The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is formally accepting information through July 15 on ways to prevent, combat or clean up harmful algal blooms in freshwater bodies and estuaries.
Environment & Water
Interested In Adding More Longleaf Pine Acreage to Flagler County? Forest Service Wants To Help, Including Incentive Money
The Longleaf Pine Incentive Program offers incentive payments for the completion of timber stand improvement, invasive species control, prescribed burning, planting longleaf pine, establishing native plant understory and mechanical underbrush treatments.
Owners and Dealers of Anacondas Sue to Reverse Florida’s Broad Ban on Invasive Snake
Owners and dealers of anacondas have launched a legal challenge after the state largely banned the snakes amid a struggle to control damaging invasive species.
Green New Deal Me In
The Green New Deal may have a hoaky name but at least it’s a beginning, an attempt to push back against a republic of insects and grass, inviting debate in the face of indefensible Republican inaction.
$100 Million Will Raise 91-Year-Old Tamiami Trail, Easing Everglades Flow
Environmentalists say the Tamiami Trail, or U.S. 41, has dammed the natural flow of water from Lake Okeechobee through the Everglades to Florida Bay.
Flagler Braces for Hurricane Season as Florida Reels From 3-Year Streak of Landfalls
Flagler County is still paying the millions in bills from Hurricanes Matthew and Irma, and the state is recovering from a direct hit from a Cat 5 last year, costing $26 billion, as the 2019 hurricane season begins.
Bats Roosting In Your Attic? You Can’t Kill, Harm Or Relocate Them, But You May Exclude Them
Although it is illegal to harm or kill bats in Florida, rules have been developed stating that legal exclusion of bats has to occur outside of the maternity season. Bats cannot legally be captured or relocated.
Sen. Hutson Pauses on His Bill Banning Local Regulations of Straws, Opting For a ‘Study’ For Now
The study would look into the environmental impact as well as the quality of life of people with disabilities who “may rely on single-use plastic straws for feeding and hydration,” but opponents of the measure say the matter has been studied enough.
Nature Is Dying. Florida Is Sinking. Are Republicans Up to the Challenge?
A string of recent hurricanes reminded Floridians they don’t have to look across the country to see climate change in action. But the GOP continues to be in climate-change denial mode.
Amendment 9: What Has Vaping Got To Do With Offshore Oil Drilling?
Rather than allowing the vaping ban to stand on its own, the revision commission coupled it with a proposed ban on offshore oil drilling in Florida waters, describing the combination as an environmental amendment.