Everglades

August 2011 - No Mine Expansion in Everglades Agricultural Area in Palm Beach County, thanks to lawsuit.

County Master Plans often call for regulation of development, but then, they are ignored. The only recourse residents and environmental groups have is to go to court. In a decision that environmentalist say could affect the future of rock mining in the county's rural western area, the Fourth District Court of Appeals has ruled the 470-acre expansion planned by Bergeron Sand and Rock Mine Aggregates did not meet criteria spelled out in the county's comprehensive plan.

Specifically, the plan requires that the land can only be used for mining if the mined rock is for public road projects,agriculture or water management.

The company conceded that they had no control over whether rock that was excavated would be used for public roads.

Environmental groups have argued that mining in the rural area could harm Everglades restoration and pollute the county's water supply. "Mining in the EAA has been a major Everglades issue for several years now," said Richard Grosso, a pro bono attorney for the Everglades Law Center. "We are obviously happy to win the case, but frustrated that, at every turn in the last several years, the county commission goes and decides against Everglades restoration and for industry. At some point, we are hoping that the county will change its approach in order to start giving the benefit of the doubt to the Everglades."

In all, the environmental groups 1000 Friends of Florida and the Sierra Club have filed legal challenges against three county mining approvals, including the Bergeron expansion. Two cases are still pending.

Everglades Sugar: The Die is Cast

On October 12, 2010, $194,234,087.08 was electronically transferred from the South Florida Water Management District to the U.S. Sugar Corporation. And that push of a button will begin the actual restoration of the Everglades. This marks the beginning of the transfer of the critical Everglades headwaters known as the Everglades Agricultural Area from private to public ownership. Before the passage of now estimated $15 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Act of 2000, Sierra Club and its allies advised government officials to buy sugar land instead of pouring billions of dollars into unsafe underground water storage wells and giant lined mining pits. The way to heal the Everglades, we wrote to the Clinton Administration in 1999, was not to be found in more mechanical, heavily-manipulated water schemes that little resembled anything nature could devise. Indeed, the only way to put the once mighty Everglades back together was to dismantle that which had torn it apart. We must purchase sugar lands, Sierra Club advised, to clean, store and flow the water before its long journey across the Southern Florida peninsula.

Over the last decade, a growing chorus of scientists, judges and economists validated what we had written, but little action was taken. Then one June afternoon in 2008 came a strange call: ‘Governor Charlie Crist is going to make a major announcement tomorrow morning. Meet at the levee. No details given.’ It would be a very big announcement. The State of Florida would be buying the entire assets of the U.S. Sugar Corporation, one of the two major land owners between Lake Okeechobee and the remaining natural Everglades. In that one instant, all the convoluted plumbing contraptions dreamt up by the Corps of Engineers fell like a heap of junk. Crist got it! And unlike the scientists who spoke, but were not heard, Crist had the power to do something about it! We now know that Crist’s vision of regaining public ownership of critical Everglades land ran smack into the headwinds of a faltering economy and legal and political challenges by the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida and Florida Crystals, the Everglades’ other powerful sugar interest. The once mighty deal, $1.75 billion for 187,000 acres of sugar land, finally ended its slide this summer with an all-cash deal for approximately 27,000 acres with options to buy the rest over 10 years.

But here’s the important part. The deal got done. “What else can we do?” said Florida Crystals Vice President Gaston Cantens last week. Despite their fierce maneuvers and the eventual entrance of the Tea Party, Crist pushed the ball over the goal line. The camel’s nose did breach the tent. And to use the words of Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon, the die is cast.

Jonathan Ullman, South Florida/Everglades Organizer for the Sierra Club.

June 2010: Speak Up for the Everglades June 24 Public Meeting at South Dade Library

On June 24, at 6pm, there will be a public hearing at the South Dade Library and we need you there. This is a puclic meeting to discuss the new plan to build 5.5 miles of bridging over Tamiami Trail to let water flow to the Everglades. Sierra Club has been pushing to restore the water flow for over a decade and a recent administrative study is going to give us a chance to help the Everglades survive.

Come early to the South Dade Regional Library, 10750 SW 211 Street, Cutler Bay, 33189. Of, if you can't make the meeting, send in your comments. Here are the major points to make: The 5.5 mile plan will benefit wildlife by restoring water flows. The plan will generate jobs and income for South Florida. The bridge will attract tourists to see the panaramic view. The plan will keep water flowing out to the sea and keep wetlands and mangroves healthy.

June 2010 - New Draft EIS for Tamiami Trail

The draft EIS includes the Sierra Club recommended alternative of 5.5 miles of bridging over the old, water blocking, road. Public Hearings are next. For more info you can visit the Sierra Club Florida website Everglades Skyway or the Everglades Skyway Coalition website at Build the Skyway

March 2010 - Florida Legislature - not thinking of the Environment.

This Florida Legislature continues to think that Everglades Restoration and the Florida Forever Program are the least important programs to fund this year. At the beginning of the 2010 session, members were getting ready to cut program funding and the top twenty cuts discussed were in the Department of Environmental Protection. Sierra Club and other environmental organizations in Florida will be fighting to change the minds of the representatives, but they will need the help of the grassroots. Members need to call their legislators and let them know that water quality, pollution enforcement, funding for conservation lands, and the Dept. of Community Affairs are all important.

March 2010 - Florida Forever is at Risk!

Last year, the Florida Legislature did not fund Florida Forever, the state land-buying program that purchases lands for conservation. Sierra Club has supported this program for years, knowing that many Florida eco-systems, including the Everglades, will not survive without it.

This year, legislators may find more reasons to not fund this program unless they hear from you. We need to buy land now while prices are greatly depressed. This is an opportunity we can't afford to miss!

We recognize that the state is in a budget crisis but Florida Forever has always been just a tiny part of the budget.

If enough of us act, we can ensure that Florida Forever remains vital and protects resources that sustain the people and the businesses of our state. Putting Florida Forever back into the budget will also promote job growth in beach and coastal tourism, commercial and recreational fishing, and in businesses near state parks. Florida's wild and scenic areas for bird watching, hiking, and fishing will also be protected. Contact your legislator and tell them you want Florida Forever included in this year's budget.

To find your legislator, go to www.myfloridahouse.org and click on “Find your legislator” and for the senate go to www.flsenate.gov and click “find your legislator"

December 17, 2009 - Press Release

Citing Threats to Florida Panther Habitat, Sierra Club and Conservancy of Southwest Florida Notify Federal Government of Intent to File Legal Challenge

Washington, D.C. – Citing the federal government’s failure to conserve and protect the Florida panther and its habitat, as required under by the Endangered Species Act, the Sierra Club and the Conservancy of Southwest Florida sent a notice letter to the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Department of Interior of their intent to file a legal challenge. The notice gives the federal agencies sixty days to respond.

The letter from the two organizations states that “The Florida panther was listed as endangered in 1967, in large part due to habitat loss. Forty-two years later, the panther still does not have protected critical habitat, even as development continues to accelerate in south Florida. To fulfill its conservation mandate under the ESA [Endangered Species Act], and to avoid violating the basic strictures of the APA [Administrative Procedure Act], FWS must finally designate sufficient critical habitat for the panther.”

On January 21, 2009, the Conservancy of Southwest Florida petitioned FWS with a formal request that it designate three important regions in south Florida as critical habitat. These regions known as the “Primary”, “Secondary”, and “Dispersal” Zones, embrace the core of panther habitat in the region. They extend from the Everglades through the Big Cypress National Preserve to the Caloosahatchee River, including vital migration corridors to South Central Florida, relatively undisturbed core habitat, and areas with important habitat restoration activities and opportunities. A broad coalition of citizen’s groups including the Sierra Club joined the Conservancy in a second petition on July 23, 2009, which reiterated the need to protect the habitat described in the Conservancy petition. FWS has not acted upon the petitions.

“Unfortunately, despite the pressing conservation needs outlined in the petitions,” the Sierra Club and Conservancy of Southwest Florida said in its letter, “FWS has not acted to designate critical habitat and has not responded in the manner and within the time period required by the ESA and the APA. Instead, it has allowed the petitions – and the panther – to continue to languish, even as habitat destruction and other threats to the panther’s survival intensify.”

Only 90-120 Florida panthers remain, but 20 have been killed so far in 2009, including 12 run over by cars.

March 2009 - Everglades - US Sugar land acquisition and the Florida Legislature.

March, 2009. SFWMD will make yet another presentation on its purchase of 180,000 acres of US Sugar land to the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee March 17, 2009.

The legislature does not have direct input on whether the US Sugar land deal goes through or not as the contract is between SFWMD and US Sugar. However, the legislature can change the rules that affect the Water Management Districts and the funding that they receive for other projects. This gives legislators leverage over the WMDs in this situation.

The US Sugar land deal is dependent on SFWMD receiving permission to issue bonds to come up with the $1.34 billion needed to complete the purchase. They have gone to the court to “validate” the bonding process. The court is devoting Monday – Wednesday of the third week in March to hearings on the issue.

November, 2009 - Update on Everglades Skyway

The US Army Corps of Engineers, The US Dept of the Interior, The State of Florida, and The South Florida Water Management District, are inviting everyone to celebrate the beginning of the Tamiami Trail Project on December 4, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. This is the beginning of building a one-mile bridge. There is a lot of fanfare here, but everyone needs to know that we can't let them stop at one mile. This bridge, because of its length, location and restrictive canal operation rules imposed by Florida DOT, will not come close to restoring flows to Shark River Slough.

The real plan to bridge far more miles of the Trail, has yet to be decided, so while we want this to be the beginning, everyone needs to realize that it is mostly symbolic. We have to keep up the pressure for more.

Here is the Sierra Club Wish List for the Everglades Skyway:

We want the Corps to build the 1 mile bridge first and add asphalt to parts of the remaining 10 miles last. We want to avoid having to place asphalt on parts of Tamiami Trail that are slated to bridged.

The cost of bridge building has fallen by half in the last few years. We want the money Interior saves on the 1 mile bridge to pay for more miles of bridging.

We want the National Park Service to speed up the General Management Plan process so that it is completed in 2010 about the time the Tamiami Trail bridging plan is finalized .

We want to increase the number of miles of bridging from the current 5 miles (plus 1 mile Corps bridge so that vast majority of the Slough is connected.

We want the National Park Service and Interior to aggressively seek funds for more bridging from the Stimulus and other sources. Right now they are not.

December 2008 - Save the Everglades, Stop Sprawl, Hold the Line Update

The Parkland Project is 1,000 acres of farmland outside the Urban Development Boundary, purchased by a group of politically influential developers during the housing market bubble. Now they are seeking a zoning change to move the line obstructing their development.

If this all sounds hauntingly familiar, it is. Parkland is only a few miles from Everglades National Park, the centerpiece of the largest environmental restoration effort in history. It is out west where seasonal flooding is nature at work keeping the Everglades healthy. That is, until somebody builds a thousand homes out there. Then, it is a sinkhole where taxpayers pour money to keep some houses dry, build roads, build new infrastructure, and make a few guys rich.

The matter was delayed into 2009 at the County Commission meeting on December 18. We, the taxpayers, need to say No to this. We need to show our county commissioners that we care about our county, our Everglades, and our pocketbooks. There is no good reason to move the Urban Development Boundary line for this project.

To show your opposition

Send an e-mail or write your county commissioners and let them know you are against this development;
Call them up on the phone and tell them you are against moving the UDB now;
Stay tuned to Miami Sierra so you can show up at the Commission meeting next time this comes up. Meetings are held at the Stephen P. Clark Center, at the Government Center stop on MetroRail, and usually start at 9:00 AM.
Mailing address for all county commissioners: Com. xxxxx, District yyy, Stephen P. Clark Center, 111 N.W. 1st Street, Suite 220, Miami, Florida 33128
Email addresses: DistrictX@miamidade.gov (where x is your district number).

Your Commissioners:

District 1 - Barbara J. Jordan; District 2 - Dorrin D. Rolle;

District 3 - Audrey Edmonson; District 4 - Sally A. Heyman;

District 5 - Bruno A. Barreiro District 6 - Rebeca Sosa;

District 7 - Carlos A. Gimenez; District 8 - Katy Sorenson;

District 9 - Dennis C. Moss; District 10 - Javier D. Souto;

District 11 - Joe A. Martinez; District 12 - José "Pepe" Diaz;

District 13 - Natacha Seijas;

If you don’t know who your commissioner is, here is a link to help you find out: Miami-Dade Government

June 2008 - Sierra Club Statement in Support of the U.S. Sugar Land Purchase

(June 30, 2008) - The Sierra Club strongly supports the purchase of 187,000 acres of land from U.S. Sugar to restore the flow of clean, fresh water at the right time each year to the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.

Governor Charlie Crist deserves our thanks for his leadership on this point: yes, there are risks and costs, but long ago we agreed that the destruction of the Everglades exposes taxpayers and future generations to unlimited risk.

The purchase has the potential to provide several major benefits: It would help fill in a missing link in the connection of Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay. It would provide adequate spatial extent—if the lands are in the right location—to restore wetlands and wildlife in the northern Everglades. It would take one-third of sugar lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area out of production, thereby reducing nutrient pollution of the entire Everglades system down to Florida Bay. It would restore the northern Everglades as a major tourist attraction and reinvigorate commerce from the shore communities of Lake Okeechobee to the fishing communities of Florida Bay. It would allow much improved management of Lake Okeechobee water levels. Excessive fresh water in Lake Okeechobee would be released south into the Everglades, thus protecting the St. Lucie Canal and Caloosahatchee River from harmful releases following tropical storms and other periods of heavy rainfall. It would serve as a large, natural water storage area and would eliminate the ill-conceived plan to construct 333 aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells as the centerpiece of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

The Sierra Club realizes that there are many details that need to be worked out to complete the purchase of the U.S. Sugar cane fields and to create a contiguous corridor from Lake Okeechobee to the Water Conservation Areas south of the Everglades Agricultural Area. In the process, the State of Florida must remain faithful to the overarching goal of restoring the natural flow of water as well as the vast expanse of marshes and sawgrass that once stretched southward from Lake Okeechobee more than a hundred miles to Florida Bay. Such restoration should use the best science available to minimize the use of artificial structures and maximize replication of historic flows.

Governor Crist should move quickly to lay out common sense rules for this acquisition: initiate land swaps to provide contiguous tracts as soon as possible; require that U.S. Sugar parcels swapped to other landowners carry permanent conservation easements and be used for environmentally-friendly purposes; and prohibit land uses incompatible with restoration (e.g. rock mining, power plants and urban development). We see this purchase as a very important step towards the restoration of the Everglades, which exist nowhere else in the world, as so eloquently described by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in the River of Grass.

2008 - Everglades Skyway

Tamiami Trail (US highway 41) cuts through Shark River Slough, one of the Everglades’ deepest and most important water passageways. Scientists say this 11-mile section of the 1928 road must be elevated into a “skyway” if Everglades restoration is to succeed. The skyway will be an important first step in returning the historic water sheet flow through parched Everglades National Park and into Florida Bay.

It will be beneficial to wildlife by reducing habitat fragmentation and preventing road kill. The project will create jobs and increase tourism while raising Everglades awareness at the same time. Best yet, an 11-mile skyway will serve as a visible symbol of Everglades restoration; a real benefit to the floundering project. The Sierra Club believes that Everglades restoration cannot happen without the full 11-mile skyway.

The US Army Corps of Engineers has tentatively selected a one-mile bridge in the eastern portion of the 11 mile area. This 1-mile plan is part of the 1989 federally-funded Modified Waters Delivery Project (Mod Waters), and not the $11 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) or any other state or federal transportation or environmental project. The Skyway Coalition has always said that if we were unable to secure the Skyway entirely in Mod Waters then the smaller project must be compatible with a full Skyway, and be built consecutively.

The entire Corps document can be viewed at: USAC Site

Sierra Concerns

It’s generally acknowledged by all parties that the one-mile bridge alone will not provide enough water flow to restore Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. If the Skyway Coalition were to consider this as a first step to restore Shark River Slough and close out Mod Waters, we would need to see verifiable commitments from the state and federal officials that a project to build the remainder of the Skyway would break ground right after the one-mile bridge project is finished.

We are concerned that the 10 miles of asphalt, however thin, is a costly and long measure that might lend some permanency to the project. We wonder if this plan is designed to be the only bridge for 10-15 years or beyond. Tell us why that shouldn’t be a concern, and what are you doing to assure this doesn’t happen.

It behooves us to assure the public that finishing the Skyway starts immediately after the Mod Waters project because costs will only go up. We’ll look back at this 20-30 years from now and think that this was a bargain.

There doesn’t seem to be a plan to build the full Skyway after Mod Waters. We would like the Administration in its last months to work with Congress, the State of Florida and the Skyway Coalition, to craft a plan that blends a variety of state and federal and possibly private funds, possibly tapping existing and future tolling streams and financing options. We’d like that plan ready before Congresses’ July ‘08 deadline so that the public can see that the interim 1-mile plan isn’t the end of the road.

To show the agency’s commitment to restoring flow to the Everglades, would the Corps move up the Tamiami Trail decompartmentalization project of CERP, which could be a funding vehicle for much or all of the remaining Skyway bridging after Mod Waters?

The science chair of Miami-Dade County’s Global Warming Task Force and University of Miami Geology Chair, Dr. Harold Wanless, predicts a 3 to 5 foot sea level rise by 2100. He said that restoring natural historic flows may be pivotal to saving the Everglades. This week marks the 80th Anniversary of the completion of Tamiami Trail. In another 80 years, the road and much if not all the Everglades could be underwater if we don’t make the right choices now. We hope State and Federal officials agree on a post-Mod Waters bridging plan by July to address these predictions.

- Jonathan Ullman, Sierra Club Everglades Office

To find out how you can get involved, go to Build the Skyway

2003: Everglades Action Alert

Call Governor Jeb Bush now at 850-488-4441 and tell him to "VETO" SB626, a destructive bill that may allow the sugar industry to delay the cleanup of America's Everglades. Every day, large parts of the Everglades are being lost because of Big Sugar's pollution. The bill, backed by more than 40 sugar industry lobbyists, would extend pollution limits and jeopardize the ability to truly restore this natural treasure.

Call Florida Governor Jeb Bush at 850-488-4441 NOW and tell him to uphold the state's commitment to restore the Everglades by VETOING SB626, "The Everglades Whenever Act."

You can also e-mail the Governor at jeb@myflorida.com

You an also send/fax a handwritten or typed letter to;

Governor Jeb Bush

PL 05 The Capitol

400 South Monroe Street

Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001

Fax: 850-487-0801

The deadly "Everglades Whenever Act" (SB626) would:

Require compliance of water quality standards only to "the maximum extent practicable," threatening water quality as well as endangered plant and animal habitat;

Eliminate clear pollution clean-up deadlines, leaving polluters to comply with water quality standards at the "earliest practicable date;"

Re-open the 1996 voter-approved Florida constitution amendment that clearly says polluters should pay. Instead, the bill states that payment of the bulk of cleanup costs by homeowners and other real property owners -- instead of the actual polluters -- is fair;

Undermine the Everglades restoration consensus between the state and federal government.

You can view the bill at: Fl. Senate

Sierra Protest in Downtown Miami

Fifty people attended the Sierra Club rally at the Federal Courthouse in Miami on Friday, May 2. Sierrans came to downtown Miami on a work day to show the media, the judge and everyone, that Floridians want the cleanup of the Everglades to continue on schedule. Apparently, Judge Hoeveler agreed, because at the end of the day he said that he was going to proceed with the cleanup by 2006 and that the legislature wasn’t going to interfere.

At the courthouse, U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler had ordered an emergency meeting of state regulators, water managers and others involved in the cleanup plan in his courtroom two days after Florida lawmakers passed a bill to slow down and possibly de-rail the cleanup plan.

The bill, put together by Big Sugar lobbyists and supporters, has rushed through the Florida legislature and it appears that only Governor Jeb Bush can stop it. That bill could stall restoration and jeopardize $4 billion in federal aid. According to a Sierra Club bulletin, the bill would: replace efforts to set a 10 part per billion Water Quality Criterion for phosphorus with a “planning objective” of 15 parts per billion, a 50 percent increase in allowable pollution the Everglades cannot survive; prohibit the enforcement of any phosphorus discharge limits on waters flowing into the Everglades until 2026; freeze any possible expansion of the highly successful stormwater treatment areas and the addition of advance treatment technologies until the distant future, possibly after 2026.; thwart the will of the people expressed in a 1996 state-wide ballot referendum that polluters in the Everglades pay the full cost of cleanup.

Proposed legislative amendments would also attempt to secure approval for a plan to have all private property owners from Orlando to Key West pay the lion’s share of cleanup costs for agricultural pollution on a permanent basis. An overwhelming majority of voters in 1996 approved a constitutional amendment directing that polluters pay these costs.

Everglades activists are asking everyone to call and write and write again to Governor Bush and to Florida Senators and tell them to stop the new Everglades Destruction Act, H1893/S626. Call and e-mail and write

Miami Group would like to thank Stuart Reed, Alan Farago, Jonalthan Ullman, Rod Jude Kent Harris Robbins, Mark Oncavage and Stephen Mahoney. Thanks also go to Broward Conservation Co-Chair Brian Lewis and Excom members Julia Heinlein, Walt Slattery, Linda Brown.Special thanks to Maria Papazian and Elaine Codias who helped with signs and props and to Coky Michel for re-introducing our Big Sugar costumes.

The Everglades Ecosystem

Spanning the southern tip of the Florida peninsula and most of Florida Bay, the Everglades ecosystem is home to an extraordinary number of rare and sensitive species of animals and plants. The area contains both temperate and tropical plant communities, including sawgrass prairies, mangrove and Cypress swamps, pinelands, and hardwood hammocks, as well as marine and estuarine environments. The area also supports a rich diversity of wildlife, including many species of large wading birds, such as the roseate spoonbill, wood stork, great blue heron and a variety of egrets. The Everglades has been designated a World Heritage Site and an International Biosphere Reserve. However, the ecosystem has suffered from the effects of human development. Since 1900, large tracts of Everglades wetlands have been converted to agricultural and residential uses. This abundance of "new" land supported and stimulated massive population growth. To support this expanding population, private developers cut numerous canals and built new roads through native habitat. In 1948, the federal government undertook the "Central and South Florida Project" -- a gargantuan and unprecedented program to replace the natural habitat and hydrology of the Everglades ecosystem with an elaborate system of roads, canals, levees, and water-control structures which were intended to provide flood protection for urban and agricultural lands. The alteration of regional wetland areas, estuaries, and bays - combined with increasing population pressures, changing land uses, and accompanying water pollution - have largely destroyed the natural functioning of the Everglades ecosystem.

According to the National Park Service, over 50% of the original wetland areas in the Everglades ecosystem no longer exist. The numbers of wading birds, such as egrets, herons, and ibises, have been reduced by at least 90%. Entire populations of animals, including the manatee, the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, the Miami blackheaded snake, the wood stork, and the Florida panther, are at risk of disappearing. Massive die-offs of seagrass beds in Florida Bay have been followed by the extensive losses of wading birds, fish, shrimp, sponges, and mangroves. As explained by Park Service biologists "[t]hese grim indicators warn of a system under assault and in jeopardy of collapse."

Campaign Goal, Message, and Strategy Goal: Protect the Everglades Ecosystem by advocating for its restoration.
Decompartmentalize the Everglades by removing water blockage from canals, levees and roads (ie. Tamiami Trail) between Lake Kissimmee to Florida Bay
Eliminate a Corps of Engineersâ plan to store large quantities of water in the aquifer through seasonal pumping and retrieval (a technique known as Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR).
Halt mining of wetlands in the historic Everglades
Enforce the polluter pay provision of the Florida Constitution requiring the sugar industry to pay the full cost of cleaning up its phosphorus byproduct to 10 ppb.
Solidify a January 2001 Air Force decision to prohibit commercial aviation at the former Homestead Air Force Base.

Primary messages: The key to Everglades restoration is to buy land now. Protect Everglades by halting activities that harm the Everglades

Recent Successes

Successfully Stopped Mining permits from being issued in 2000.
Air Force decided to prohibit commercial aviation at the former Homestead Air Force Base.
Successfully mobilized Sierrans around the state beat back what was called a "done-deal," state legislation to allow untreated water to be injected into groundwater through ASR wells, a major feature of the Everglades Plan. This was a crucial legislative victory for Sierra Club.
Successfully worked with NRDC to place assurance language alternatives to Lake Belt mining pilot project. Led effort to formalize peer review by a committee such as the National Academy of Sciences into the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan ("CERP") bill

The well drilling, sugar and rock mining industries are all very powerful and are currently controlling the direction of Everglades Restoration. They have the ear of Governor Jeb Bush, who is neither willing to fund research and science that could prove adversarial to the entrenched status quo, nor stop or curtail their activities or mandate that they pay for the pollution they cause to the Everglades. The well drilling industry stands to make hundreds of millions in profits from the CERP by poking holes in the earth to dump waste and stormwater in the vertical equivalent of channelizing the Kissimmee River. Their vision for a restored Everglades by storing and retrieving water in Floridaâs groundwater is being actively pursued by the state and by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

The Sierra Club will seek to reverse their efforts and promote a natural restoration. We will join forces with residents who are affected by those activities and other groups who seek to protect the Everglades. We will try to influence the Army Corps of Engineers decision makers and engage Federal and State lawmakers.

Scientific Comment on Everglades Restudy

The Honorable Bruce Babbitt

Secretary of the Interior

U. S. Department of the Interior

18th and C Streets, N. W.

Washington, DC 20240

January 28th, 1999

Dear Mr. Secretary:

We know of your personal deep commitment to protect and restore the Florida Everglades and are enormously heartened by the Clinton Administration's recent decision to expand the area of natural ecosystems to be protected. However, we are deeply concerned about the state of the C&SF Restudy. There are serious failings in the plans being considered. These are deep, systemic problems, ones unlikely to be overcome by tinkering with the existing alternative.

This letter asks for more scientific study. The Restudy needs to be peer reviewed by external experts. The National Research Council would be an obvious choice to do such a review.

Our concerns are these.

1. The initial approach characterizes a "Natural Systems Model" to which subsequent models are compared. No one from outside the Byzantine world of Floridian water management will understand why this model has "Natural" in its title. We accept that some areas are urban, others in agriculture, and yet others so over-drained that restoration to natural conditions will be impossible. This accepted, there are too many other circumstances where the implied natural conditions are contradictory. For instance, NSM has a hydroperiod of 102 weeks ÷ dry downs every couple of years ÷ for Water Conservation Area 3B. The hydroperiod for the adjacent, down-stream portion of northeast Shark River Slough, within the extension of Everglades National Park is 400 weeks ÷ dry downs every eight years or so. There is nothing "natural" in these differences, only the basis for continued conflict.

2. The NSM parameters now become the targets the other models must match. When these targets make little ecological or hydrological sense, they force solutions to be ever more complicated and expensive.

3. Your staff in the National Park Service and the Biological Resources Division of USGS have continually pressed for structural and operation approaches to the Restudy that would favor minimal or passive water management. Such approaches include the dynamic storage and natural lag process of the undisturbed marsh. Your staff are right. Such natural processes have not been fully considered. The half century history of the region shows that a highly manipulated approach combined with an extensively compartmented system has consistently failed to restore the ecosystems. Indeed, it often has seriously harmed them during periods of drought or flood. It is also a recipe for continued conflict and litigation.

4. The plans call for many new water resource technologies ÷ aquifer storage, waste-water reuse, storage in rock-mining pits, and so on.

We applaud creative new solutions. But what if these expensive new technologies do not achieve their goals? Ecosystem restoration will then entail a greatly changed vision of balancing the allocation of water to the ecosystem and existing and future users. We do not underestimate the difficulties you face in managing the trade-offs between a National Park and its biological resources and the growing human demands for water that lie upstream. The Restudy effort has been exhaustive. Yet experience of other large-scale efforts suggests that outside experts should always vet the recommendations. A review might confirm the plans as the only ones that are practicable. If not, then it is better to notice them now before we Americans commit the many billions of dollars needed to develop the next centuryâs plan for the people of Florida ÷ and the ecosystems on which they depend.

Sincerely, Stuart L. Pimm; University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

and (listed alphabetically)

Paul R. Ehrlich; Stanford University Gary K. Meffe; Editor, Conservation Biology Gordon Orians; University of Washington Peter Raven, Missouri Botanic Garden Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University

A signature page follows:

Stuart L. Pimm

Paul R. Ehrlich

Gary K. Meffe

Gordon Orians

Peter Raven

Edward O. Wilson

Cc: Jamie R. Clark, US Fish and Wildlife Service Togo G. West, Jr. Secretary of the Army Col. Joe R. Miller, US Army Corps of Engineers Sam E. Poole III, South Florida Water Management District Steve Forsythe, US Fish and Wildlife Service Richard G. Ring, Superintendent, Everglades National Park

Press Release - December 17, 2009

The Florida Panther Habitat

Citing Threats to Florida Panther Habitat, Sierra Club and Conservancy of Southwest Florida Notify Federal Government of Intent to File Legal Challenge

Only 90-120 Florida panthers remain, but 20 have been killed so far in 2009, including 12 run over by cars.