The Obama administration on Friday proposed protecting a vast mosaic of wilderness, streams, lakes and ranchlands north of Lake Okeechobee. The initiative is intended to guard the water sources of the Everglades and prevent development in a landscape that recalls a Florida before Disney, condominiums and interstate highways.The $700 million proposal — which lacks specifics on funding and the exact locations of land to be protected — calls for buying about 50,000 acres for a new national wildlife refuge and protecting another 100,000 acres through agreements with landowners and other means.The proposal describes the areas as "one of the great grassland and savanna landscapes of eastern North America," providing habitat for the Florida panther, black bear, Florida scrub-jay, Everglades snail kite, red-cockaded woodpecker and many other species.The region also serves as the headwaters for the Florida Everglades, gathering water that flows slowly south through the Everglades to the coast. Among the Everglades' knottiest problems is the pollution washing off farms and cities from fertilizers, particularly phosphorus.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Obama administration proposes
protection for Everglades headwaters
From David Fleshler and Andy Reid of the Sun-Sentinel on Jan. 7:
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This is actually an attempt to nationalize The US Sugar farm and surrounding areas. Included in this land grab is a privately owned wildlife sanctuary called Arnold's Exotics. While phosphorus is a problem, a mandate requiring farms to use organic fertilizers would be more effective and end the need for a Federal takeover of a huge area of land. I have friends that are civil engineers for SFWMD and I also know employees at US Sugar. The ultimate goal is to force the coastal cities to ask for federal $$$ and accept the strings that come with it to pay for reverse osmosis salt water treatment. While reverse osmosis treatment can be good when done right, can the Federal Government be trusted to do
this?
Also, the southeast metro areas do not get fresh water from Lake O except to run the canal system. The metro areas use "reclaimed" wastewater and well water for their fresh water supply. Thanks to the draining of all the canals during hurricane season, Lake O is already a foot below normal and dropping fast during a drought winter thanks to the SFWMD. These are the same people that will be put in charge of drainage into Lake O under BHO's plan. Does that sound like a good idea to you?
Note, I am very pro-Everglades restoration. I just don't trust the Feds to handle it since they do such a good job with everything else they touch.
Not long ago, BHO gave a speech somewhere out west to the Hispanic Caucus where he defined Republicans as the enemies to Hispanics and called for them to make sure their enemies would not be in a position to cause them harm by keeping them out of power.
Not only was this unpresedential, but he called 1/3 of the population of the USA enemies of Hispanic Americans. If the critics of corrupt politicians in DC caused or contributed to the AZ. Massacre, then BHO contributed to all Hispanic on Reublican or even White violence in the last 5 months. Using the logic of those making such claims about the Arizona Massacre, it is easy to come to this and far more pretentious and illogical conclusions.
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