Butcher's artistry in developing and enlarging his pictures takes place in his unique Venice darkroom. There photos are printed in sizes ranging from prints of 6"x8" to special framed editions of 5'x9' that's right...feet.

 Moonrise by Clyde Butcher

After more than 40 years of capturing the world of nature on film, you would think he might become bored with this subject matter. But for Clyde Butcher, with his keen eye and unbridled enthusiasm for nature's unspoiled beauty, this world has taken on a deep spiritual meaning.

He travels with one or more of his "old timey" large-format bellows cameras like the one Civil War photographer Mathew Brady used for his historic pictures. In this digital age, Clyde's images are captured on a glass plate giving him the chance for only one exposure. Butcher's artistry in developing and enlarging his pictures takes place in his unique Venice darkroom. There photos are printed in sizes ranging from prints of 6"x8" to special framed editions of 5'x9' that's right...feet.

Butcher's award winning black and white photographs explore his personal relationship with the environment. Clyde's love of the outdoors and his magical eye for details not seen by most of us, is evident in his images.

Butcher's award winning black and white photographs explore his personal relationship with the environment. Clyde's love of the outdoors and his magical eye for details not seen by most of us, is evident in his images.

Standing in front of his large photographs, the viewer is drawn into the subject whether a forest, river, or swamp. The detail in each of his images is overpowering. Standing up close to these large format photographs, the eye can see only a piece of the picture at a time. The brain has to put it back together. And that is Butcher's aim. He wants the viewer to experience the moment.

"You have to scan the photo. It gives you a feeling of actually being there," Butcher says.

The stunning large scale black and white photographs of environmentally endangered and increasingly rare natural areas are impressive. He hopes his photographs "will help viewers see the sublime order of the natural world. The only hope for the future is educating our children to the importance of preserving ecosystems and therefore the environment" he said.

You will have a better opportunity to meet Clyde at his Venice gallery then was possible at Big Cypress. But his Big Cypress Gallery is definitely worth a visit just to see and experience hundreds of his photographs in a unique setting. There is no charge.

With a straight face, he will tell you that the Big Cypress Gallery is located in suburban Ochopee on Highway 41 (Tamiami Trail) about halfway between Miami and Naples. The joke is that downtown Ochopee's distinguishing landmark is its post office, a much photographed former tool shed. It is officially classified as being the smallest post office in the United States.

The Venice Gallery is located at 237 Warfield Ave., 941-486-0811. You might want to start there and eventually work your way down to the Big Cypress. Pull up his fabulous web page to see the extent of his work. Just type in ClydeButcher.com.

Clyde is a big man with a long white bushy beard and questions have been raised by many about his relationship to the fabled Swamp Ape in Big Cypress. It is a situation similar to the relationship between Clark Kent and Superman. You've never see them both in the same room at the same time. People want to know if sightings of the legendary Swamp Ape will stop once he moves to Venice.

Now that the primaries are over, lots of people already have their favorite candidates for November. Now is the time to let your candidate know why Everglades restoration is important. Why the St. Lucie River will die without comprehensive Everglades restoration and why no one in Martin County will vote for them unless they make a commitment to restoring the Everglades and saving the St. Lucie.

We're voting for U.S. House and Senate candidates and Florida's governor. Those people will decide the future of our river. If they think Everglades restoration is a nice idea but we can't afford it, then the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan will die and so will the St. Lucie. Everyone familiar with the hydrology of Lake Okeechobee knows that if the state doesn't buy enough land now to move water south from Okeechobee, the estuaries will forever be a dumping ground. There is no other solution.

Those familiar with the legislative process understand that if Congress doesn't move forward with a Water Resources Bill that contains the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan projects with approved plans, then the plan will die. The C-44 reservoir is approved and ready to funded by Congress. Likewise the C-43 reservoir on the Caloosahatchee side is ready to go. They are not in the Water Resources Bill because of a squabble over earmarks. We need to tell everyone running for Congress from this area that the squabbling has to stop. Those projects have to be included in the bill.

Tell all the politicians that if they won't vote to save our river, Martin County residents won't vote for them. The effort needs to be bipartisan. Every candidate running should be on the same side on these issues. Let your candidate know we really care about our river and we want an absolute commitment.

Maggy Hurchalla

Stuart

 PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Florida wildlife commissioners will decide Thursday whether the snook, one of Florida's most prized and climate-sensitive sport fish, has recovered enough from last winter's cold snap to lift a temporary ban on catching them.

Thousands of snook died in January when overnight temperatures hovered around freezing for about two weeks, dropping water temperatures into the 50s. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission approved an emergency snook fishing closure to help the species rebuild.

Some fishermen argue that the population has rebounded enough to allow limited capture of the fish, but others say the population needs more time to recover. Snook typically weigh between 3 and 15 pounds, but can grow to 30 pounds or more and are beloved by fishermen for their fight. They are normally found in the Gulf and Atlantic and in inlets from Daytona Beach and Holmes Beach south.

The commission will consider several options at its meeting in Pensacola Beach, including continuing the ban or adopting different snook seasons for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, said Lee Schlesinger, commission spokesman.

Brian Richardson, a longtime Everglades National Park fishing guide, likened the January cold snap to throwing a running hair dryer into a bathtub full of fish.

"I think 70 percent of our stock was wiped out. Snook start getting crazy in about 62 degree water and got into the 50s for about week. There were areas in the back country where it stunk so bad because all of the dead snook that it was hard not to gag," he said.

Richardson has seen very few snook this spring and favors continued snook fishing closures in his region.

Linda Friar, spokeswoman for Everglades National Park, agrees. The park has written to the commission supporting continued snook closures.

"We had an extremely significant snook die off due to the length of the cold in January and we just are not seeing the recovery we like to see among the juvenile fish, she said.

On the Atlantic Coast off Fort Pierce, charter Capt. Joe Ward also saw thousands of snook floating in inlets after the snap. But Ward said the species recovered quickly.

"We had a lot of snook lost over here but I'm still catching as many as I did last year and I'm catching bigger ones. I am catching as many this year as I have in any other year," he said.

Even under normal circumstances, snook are one of the state's most heavily regulated fish species because they are so popular both for sport and eating. More than 90 percent of Florida's snook fishing is limited to catch and release.

Normally, snook on the Atlantic coast can only be taken if they are between 28 and 32 inches and not between Dec. 15 and Jan. 31 or between June and August. On the Gulf and in the Keys, they can be taken if they are between 28 and 33 inches. The closed seasons are December to February and May to August. Only one can be taken per fishermen per day during open seasons.

An advisor's report may help Gov. Charlie Crist's controversial U.S Sugar land buy clear a major legal hurdle.

Forcing water managers to build a massive abandoned reservoir would cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars but still not do enough to clean up the Everglades, according to an advisor to a federal judge.

If U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno accepts the advisor's recommendation, and he has in the past, it would keep alive what remains of Gov. Charlie Crist's controversial sugar land buy.

The South Florida Water Management District acknowledges it can't afford both projects -- completing a $700 million, 16,700-acre reservoir in western Palm Beach County and buying 26,000 acres for $197 million from the U.S. Sugar Corp. to convert it to reservoirs and pollution cleaning marshes.

Moreno, who oversees the landmark 1992 settlement that forced the state to cut pollution runoff destroying the native landscape, ordered the state in March to revive the reservoir, saying he was tired of waiting for the promising but downsized and repeatedly delayed U.S. Sugar land buy. He assigned John Barkett, a special master he appointed to analyze the complex Everglades litigation, to hash out new construction deadlines and cleanup plans.

Instead, Barkett issued an 80-page report that shared Moreno's frustration with the glacial pace, changing plans and endless litigation but also argued that reviving an old project won't solve more pressing cleanup demands from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a second federal judge in Miami, Alan Gold.

Gold, in a separate ruling, has demanded that federal environmental regulators enforce tougher phosphorous pollution standards in the Glades. Barkett found that reservoir, which was primarily intended to store water under an older cleanup plan he said was based on ``incomplete'' and ``inaccurate'' assumptions, wouldn't meet Gold's higher cleanup bar. ``The public interest is served by doing the best we can to ensure that precious Everglades restoration dollars are spent as wisely as we can,'' Barkett wrote.

The Miccosukee Tribe and Florida Crystals, U.S. Sugar's chief rival, had urged Moreno to order the reservoir built. Fierce critics of the land buy, they had contended the deal would enrich a major Crist campaign donor, leave the district with no money for other projects and delay restoration by decades.

Last month, the district's governing board approved its third downsizing of what had started out in 2006 as a blockbuster $1.75 billion bid to buy out U.S. Sugar and its sprawling 180,000-acre empire. Closing is scheduled next month.

Barkett wrote that it was unlikely the reservoir would be built for six to 10 years because of lawsuits. And citing the refusal of rival growers to consider land swaps, noted: ``Some might argue that such an attitude from a farm interest is not consistent with genuine interest in Everglades restoration.''

"The special master emphatically rejected misguided attempts to derail Everglades restoration. Instead he recommended sound, science-driven steps that will improve water quality and put restoration efforts back on track.We don't need a reservoir that would have served as little more than a huge, taxpayer-financed irrigation supply pool for Big Sugar. There is widespread agreement that the work done thus far on the Talisman site can be easily converted to provide expanded water treatment capacity while saving on construction costs. Today, we are pleased to see the special master shares this view. Audubon of Florida should be commended for its leadership in pressing this issue through legal channels."

The South Florida Water Management District should not have to finish an Everglades restoration reservoir shelved by a land deal with U.S. Sugar Corp., according to a report to a federal judge filed Monday.

If U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno accepts that recommendation it would remove a key legal hurdle to the district's proposed $197 million deal to buy 26,800 acres from U.S. Sugar. The land would be used to help restore water flows to the Everglades.

Moreno in March determined that the district's 2008 decision to stop construction on the massive, 62-billion-gallon reservoir in western Palm Beach County threatened to derail Everglades restoration in pursuit of the U.S. Sugar land deal pushed by Gov. Charlie Crist.

The judge appointed a special master to coordinate how to proceed with getting the reservoir and Everglades restoration back on track.

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But Special Master John Barkett now has recommended that the district be relieved of its obligation to build the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, which has already cost taxpayers nearly $280 million.

Barkett echoes the district's argument that the opportunity to buy U.S. Sugar land offers better restoration opportunities for the Everglades than finishing the 16,700-acre reservoir west of U.S. 27.

"The availability of the U.S. Sugar land is another changed circumstance that cannot be ignored in seeking to achieve Everglades restoration," Barkett wrote in his recommendation to the judge.

Instead of proceeding with the costly reservoir, the district has called for turning it into a stormwater treatment area that could help filter pollutants out of water headed to the Everglades.

"Given limited resources, the district has seized a rare opportunity to acquire lands in a cost-effective way, enabling us in the coming years to implement proven water treatment projects," the district said in a statement praising Barkett's recommendation.

The district on Oct. 11 plans to close on the latest scaled-down version of a land deal with U.S. Sugar. For two years Crist has pushed to buy U.S. Sugar land that could be used to build reservoirs and treatment areas intended to replenish the Everglades and provide backup for South Florida drinking water supplies.

Barkett points out in his recommendation that Moreno in March called for restarting reservoir construction "in absence of an agreement" to change Everglades restoration guidelines. Barkett contends that the district and federal and state officials are working on a new agreement.

Barkett called for holding a series of hearings starting Oct. 25 to try to resolve the differences between backers of the U.S. Sugar deal and the Miccosukee Tribe, which wants the reservoir built.

The tribe and U.S. Sugar competitor Florida Crystals have been waging a legal battle against the land deal, arguing it costs taxpayers too much, unfairly enriches U.S. Sugar and takes money away from other needed Everglades projects, such as the reservoir.

A decision from the Florida Supreme Court on a challenge from the tribe and Florida Crystals is pending. Also, a case before another federal judge, challenging Florida's handling of water pollution issues in the Everglades, could affect the U.S. Sugar land deal.

Environmental groups largely have supported the U.S. Sugar deal as a historic chance to buy strategically located farmland that was long off limits to Everglades restoration.

Everglades Foundation CEO Kirk Fordham called the opposition to the U.S. Sugar deal "misguided attempts to derail Everglades restoration."

Reservoir construction was put on hold just before Crist and district officials in June 2008 announced a blockbuster plan to buy land from U.S. Sugar for Everglades restoration.

The district paid the contractors about $13 million from June to December 2008 to stand by while the agency negotiated the U.S. Sugar deal. It cost another $12 million to terminate the contract.

Barkett's report to Moreno questions whether the stalled reservoir can deliver the benefits to the Everglades once envisioned.

While South Florida does need to store more of the stormwater that now gets drained away to guard against flooding, pollutants must be removed from that water before it can be used to replenish the Everglades.

Supporters of the U.S. Sugar deal argue that buying the land provides better opportunities to store and treat that water.

"From an Everglades restoration perspective, having a willing seller of this much land in the Everglades Agricultural Area presents opportunities that did not exist ... and cannot be ignored," Barkett wrote in his recommendation to the judge.

The governor in June 2008 first proposed a $1.75 billion deal to buy all of U.S. Sugar's more than 180,000 acres and facilities in a blockbuster deal to acquire huge swaths of farmland for Everglades restoration.

The struggling economy and declining property tax revenues at the South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration, resulted in the deal getting downsized three times to cut costs.

By Ana M. Valdes

08/31/10

The South Florida Water Management District may be allowed to abandon a $700 million reservoir project in the southern Everglades Agricultural Area, after a court-appointed Special Master on Tuesday said the Everglades would benefit more from the district's purchase of 27,000 acres from U.S. Sugar than from completing the reservoir.

Special Master John Barkett's recommendation now goes to a federal judge for consideration.

District officials praised the recommendation as a more financially sound way to restore the Everglades. It will also remove a major obstacle in the district's ability to purchase land from U.S. Sugar for $197 million, they said.

"Given limited resources, the district has seized a rare opportunity to acquire lands in a cost-effective way, enabling us in the coming years to implement proven water treatment projects," said spokesperson Kayla Bergeron. "We will continue to work with our state, federal, tribal and private partners to fulfill our shared restoration and water quality improvement goals for the Everglades."

But some, including the Miccosukee Tribe, have criticized the U.S. Sugar deal, saying the reservoir in the cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee is a surer and faster bet for restoring water flow in the Everglades that the land purchase. The tribe argued that the district would not have money to finish the reservoir if it spent millions buying land from U.S. Sugar, and tried to get a judge to order an emergency injunction in August.

Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno ruled that there was no emergency need to stop the purchase then, because it is not scheduled to close until October. An attorney representing the Miccosukees did not return phone calls for this story.

Barkett's recommendation comes six months after Moreno's order that the district resume construction of the city-sized reservoir. In March, Moreno ordered a special master help the district coordinate completion of the reservoir and the purchase of the land from U.S. Sugar.

Kirk Fordham, chief executive officer of the Everglades Foundation and a supporter of the U.S. Sugar deal, said the special master had recommended "sound, science-driven steps that will improve water quality and put restoration efforts back on track."

By David Fleshler Sun-Sentinel Staff Writer

08/30/10

In the 1950s, pounded by wide-open hunting and the loss of habitat to farms and cities, Florida's black bears had become ghosts of the forests, elusive and rarely seen.

Today, they're all too visible.

A black bear showed up in Weston, prowling gated communities and city streets before wildlife officials hit it with a dart at a busy intersection. Another visited Universal Orlando and hung out at the Hard Rock Hotel's pool until it was captured. Road kills and complaints of bears in garbage have soared, particularly north of Orlando where a booming bear population is bursting out of the Ocala National Forest.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has drafted a bear management plan that attempts to grapple with all the issues raised by the resurgence of a species that can reach 600 pounds and has a taste for garbage.

The plan calls for setting up local resident groups to work out bear issues; reducing those killed on roads; establishing wilderness corridors to reconnect shrinking, genetically isolated bear populations along the Gulf coast with larger ones inland; and - most controversially - considering whether Florida should reopen bear hunting, banned in 1994.

The goal is a healthy bear population that stays in the forests, not the suburbs, with enough habitat to support bears and all the other creatures that live where they live.

"Bear protection goes beyond bears," said Laurie Macdonald, Florida program director for Defenders of Wildlife, who served on a committee that helped evaluate the draft plan. "If we protect enough areas for the bears, we're really protecting natural systems that all of us love and depend on."

The most explosive issue raised by the plan is whether to reopen bear hunting. The plan doesn't call for this immediately, stating that while a "regulated harvest" has been a common way of managing bears, "we recognize that bear hunting in Florida is highly controversial." It recommends that state wildlife managers "explore options regarding bear hunting as a tool to stabilize populations and maintain them within target levels."

The U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance, which successfully sued to reopen bear hunting in New Jersey, this month urged its members to give the wildlife commission their opinion on the Florida bear plan, providing a link in its newsletter. Of the 90 comments posted as of Friday, 76 call for reopening hunting and six oppose it.

"The meat's good, the hide's good," said Newton Cook, a Tequesta hunter and executive director of United Waterfowlers of Florida, a duck-hunting group, who has hunted black bears in Canada.

He said hunting would be a sensible way to reduce particular bear populations, such as those in the Ocala and Osceola national forests. Already bears are disrupting deer hunting in some areas, he said, by snatching corn from feeders set up to attract deer.

"We've got more bears than we need in some areas, not in all areas, and they're a nuisance," said Cook. "You don't just open it up for everyone to go shoot one, you control it," he said. "Hunting is a legitimate sport, very important to maintaining the proper balance of both prey and predator in the wild."

A hunt would be carefully controlled, with seasons, bag limits and other regulations designed to make it sustainable, unlike the unregulated hunting that drove down bear numbers in the mid-20th century. But any move to open up hunting would be certain to face opposition from environmental and animal rights groups.

"I would think the outcry from the public would be hugely against bear hunting," said Macdonald, of Defenders of Wildlife. "This is still a threatened species, and we will not support hunting of a species whose future is still questionable."

David Telesco, bear management program coordinator for the state wildlife commission, said he thinks the state's bear population could sustain a controlled hunt, with restrictions, although he said he couldn't be sure without a formal study. Less clear, he said, is whether such a proposal would win public support.

"There are strident supporters for and against," he said. "We have to test the waters. We don't have a feel for what the general public would think."

Newcomers to South Florida are sometimes surprised to learn that these massive omnivores live just a 45-minute drive from Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach. But 800 or so bears live around Big Cypress National Preserve - a quick drive on Alligator Alley.

Since 2006 there have been at least nine incidents of human injuries from bears, generally scratches or puncture wounds when a bear is startled and tries to get away or when a person attempts to defend a dog or livestock. For example, when a Seminole County man startled a female and her cubs going through his garbage, the bear charged, he fell down and the bear ran onto him, scratching his legs and feet before running off.

Florida bears generally are peaceful behemoths. Although black bears in other states have killed people, there has not been a single documented, unprovoked attack by a Florida bear on a human being. And they eat an overwhelmingly vegan diet, 80 percent of their food coming from acorns, berries and other plant sources, with the rest consisting mostly of insects.

But as bear populations increase and suburbs expand, there have been more encounters with people. The number of bear reports - in garbage, yards or on streets - has risen from about 500 in 1998 to 3,275 last year.

"The bear-human conflict issue has really taken off," Telesco said. "We have a combination of a growing bear population and infringement on their habitat."

The worst area for road kills, garbage invasions and other human-bear conflicts is around the Ocala National Forest, home to up to 1,200 bears - more than twice the 500 or so left in the entire state in the 1950s.

Complaints about bears have risen dramatically, averaging 900 a year and outstripping the state's ability to respond, according to the draft plan. Nearly half of the state's road kills take place in and around the Ocala forest, with a motorcyclist killed in Marion County after a bear ran in front of him at night. And just as manatees often have scars from boat propellers, about 13 percent of bears captured during one study in Ocala had healed limb fractures, most likely from vehicles.

"They've filled Ocala and they've started spilling out," Telesco said.

Ocala is a prime place for the state to implement many measures proposed or contemplated in the plan. This includes setting up what the plan calls Bear Smart communities, with a public education program, bear-proof garbage cans and trash containers and other measures.

And the plan says that isolated bear populations, such as 20 or so bears that may remain at the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge on the Gulf Coast north of Tampa, should be connected to the Ocala population. According to the plan, even a single bear occasional wandering in from Ocala could enrich this population's gene pool.

Much has changed in the two years since Gov. Charlie Crist stood on the edge of America's Everglades and called upon the South Florida Water Management District to negotiate a historic land acquisition with U.S. Sugar Corp. that would help restore this national treasure.

Since 2008, the economic impacts that have been felt across the nation have led to a decline of $150 million in district revenues.

Legal challenges have drawn the acquisition out in the courts. And recent federal court rulings have changed the landscape of restoration planning.

In the midst of change, what has remained constant is the need for more land south of Lake Okeechobee - whether through this acquisition or from another willing seller - to achieve water quality improvements and restoration of the Everglades and its watersheds.

A second amended acquisition, recently approved by the SFWMD Governing Board and U.S. Sugar's Board of Directors, keeps that dream alive to provide near-term benefits for South Florida's ecosystems while addressing the new fiscal constraints and legal obligations that we face.

The modified contract calls for the district to utilize $197 million in cash on-hand - already reserved for land acquisition and restoration projects - to initially purchase approximately 26,800 acres of land. The agency retains options over the next 10 years to acquire the corporation's remaining 153,200 acres should economic conditions allow.

In crafting this new agreement, the district carefully evaluated its existing requirements and mandates to identify acreage that could significantly enhance restoration and water quality efforts already under way for key basins.

The acquisition consists of two strategically located parcels. One, lying just west of two of the agency's water treatment wetlands, is 17,900 acres of citrus land in Hendry County. This site will be used for projects to improve water quality in the C-139 agricultural basin, where phosphorus levels historically have been high. The second parcel is 8,900 acres of sugar cane land in Palm Beach County. This will be used to enhance existing treatment wetlands to help meet federally mandated water quality targets in the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

Along with achieving some important water quality benefits, this latest version of the purchase fulfills the SFWMD Governing Board's pledge not to increase the burden on taxpayers or hamper the district's ability to carry out its core missions.

By paying for the initial acreage with a portion of cash saved during better economic times, the district eliminates the immediate need for financing with certificates of participation.

That approach saves taxpayers millions of dollars that would have been spent on annual debt service payments.

When the state and federal governments partnered more than a decade ago to restore the Everglades, no one imagined vast areas of agricultural land south of the lake would ever be available for that purpose.

The new realities of the last two years have forced the district to rethink how to approach the River of Grass acquisition in a fiscally responsible way.

However, the benefits of this rare opportunity remain as clear as ever.

As a concerned Florida citizen nearing 90 years of age, I have always been very conscious of the environment and the history of Lee County, as well as the sorry history of what man has done to disturb the beautiful system nature devised for the waters in our state.

Here in Southwest Florida, we are nothing and will have nothing without our precious water at the high quality we and our visitors have come to expect through the years.

I am just devastated by the lack of interest the government is taking in the Lake Okeechobee problem. It's just crazy to neglect a situation that can be solved.

Lake Okeechobee has too much fresh water, and the Everglades is crying for fresh water. If the lake water flows south through the "River of Grass," it will purify itself. That does not happen when it's released from the lake via man-made locks according to a man-made schedule down the Caloosahatchee, which once meandered with cleansing twists and turns of grasses but was long ago straightened to nothing more than a canal. The more lake water that comes down the Caloosahatchee, the more destruction is visited upon our river, our bays and estuaries. Destroy those waters and you destroy us. It's just ridiculous.

Can someone please explain to me why the government has seen fit to put water that's wanted and needed in the Everglades in a place it's not needed and not wanted (here); where in fact it is destructive?

Rebuilding the Herbert Hoover Dike to make it safe for the people who live there is the highest priority. I was around in the 1920s when so many people lost their lives as Lake Okeechobee overflowed its banks. Yet here it is, more than 82 years later, and the federal government is still fiddling around with that dike. The dike is still dangerous; the problem has not been solved.

There is a plan that would go a long way toward solving all of these problems, but the government's apparent lack of interest is causing it to dwindle away to almost nothing; that is the state's purchase of the maximum possible acreage from the U.S. Sugar Corp., including all the option lands available over the next few years. That land would eventually allow water to flow south through the Everglades, eliminate the dam problem, the polluted fresh water destroying estuaries on the west and east coasts, and keep the proper and natural amount of water flowing where it belongs to balance salinity levels as nature intended.

As it stands now, we're robbing Peter to pay Paul, especially when the water can be used somewhere else. As an old, hard-working, conscientious American and Floridian, I feel very strongly about this.

08/27/10

Site 1 Impoundment project, Phase one, contract awarded


Jacksonville, Fla. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers accomplished another milestone in Everglades restoration with award of a $44 million contract for Phase One of the Site 1 Impoundment Project to Lodge Construction, Inc. of Fort Myers, Fla., Aug. 24.

The Site 1 Impoundment, also called the Fran Reich Preserve, will increase much needed water storage capacity and water management flexibility adjacent to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

"This project is all about getting the water right," said Jacksonville District Commander, Col. Al Pantano. "This is the third major federal contract awarded in the past year, moving forward the Corps' commitment to restore America's Everglades. Ecosystem restoration is our primary goal here, but this project will also augment drinking water supplies, and it will put Floridians to work," he added.

The $44,125,000 project, funded primarily by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is located along the Hillsboro Canal approximately 20 miles west of Boca Raton in Palm Beach County. The project site is a 1,800-acre triangle of land located south and east of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.

The Site 1 Impoundment will capture and store excess water currently discharged to the Hillsboro Canal. The stored water will be available for use when water availability is low in the dry season. It will also reduce wasteful discharges to the Intracoastal Waterway, as well as water supply demands on Lake Okeechobee and the Loxahatchee Refuge. The impounded water will decrease the loss of water from the Loxahatchee Refuge caused by naturally occurring seepage. Other potential benefits include flood mitigation, water quality improvements and reduced saltwater intrusion.

"We're excited about getting started on this project," said Corps Project Manager, Jason Harrah. "Our partner, the South Florida Water Management District, has made an investment in this project, without which we wouldn't be starting construction. The District acquired the land, which was once slated to be a landfill. The project is a 50/50 partnership. The SFWMD has provided the land and the Corps will do the construction."

Phase one of the Site 1 Impoundment project includes modifications to approximately 15,000 linear feet of the existing Levee 40. Construction activities include demolition, installation of a temporary access bridge, vegetation clearing and grubbing, dewatering operations, borrow and disposal area operations, excavation and fill placement, construction of an armored spillway, placement of erosion control measures that include soil cement and reinforced grass, installation of embankment instrumentation and construction of an approximately six-acre wildlife wetland area. Once built, the Corps will turn operations and management of the site over to the SFWMD.

"The use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds enhances the significance of this award. The team will now focus on the management and oversight of Phase One construction as well as finalizing the design for the future award of Phase Two," said Harrah.

Work on the project will begin in October 2010 and will be completed by October 2012

08/27/10

A Tallahassee judge says SB 360 is unconstitutional, calling it an "unfunded mandate."

TALLAHASSEE - A circuit judge on Thursday tossed out last year's controversial growth management law that relaxes building rules in an effort to spur economic development.

The decision by Tallahassee Circuit Judge Charles Francis says the law is an "unfunded mandate" that would force cities and counties to spend at least $3.7 million to rewrite their land-use plans.

"The court finds this amount is not 'fiscally insignificant,' " Francis wrote in his ruling, noting that 264 communities would have to pay at least $15,000 to change their plans.

The state Constitution generally prohibits the Legislature from passing laws that force localities to spend more than 10 cents per Floridian, which works out to $1.8 million.

The ruling could disrupt Florida's construction industry, which continues to lag during the nationwide struggling economy. It's unclear if the ruling will be appealed, and a key lawmaker said he would prefer to simply rework the law next spring.

Senate Bill 360 was among the most contentious pieces of legislation of 2009, pitting business and development groups against cities, counties and environmentalists. Faced with heavy lobbying on both sides, Gov. Charlie Crist signed the bill into law, saying its positive impacts outweighed its negatives.

The bill rewrote Florida's 1986 growth management guidelines. It allowed developers in the most urban counties to build more houses without expanding roads and allowed counties and cities to designate new urban areas that would also be exempt from certain road-building requirements.

Within a month of Crist signing the bill, a cluster of cities filed a lawsuit claiming the new law illegally forced local governments to pay more for transportation needs because it repealed key sections of the earlier law for large and medium-sized areas.

Under a provision in the old growth laws known as ''transportation concurrency,'' many of those costs were the responsibility of developers.

Jamie Cole, a lawyer who challenged the new law on behalf of several cities in Broward County, said the ruling will have far-reaching implications.

"Now developers might need to build more roads than they otherwise might have built," Cole said.

State Sen. Mike Bennett, the law's main sponsor, said lawmakers will likely revisit the law during the next legislative session.

"It'll be interesting to go back and rework it and make sure we don't have any disagreements," he said.

Bennett said he would prefer to simply fix the law next year instead of appealing Thursday's decision.

Eric Draper of Audubon Florida called SB 360 "part of the war the Legislature has been waging on local governments."

He said the ruling, coupled with Hometown Democracy's Amendment 4 on the November ballot, would send a message to lawmakers to "stop messing with" Florida's growth management laws.

Passage of Amendment 4 would require changes to local comprehensive plans to be placed on the ballot. The effort is fiercely opposed by business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce, Realtors and builders.

Ron Weaver, a Tampa land-use lawyer who often represents builders, called the decision "unfortunate," but he said that even if the judge's decision is upheld on appeal, its effects are muted somewhat by a decision legislators made last spring.

Anticipating Thursday's decision, lawmakers included a provision in this year's economic development bill (SB 1752) that "blesses" large-scale projects as being in good faith if they were filed under SB 360.

Even though the ruling's effects might be muted, it still shocked many in the development industry.

"It's a surprise," said Al Zichella, incoming president of the Florida Home Builders Association. "I don't know how the judge could call it an unfunded mandate. The Legislature has a role to play in making sure that local governments don't overstep their boundaries. The state has a legitimate role to play in growth management."

EILEEN SOLER / FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
A slice of the Everglades can be found inside the gates of Chapel Trail Nature Preserve in west Pembroke Pines. The 450-acre wetland includes a 1,650-foot winding elevated boardwalk where visitors can spy up to 120 species of birds, wildlife, fish and insects like this Gulf Fritillary butterfly. A marsh rabbit scurries away in the grasslands while largemouth bass and snapping turtles swim in the pristine clear water. A lone eagle flies overhead, joining hawks, herons and egrets.

It's a portrait of tranquility in the subtropics -- only these 450 acres of grassy plains and wetlands border a warehouse district, other businesses, an elementary school and subdivisions in far western Pembroke Pines near U.S. 27.

Pembroke Pines built the Chapel Trail Park Nature Preserve at 19800 Sheridan St. with almost a third of a mile of boardwalk for visitors to enjoy the Everglades free of charge without having to drive to the two national parks in Miami-Dade.

Now if only the people would come.

Most days, few if any show up to hike the boardwalk or sit under the tin-roofed huts. A visitor found no one else there one recent afternoon -- but plenty of birds, fish and chirping crickets. No cars were parked in the preserve's lot during a late Sunday morning -- to the joy of a Florida sandhill crane sauntering between parking spaces.

The city doesn't even bother to try to counting the visitors.

The preserve office is only open Saturdays, when workers rent canoes from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

But Girl Scout co-leader Heather Mattson said residents are missing a rare opportunity. She, co-leader Bari Butler and their Troop 10235, mostly fifth-graders, hold their twice-a-month meetings at the nature preserve.

The 10 scouts come from several elementary schools and different cities -- Chapel Trail, Somerset Academy, Pembroke Pines Charter and Weston and Miami Lakes -- but agreed to meet at the preserve from September to May.

``We love it out there,'' Mattson said. ``We always have fun watching the turtles.''

Count her daughter, Elhma Flores-Mattson, a fan of the wildlife. She once spotted a raccoon scurrying away.

``We've seen a lot of wading birds,'' said the 10-year-old, who is a fifth-grader at Somerset Academy.

The Girl Scouts are so dedicated to the preserve that they planted a butterfly garden near its entrance.

Others have rhapsodized about the area on the Internet. One birder wrote about spotting a pair of bobcats near the preserve, along with egrets, herons and other birds.

``Everyone who goes outside and looks at what is around them is gaining something -- gaining a sense of place and a sense of self,'' a blogger who calls herself The Nature Teacher wrote after teaching 28 children and 18 adults at the preserve last year.

The nature preserve had a grand opening in January 2005 to celebrate its 1,650 feet of boardwalk that allows visitors to see the preserve's 120 species of birds, marsh rabbits, alligators, snakes, turtles, insects and other animals. Later that fall, Hurricane Wilma walloped more than half of the boardwalk but the city repaired and reopened the preserve.

The nature preserve was struck by bad luck even before it opened: Vandals set fire to huts that were designed to shade visitors, as well as part of the boardwalk. The city had to delay opening the preserve to repair the damage.

Developer Paul Koening, who built the neighboring 4,000-home Chapel Trail community, donated the preserve's land. Federal law requires builders to replace acres of wetlands that they have developed.

The Chapel Trail Park Nature Preserve used to be covered with melaleuca trees until the land was restored to its original grassy wetlands.

Other developers joined in the project.

Pembroke Pines uses $700,000 in a trust fund to maintain the nature preserve. City workers run and maintain it.

Sometimes it can be dangerous. A city worker was once bitten by a poisonous water moccasin snake while he was in the preserve's waters. Pembroke Pines now requires all workers to wear special snake-protective high boots while working in the nature preserve.

Some of the biggest fans of the nature preserve are te city workers who watch over it.

Ruth Ann Silvaroli said she enjoys signing up groups to use the preserve, like the half-dozen scout troops that regularly meet there, knowing they'll appreciate its vistas.

``It's really peaceful near sundown,'' said Chuck Vones, Pembroke Pines assistant director of parks and recreation. ``It's a nice place to walk after dinner.''

His favorite spot? ``I like to walk to the end of the boardwalk and face toward the west -- you feel like you are in the middle of the Everglades.''

When the weather cools, canoeing is great because ``the water is a little higher,'' he said.

Meanwhile, Shawn Denton, director of public services, has spotted the tracks of wild hogs and thinks he has seen a bald eagle fly over the preserve. He believes it is a different one than the pair that nested and had babies in a melaleuca forest off Pines Boulevard, just south of the preserve.

``Ospreys have nested in the preserve,'' he said.

Other city workers have spotted deer here.

Denton and Vones would like to see more people use the preserve.

But Denton said they can't add attractions like picnic tables, because of litter -- and that endangers the nature preserve's fragile ecosystem.

Workers have had to wade in the preserve's water to pick up trash, Vones said. ``You would be surprised how much we find out there.''

Despite the lack of picnic facilities, the nature preserve is still enjoyable. You can meditate or have quiet time with your family.

``You enjoy nature more,'' Denton said.

Girl Scout leader Mattson and her troops agree.

``It's wonderful out there.''

pembroke pines

Clyde Butcher recently talked to The News-Press about five photos in the new exhibit - and his adventures getting them. Check out the attached photo gallery to see what he had to say.
Clyde Butcher waits hours, days and sometimes even years.

Then - when the light and the weather are perfect - he snaps the photo.

Click! goes his 1945 Deardorff camera, and the Ochopee photographer captures yet another moment in the life of the Everglades.

Those large-scale photos have appeared in galleries nationwide and on several PBS specials. A new Butcher exhibit opened this week at Fort Myers' Southwest Florida Museum of History.
"It's basically recording history," he says of these scenes. "Someday, they may not be there, the way development is going."

Getting those images isn't always easy, though. It takes boundless patience and a bit of luck.

Butcher often wades hip- or waist-deep in swamp water to get to those scenic spots. And, of course, there's always the threat of gators, snakes and pythons.

The renowned Butcher doesn't carry a gun when he hikes into the swamp. Bullets are dangerous, he says. They could ricochet off an alligator's hide and kill somebody, he says.

Instead, Butcher goes low-tech.

"I carry a stick - literally, a stick," he says. "If a snake starts coming at you, just take the stick and throw him out of the way.

"Or if you see a gator coming, you bop in on the nose and he goes away."

ORLANDO, Fla. - More room to roam for the endangered Florida panther is the goal of a petition being delivered to the U.S. Department of the Interior during the "America's Great Outdoors" listening session in Orlando today. The proposal would use money from oil drilling royalties in the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund to expand the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge by as much as 50,000 acres. Several nearby landowners are willing to either sell or lease the needed land.

Manley Fuller, president of the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF), one of the groups submitting the petition, says expanding the 26,000-acre refuge would expedite the protection and recovery of the panther.

"We have a case where we have high-quality habitat and a number of major landowners who are willing sellers. We have an opportunity here to protect one of America's most endangered mammals and protect a whole host of habitats."

Fuller notes panther habitat has been increasingly threatened by development, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released research indicating the most crucial and vulnerable panther habitats are in Collier and Hendry counties. He calls the Florida panther an "umbrella species," meaning that protecting its habitat protects more than just panthers.

"If you protect panther habitat, you protect habitat for bears, a whole host of other creatures. You also protect places where people can enjoy nature, bird watch, hunt, fish."

The FWF has been working with many of these landowners for about a decade to provide conservation efforts without land acquisition, but Fuller believes it's time for the next step.

"There's a variety of techniques, but you've got to use every tool in the conservation toolkit."

About 100 Florida panthers are known to live in the wild, and the species has been on the endangered list since the 1970s.

The tour listening session is 3:30 to 6:30 p.m., Osceola Heritage Park Exhibition Building, 1901 Chief Osceola Trail, Orlando.

The past year has certainly had disappointments for people who care about protecting the environment. A major international conference on global climate change yielded no sweeping agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. The United States Senate declined to pass comprehensive climate change legislation, and residents of Louisiana and other states bordering the Gulf of Mexico suffered the ill effects of a long-running, disastrous offshore oil spill. One recent-far more sanguine-development development should not be overlooked, however: the decision of a special district in Florida, the South Florida Water

Management District, to purchase a large tract of land for use in the treatment and storage of surface water. The deal was approved by the District earlier this month and cleared one of its final legal challenges on Monday.

The "sugar deal," as it is known to many Floridians, represents a significant victory for the environmentalists and scientists who seek to protect the fragile, endangered Everglades. Under the plan, the Water Management District will pay $197 million for 26,800 acres of land owned by U.S. Sugar Corporation, a major sugar grower in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) situated south of Lake Okeechobee and north of the "river of grass." The District was also given an option to purchase the remainder of U.S. Sugar's EAA property-more than 100,000 additional acres--if and when the District's property tax revenues increase.

To understand the significance of this major land purchase, one must consider the history of its evolution. In the 1980s and 1990s, when scientists drew up plans to restore the Everglades, they noted the critical importance of converting some of the farmland in the EAA to use as a water treatment and storage area. The problem, as those scientists saw it, was that the water flowing into the Everglades from EAA agricultural operations contained such excessively high levels of nutrient contaminants that it had to be captured and treated. Moreover, under the prevailing arrangement, there was frequently a need to divert oversupplies of water into nearby rivers and the Everglades itself. This situation did (and continues to do) considerable damage to the Calusa and St. Lucie estuaries and to the natural systems of the Everglades themselves.

However, a plan to solve these problems, by condemning and purchasing EAA farmland for use as a surface reservoir and treatment facility, was fiercely resisted by politically influential sugar and citrus growing companies, who were then unwilling to give up any part of their real property to help restore the Everglades. Thus, in the late 1990s, when various stakeholders did the planning to design a Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (CERP), the notion of purchasing farmland for use in water storage and water quality improvement was quietly excluded.

The CERP, which was approved by Congress in 2000, was a consensus plan that won widespread support from interest groups in Florida-from environmental organizations to agriculturalists-as well as political leaders from both parties. The Restoration Program incorporated an approach known as "adaptive management," under which it was understood that particular CERP projects would change and evolve as conditions altered and as more was learned regarding the scientific and technical aspects of Everglades restoration. Rather than call for the removal of any EAA surface land from agricultural use however, the CERP contemplated that large quantities of water would be stored and released underground in a technically novel process, of questionable merit, known as "aquifer storage and recovery."

Although the CERP was widely viewed as being scientifically sound and promising in most respects, the absence of a land-based water storage and treatment area remained its technical Achilles' heel. Scientists (including a distinguished panel from the National Academies of Science) questioned the viability of the CERP for precisely that reason. They continued to urge that governmental entities acquire tracts of farmland land within the EAA. The sugar industry remained staunchly opposed however; and the state showed scant interest in condemning agricultural property for this salutary purpose.

In 2008, the situation shifted dramatically. U.S. Sugar Corporation, in some financial difficulty, offered for the first time to sell nearly all of its 180,000 acre EAA property to the South Florida Water Management District. After extensive negotiation, the Water Management District, at the urging of Florida Governor Charlie Crist, agreed to make that purchase at a cost of $2.5 billion.

Soon thereafter however, the Water Management District and the state, like much of the rest of the United States, began to suffer the effects of the current economic downturn. Tax revenues fell substantially-at both state and Water Management District levels-and the initial understanding that the District had reached with U.S. Sugar had to be reworked. As economic conditions and revenue amounts continued to decline, both the size of the land purchase and the price to be paid for it were downsized several times. In the end, the amount of land to be purchased, and the cost of it, is as much as the Water Management District can now afford.

Some critics of the District's farmland acquisition have noted that the amount of money to be paid to U.S. Sugar exceeds, at least modestly, what is probably the current assessed fair market value of the property. Obviously, this is not ideal. Nonetheless, to characterize the sugar deal as a "giveaway to Big Sugar," as some have done, entirely misses the point. The acreage that U.S. Sugar offered to sell to the Water Management District provided a rare, time-limited opportunity to accomplish a critical environmental goal. Moreover, given the political unacceptability of government use of condemnation authority, in a practical sense a negotiated purchase of the U.S. Sugar property was the only option available to government officials to protect the Everglades and nearby estuaries. While the Water Management District may well be paying some premium for its newly acquired real estate, in view of the necessary and important environmental benefits that this land sale seems likely to yield, its cost to the taxpayers is far from exorbitant.

Concededly, the final version of the sugar deal is imperfect in other respects as well. Full treatment and storage of water flowing out of the EAA may require the use of more land than the Water Management District was able to buy, and there's no certainty that the District will be in a financial position to purchase any additional land from U.S. Sugar over the next decade. Moreover, the agreement has encountered some political opposition.

Nevertheless, notwithstanding its flaws and uncertainties, the South Florida Water Management District's recent decision to purchase a significant tract of farmland for the storage and treatment of water is a major step forward in the ongoing effort to restore the Florida Everglades. The sugar deal will go a good distance toward rectifying a major flaw in that immense, complicated and time consuming effort. It deserves applause and celebration.

Joel Mintz, CPR Member Scholar; Professor, Nova Southeastern University Law Center -- Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Bio.

Courtesy MIAMI HERALD
Capt. Brian Esposito releases a snook in the deep backcountry of Flamingo in Everglades National Park.

Harvesting snook could resume in September but stop in December for an eight-month closed season, if state fishery managers adopt a staff recommendation. The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission will consider amending snook regulations at its Sept. 2 session in Pensacola Beach.

In the wake of January's cold weather that killed untold numbers of snook -- one of the state's most prized game fish -- the state halted snook harvests until Sept. 17. That move protected the remaining population while biologists assessed snook mortality statewide.

According to an FWC staff report released last week, researchers found "that although adult snook were impacted by the winter cold kill event, a significant proportion of spawning-sized fish survived to spawn."

Available information indicates while snook numbers in Florida Bay apparently suffered "a sharp decline" after the prolonged cold, the overall picture "suggests no catastrophic mortality on [the] snook spawning stock."

"While there clearly were effects on the population, we believe the fishery is healthy enough to rebound and continue to grow," the report says.

FWC staff will present the Conservation Commission with a range of options on snook, from returning to a regular spring and fall season to keeping the harvest of snook closed until September 2011.

But staff biologists will recommend opening harvest of legal-size snook on Sept. 17, to run until the regular winter closure in December. The season would then remain closed through the spring spawning season.

"Having a brief harvest season this fall will ... allow FWC to collect valuable information on the adult population ... and it will provide some harvest opportunity for anglers," says a staff summary. "Reinstituting the spring spawning season closure adds a level of precaution to this approach."

Snook, the first saltwater fish species to receive protection under Florida law, provides excellent sport for nearshore anglers and a fine meal for those who choose to eat one. Anglers who catch a snook in closed season must release it, a practice followed in all seasons by many Keys guides.

In other fishery matters of Florida Keys interest at the Sept. 1-3 FWC meeting at the Hilton Pensacola Beach Gulfront:

•Staff will update the board on consideration for a "reef fish" license endorsement, similar to the species "stamps" now needed to catch snook and lobster recreationally. If eventually approved, money from the endorsement surcharge would aid protection measures for reef fish. A final report is due in February 2011.

•New draft rules to protect permit and pompano will be considered.

On a recent business trip, I had the good fortune to take a flight south from Orlando International Airport over the heart of Kissimmee River Valley. The vantage point is one that I love.

Starting in the late 1990s, I spent four years as manager of The Nature Conservancy's Disney Wilderness Preserve, south of Kissimmee. The preserve's landscape is like an old friend, so I get oriented quickly - there's Lake Russell, Reedy Creek, Lake Hatchineha.

As part of the headwaters of the northern Everglades, the preserve also acts as a gateway into a stunning 4-million-acre vista of sprawling cattle ranches and glistening wetlands surrounding the newly restored Kissimmee River.

The northern Everglades provides more than a stunning view. It's an ecosystem that's critical to Florida's future: The northern Everglades helps provide water for South Florida citizens and the Everglades, habitat for a breathtaking array of animal and plant species and sustenance for an expanse of economically and culturally crucial ranchlands.

There's something to be said for having a vision for what's possible in such a place. That's what Floridians have the opportunity to provide Thursday at the America's Great Outdoors Initiative public listening session in Kissimmee with federal representatives.

President Barack Obama established the initiative to help develop a conservation agenda for the 21st century and reconnect Americans with the great outdoors. For that we commend him.

It's significant that the session is being held where weeks ago the Department of Agriculture announced an $89 million commitment to 26,000 acres of conservation easements on working ranches in the northern Everglades.

Conserving and restoring the northern Everglades is a priority for us at The Nature Conservancy, and we hope it will be for all Floridians.

This session provides an opportunity to let federal officials know we think they're on the right path in the northern Everglades, while urging them to go further. That means focusing conservation investments on critical American landscapes by designating and acquiring critical habitat into public conservation areas like national wildlife refuges.

Equally, support of agricultural landowners can protect vital water resources and important wildlife habitat while maintaining agricultural productivity, private lands on the tax rolls and economic stability. The wild, wet and wonderful landscape between Orlando and the Everglades is America's great outdoors. We can save it now, for all Americans, for generations to come. And it can be a model for how to make conservation work for all Americans in landscapes across the country.

Jeff Danter is Florida state director of The Nature Conservancy in Altamonte Springs.