Year: 2010

Judge revokes permit for Mirasol development
Naples Daily News, 10/26/09

A coalition of five environmental organizations – National Wildlife Federation, Florida Wildlife Federation, Conservancy of Southwest Florida, Collier County Audubon Society and National Audubon Society, opposing golf course and residential developments in a wetland slough flowing from Corkscrew Swamp, saw their federal lawsuit decided in their favor. Federal circuit court judge Jose Martinez has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not do adequate accounting of the cumulative impacts to this watershed due to numerous developments being proposed in wetlands. In response to thelawsuit the environmental groups filed against the Corps and the US Fish and Wildlife Service back in 2008, Judge Martinez revoked the federal permit to destroy 645 acres of wetlands for Mirasol and invalidated the biological opinion written by the USFWS on level of threat to endangered wood storks nesting at Corkscrew Swamp. The environmental coalition has also filed a similar lawsuit against the adjacent Saturnia Falls project and anticipate a ruling on this case soon.

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Politics, not science, controls our water
Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 4/15/09

When Florida had too much water, property owners drained the swampland, elevated it with fill and sold it to northerners.

Now that Florida has too little water, property owners are ready to sell their dried-out lowlands to the government, which will fill them with — you guessed it — water. [Read More]