Everglades

The money will be used to hasten efforts to undo the damage the Everglades suffered in the early 1900s.

Native American environmentalist and artist Houston Cypress is concerned that climate change will harm native plants that are integral to Miccosukee cultural practices. His nonprofit, Love the Everglades, combines education, art and spirituality to advocate for restoring the land that he calls the river of grass.

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.

Tegus have been reported in 35 Florida counties, including nearly every part of the greater Tampa Bay region. A new factsheet shows their presence is now established in several North Florida counties and as far north as Georgia.

Gov. Ron DeSantis will ask legislators to consider $960 million in funds for the 2022-23 fiscal year to support resiliency efforts across the state.

State environmental regulators ruled the proposed well could impact water supplies and endangered species, such as the Florida panther.

Burnett Oil Co. has proposed drilling at two sites in the Everglades of Big Cypress National Preserve, an important Florida panther habitat that sprawls across both sides of Alligator Alley. Environmentalists hope the Biden administration takes a more skeptical view.

But neighborhoods 20 miles inland are starting to feel the impact, as the Atlantic Ocean’s higher elevation makes it harder for drainage canals to keep them dry.

A lawsuit filed by sugar growers this week claimed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated a congressional order to protect water supplies and asked a judge to send the reservoir back to the Corps for a new environmental review.

The Army Corps commander overseeing the new plan said Monday that a version of the plan, unveiled in June, will be tweaked but remain largely unchanged.

The plan selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers would stop sending water south if levels drop too low in the dry season to protect water supplies.

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 longtime habitat in the Everglades and Lake Okeechobee.