Communication Builds Our Community
Communication Builds Our Community
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In a tribute to the very concept of restoration, a portion of Florida's Kissimmee River that was once reduced to a single canal carrying contaminated water has been approved for status as a Wild and Scenic River under legislation passed by the US Congress. The river fell victim to a misguided flood control effort by the US Army Corps of Engineers following repeated floods after hurricanes dumped record rains across central Florida. The project turned a 103-mile meandering rive...
Attracting wildlife to our yards by planning and planting for their needs is simple and satisfying. If we supply adequate food, water and shelter, we can increase the number and variety of species that visit our properties, improving our chances of observing them more closely while providing the habitat they need to survive. The Lake Wales Ridge is home to scores of "endemic" species that exist nowhere else on earth. Because almost all of Florida was submerged as recently as t...
Swaths of wetlands and waterways in Florida left unprotected when the Trump administration weakened federal standards in early 2020 are being developed in Florida - despite a federal court ruling that struck down the Trump rules eight weeks ago. At least 300,000 acres of wetlands and waterways in Florida alone are likely subject to regulation under the stronger, pre-Trump standards, say a trio of environmental lawyers and scientists, but state regulators have announced no...
A group of Democratic lawmakers unveiled an energy-efficiency plan this week that would reward farmers for conserving energy, assess energy efficiency in state-funded buildings, and create "floating solar" systems – among other projects. The plan - a bill for consideration in the 2022 legislative session - is sponsored by state Sen. Tina Polsky and state Rep. Kelly Skidmore, both of Palm Beach County, with backing from Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Nikki F...
Do you play the lottery? I've been known to purchase a ticket or two when the payoff gets enough zeroes. The fact that I am still writing for a living should tell you how good I am at picking numbers. Once, I ducked into Publix to purchase a Powerball ticket and discovered a knot of people around a well-tanned, white-haired customer. It was former Gov. Charlie Crist in a blue blazer, silk tie, and tassel loafers, waiting his turn to wager a couple of bucks. "You can't win if...
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Service is inviting you to join them on Thursday, October 14 for their virtual MarineQuest 2021 event. This is a live on-line event that will include a number of nature-oriented features that begin at 9:00 am. Tune in even earlier, at 8:40 am for field videos of sandhill crane banding, searching for skunks and weasels with Cowboy, the scat-sniffing dog, pulling nets with their fisheries monitoring team in Tampa Bay, and much more! Viewers will...
Outdoor lovers are invited to attend the 35th Annual Civilian Conservation Corps Festival scheduled for November 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Highlands Hammock State Park. Festival highlights include featured guest speaker Florida folklorist Robert Stone, who will speak about Cattle King William B. Hooker and present Florida Cattle Ranching: Five Centuries of Tradition Two members of the Florida Artists Blacksmith Association will forge a fish wall sculpture as a silent...
The plan proposed by Manatee County to treat the estimated 270 million gallons of polluted wastewater from the Piney Point gypsum stack ponds and inject it deep underground has been controversial. Deep well injection has been used extensively in Florida as an alternative to surface discharges. The best example locally is a well near Mulberry that is used to dispose of acidic wastes that were previously discharged, causing concrete bridge supports downstream to begin...
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Each fall, millions of migratory birds fly over Florida under the cover of night, hightailing it south for the winter. Many never reach their destination. Disoriented by the lights and glass of cityscapes, thousands of birds die after colliding into buildings and windows. To prevent these deaths, cities across the U.S. are hosting "Lights Out" campaigns that encourage building managers and residents to reduce light pollution during birds' spring and fall...
The Lakes Education Action Drive (LEAD) Board of Directors recently met to select leadership for the upcoming year and consider adoption of their 2021-2022 Fiscal Year Budget. "While COVID-19 affected us all," said LEAD Executive Director Danny Kushmer, "many programs were cancelled. LEAD was able to finish the year financially sound." The group has served Polk County for more than 30 years and is responsible for the many familiar blue signs on storm drains reminding...
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is seeking landowners to help with gopher tortoise conservation efforts as part of the agency's Gopher Tortoise Recipient Site Program. The program benefits landowners and tortoises and is compatible with other land uses, such as hunting and wetland mitigation. The Gopher Tortoise Recipient Site Program provides landowners with an opportunity to generate additional revenue from their lands, as the landowner may...
GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- For the past nine years, volunteers working with the Florida Museum of Natural Historyand the Florida Park Service have trekked diligently through forest preserves on Key Largo in search of the federally endangered Schaus' swallowtail butterfly, more often than not coming back with more mosquito bites than butterfly sightings. Things seemed especially grim when, in 2012, observers were only able to find four adults, setting in motion a large-scale...
Say what you will about Florida (and many of you have), but we’ve sure got some unusual crimes here. A surprising number of them involve reptiles. You have probably heard about the guy who, in 2016, tossed an alligator through a Wendy’s drive-thru window in Royal Palm Beach. Last year, Sanford police recovered a five-foot pet iguana named “Smog” that had been kidnapped (lizard-napped?) from a smoke shop. Earlier this year, someone stole 13 Argentine tegus from a reptile...
