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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.
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A Florida Senate bill that critics claim is being fast-tracked through the Legislature to ensure big agriculture receives all of the water it already uses from Lake Okeechobee, rather than follow longstanding plans to send more of it into the Everglades, passed the chamber late this week.
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Large amounts of nutrient-rich water released from Lake Okeechobee could once again flow down the Caloosahatchee River if a last-minute Florida Senate bill becomes law. The last-minute bill, SB 2508, effectively returns control of Lake Okeechobee’s water management to agricultural interests and was filed by the Republican-led Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. In addition to largely giving deference over the lake’s water usage to South Florida’s farming interests, critics of the bill say it would jeopardize water quality and lower water quantity in the Everglades, and threaten the viability for the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) reservoir.
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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.
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Nearly $1 billion in the governor’s budget is earmarked for the Florida environment, including water quality improvements, the Everglades restoration, redirecting rivers and waterways, cleaning up dead fish and decaying foliage after blue-green algae blooms or red tides, or to work to eradicate invasive species like Burmese pythons or kudzu
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Florida’s largest sugar companies say cane burning is safe and can't be stopped without economic harm. But Brazil has successfully transitioned away from the controversial practice, and experts there say the U.S. can follow their lead.
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Audubon Florida, a well-known environmental group dedicated to the conservation of birds and their habitats, published a report on the health and success of 43,680 wading bird nests last year from Fort Myers to Lake Okeechobee and south to Florida Bay at the southern tip of mainland South Florida.
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Get the latest updates on some of the major Everglades restoration projects underway, and still on the drawing board, here in South Florida.
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We are all connected by the environment we share. The Earth is our home. This is the space where we share the environmental stories that caught our attention this week in Florida and beyond.
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While Florida’s endangered snail kite has rebounded a bit, the native species of snail it lives off has not. So the snail kite is changing its diet and moving on from its long-time habitat in the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.