Since October, the St. Johns River Water Management District has plugged 62 free-flowing wells saving 10.4 million gallons of water a day. With about six months left in this fiscal year, the District is on track to plug more wells than any other year over the District’s 50-year history.
Outdoors
Flagler Beach Commission Votes 5-0 to Break Ocean Palms Golf Lease and Seek New Management Company
Seven years into a rocky marriage that never lived up to its promise and twice before verged on dissolution, the Flagler Beach City Commission Thursday evening finally ended its relationship with Flagler Golf Management, the company that since 2015 had managed Ocean Palms Golf Club, the city-owned, nine-hole golf course framed by scores of homes at the south end of town.
Florida Wildlife Officials Clear the Way for 24-Hour Alligator Hunting
Concerns were raised, in part, that the 24-hour proposal would conflict with other outdoor activities, such as bass fishing and duck hunting, and that there is the potential for meat spoiling from alligators harvested during the hottest part of the day.
Flagler Beach Reduces Its Lifeguard Zone By Two Towers, and Asks County for More Money
Reducing Flagler Beach’s lifeguard-protected zone by four blocks will save about $25,000 a year, but the city is still seeking more than the $84,500 it is getting from the county to run the $240,000 lifeguard program.
Cost to Save Beaches and Properties in Flagler from Rising Seas: $6.3 Million a Year, Year After Year
Flagler County commissioners and other local officials heard the sobering conclusions of a seminal beach management study today, and the large costs ahead that will fall on all local governments and residents if the beaches are to be preserved. That money is nowhere in place for now, nor is a management plan.
Florida’s Black Snow: How the Sugar Industry Makes Political Friends and Influences Elections
Florida produces more than half of America’s cane sugar and relies heavily on cane burning, a harvesting method in which the sugar industry burns crops to rid the plants of their outer leaves, producing pollution. Residents in the largely Black and Hispanic communities nearby claim the resulting smoke and ash harms their health. A city commissioner race provides a window into how the industry cultivates political allies, who help protect its interests.
After 1,000 Manatee Deaths in a Year, Groups Sue to Upgrade Federal Protections
The Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and the Save the Manatee Club filed the lawsuit in federal district court in Washington, D.C., against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
New Flood Maps Show US Damage Rising 26% in Next 30 Years
Despite recent devastating floods, people are still building in high-risk areas. With population growth factored in, the increase in U.S. flood losses will be four times higher than the climate-only effect. Deep inequities define who has to endure America’s crippling flood problem.
It’s Groundhog Day at Flagler Beach’s City-Owned Golf Course as Commission Again Issues Lease Ultimatum
The Flagler Beach City Commission is yet again reenacting its recurring drama with Flagler Golf Management, the company that’s been running the city’s nine-hole Ocean Palms Golf Club at the south end of town since 2015, issuing its third threat to end the lease since 2017. Meanwhile, the company’s founding owner is in prison.
Florida Legislators Are Stealing Money from Environmentally-Sensitive Lands Pot, Without Consequences
In 2014, 75 percent of Florida voters approved an amendment to the state Constitution that said the Legislature had to spend a certain amount of money buying environmentally sensitive land. Legislators have been illegally appropriating hundreds of millions of dollars away from the intended purpose of the amendment.