Having trouble reading this email? Click here to read it online.
Restore the Everglades
|
 Help Audubon and Everglades advocates to restore this important ecosystem.
|
|
Restore: The Everglades Still Needs Your Help
Environmentally-harmful water releases from Lake Okeechobee begin, underscoring the urgency of increasing water storage
The need to urgently implement freshwater storage projects in the Lake Okeechobee watershed is more evident than ever this month. The wet winter weather and lack of storage have compelled the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to begin large and environmentally-damaging releases from the Lake to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. These water releases are deemed necessary when high Lake levels threaten the integrity and safety of Hoover Dike.
Large releases of freshwater polluted with phosphorus and nitrogen likely will kill sea grasses and oysters, cause fish and wildlife evacuations, and possibly trigger harmful algae blooms.
Rainfall across the Okeechobee watershed in March totaled about eight inches, which is above average even for wet season months and more than twice the average for March. As of March 31, the Lake had risen to 14.6 feet, only about 2.5 feet from the highest level the Corps deems safe for the Hoover Dike. With the wet season just two months away and with the realization that a tropical storm can quickly raise the Lake as much as four feet (as Tropical Storm Fay did in 2008), the Corps has little choice but to lower water levels in the Lake over the next two months to the extent possible.
Until more water storage can be brought on line, Florida is trapped in a repetitive cycle that damages the Lake, watershed and estuary environments. The current environmentally-harmful releases underscore the need to complete projects such as the state's River of Grass purchase of US Sugar Corporation lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and use it for water storage, treatment, and conveyance to the southern Everglades where it is needed.
Audubon Recommends: Manage Lake Okeechobee Water to Benefit the Environment
Until large projects to store, treat and convey freshwater from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades come on line, water management policy and tools to determine freshwater releases must balance the necessities of the natural ecosystem and wildlife that depend on healthy habitats with demands of water users for urban and agriculture uses.
Snail Kite © Via Flickr shell_game1 |
Audubon is working with state and federal water managers to develop an important water management tool, called Adaptive Protocols for Lake Okeechobee Operations, that outlines when to hold or release water in Lake Okeechobee.
At issue is some agricultural sector demands to curtail small, beneficial water releases from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee Estuary during the dry season, even before they would be rationed. Audubon recommends that all interests must share the adversity of water rationing during the dry season as the only means of balancing competing demands and necessities.
The Caloosahatchee Estuary needs fresh water flows during the dry season to sustain its vital brackish water zone, which is an important nursery for fish, crabs, oysters, and other marine organisms for the Gulf Coast region. Lake Okeechobee often is the only source for these flows and an entire month of healthy flows only lowers the lake about one inch.
Yet, the SFMWD has proposed that if there is only a 30 percent chance that the lake could drop close to the water rationing line—before rationing is even triggered—that beneficial flows to the Caloosahatchee could be cut to zero. Thus, when farmers are having all their supplies met and have a cushion of water remaining, the estuary’s ecological health could be destroyed.
Audubon maintains that water flows during the dry season must be balanced to all interests, including the Caloosahatchee Estuary, and will remain vigilant to ensure that water management tools, including the Adaptive Protocols, fairly allocate freshwater between water supply and environmental needs.
| Everglades Now: Join Today to Support Everglades Restoration |
 Join the Everglades
Now Facebook page today. There you can stay on top of the River of
Grass effort by the state to purchase important U.S. Sugar lands in the
Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) for restoration and contact your local lawmakers to tell them you support
buying U.S. Sugar's land as the only truly effective plan, at a price,
taxpayers can afford.
 Become a fan today and keep abreast of new
developments and hear what others are saying about saving this
incredible treasure. |
Audubon's Julie Hill-Gabriel Elected National Co-chair of Everglades Coalition
Florida Audubon's Julie Hill-Gabriel, Everglades Policy Associate, was elected the national co-chair of the Everglades Coalition during its annual meeting on Friday, March 26, 2010. Mark Perry, Executive Director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, was reelected as the state co-chair for 2010.
The coalition of 53 national, state and local organizations is one of the largest and most effective environmental coalitions in the nation. Each year, it organizes the Everglades Coalition Conference, bringing together decision makers from federal, state, local and tribal governments, agency representatives, stakeholders and a vast array of public and private interests including scientists, educators, contractors, conservationists, the media, students and the general public. The conference is the largest annual forum for discussion of Everglades conservation and restoration. The 2011 Everglades conference will be held in January in Weston, Florida.
Audubon Launches a New Tool You Can Use to Help Control Exotic Invaders
History is littered with examples of extinctions caused by the introduction of novel predators, and exotic invaders may pose this same threat to some of Florida's signature, native wildlife. Large constructors, such as the Burmese python are among the most notorious invaders and are already well established in the Florida.
Audubon has launched a new fact sheet that describes this growing threat of invasive species in the Everglades, and provides useful tools you can use to help control and eradicate large constrictors. Download your copy today.
Burmese python © USGS and Jemeema Carrigan
Update your profile | Modify your email preferences or unsubscribe
