Everglades Restoration

Environmental and smart growth planning advocates are expressing concern over laws passed in Florida’s 2023 legislative session concerning citizens’ ability to challenge proposed changes to a local government’s comprehensive plan and pre-emption of local fertilizer restrictions. We hear details from Jane West of 1,000 Friends of Florida.

Governor Ron DeSantis announced the veto of controversial SB 2508, a Lake Okeechobee water supply bill that environmental advocates strongly opposed.

Florida lawmakers are reviewing the most controversial environmental bill to arise during the current legislative session. SB 2508 is the latest attempt by lawmakers sympathetic - or beholden - to the sugar industry to give it and the agricultural industry the key to the Everglades’ huge spigot by guaranteeing “existing legal users” continue to receive a huge amount of the water.

Environmental groups working to restore the Florida Everglades were elated to learn Wednesday that $1.1 billion from the federal infrastructure package has been earmarked to help pay for the massive, multi-decade restoration. The money will be used to hasten the efforts to undo the extensive environmental damage the Everglades suffered in the early 1900s, when the Army Corps built canals, locks and levees in a massive water management and flood control plan before the damaging environmental impacts of such efforts were fully known. Improving water quality and quantity is the Everglades is a top priority.

Get the latest updates on some of the major Everglades restoration projects underway, and still on the drawing board, here in South Florida.

Governor Ron DeSantis made a stop at the Conservancy of Southwest Florida in Naples on Wednesday to announce that he wants more funding for Everglades…

Gov. Ron DeSantis was back in Southwest Florida, Wednesday, touting his administration’s efforts on water resource protection at the News-Press and Naples…

Members of Southwest Florida’s state legislative delegation met this week with members of the Chamber of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers for a look at…

The South Florida Water Management District’s Governing Board recently voted to extend a lease to allow farming to continue on about 16-thousand acres of…

Last week the Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District voted to extend the lease for sugar farmers on land that has been slated for…