8-8-2017 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida has picked 40 projects from across the state that will get a share of $50 million aimed at restoring some of the state’s springs.

​apnews.com/e0eac2fd85114553812bc615c79e257e/Florida-parcels-out-$50-million-to-help-restore-springs

Florida Panther Update


​Since the listing of the Florida panther as endangered in 1967, panther habitat has significantly declined due to rapid urban sprawl and agricultural land conversions in the habitat range of the panther.  As a result of panther habitat destruction, changing the status of the panther from endangered to threathened does not meet the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service criteria for delisting. However, pressure from developmental and agricultural interests are lobbying for delisting to occur.
Comments on the endangered species status of the Florida Panther ends August 29, 2017 and can be sent to:
 South Florida Ecological Services Field Office, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 12085 State Road 29 S, Immokalee, FL 34142 •Email: david_shindle@fws.gov
Picture
News Updates provided by Julie Hauserman, a longtime Florida writer who lives in Tallahassee.She has twice been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, in 1991 for her stories about pollution in Florida's Fenholloway River, and in 2001 for her stories about arsenic leaking out of pressure-treated lumber all over America. She won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards' top environmental prize for her work on the arsenic stories.
July 27, 2017:  In today’s media report, for some reason people are planning to walk/run/bike the “Toxic Trail,” (37 miles from Lake O to the coast)  in JULY to highlight Lake O pollution, DEP says Lake O algae outbreak is not cyano, the algae outbreak on St Johns River tributary Doctor’s Lake is cyano, Congresspeople send a letter to Trump about the Tri-State Water SCOTUS case, urging that the Army Corps to  “maintain a neutral role,” the Port Everglades director has a column in the Sun-Sentinel about reef preservation efforts and the dredging, Tampa Bay Times has a guest column about the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact -  saying it is an example of the impact that regional actors can make with little state or federal support, a column in the Pensacola paper about the decline of bobwhite quail, and Rolling Stone has a long story (I’ve provided the link) on Scott Pruitt and the EPA.

http://www.pnj.com/story/news/neighborhoods/characters/2017/07/26/southern-perspective-bobwhite-quail-population-decline/514918001/

http://www.claytodayonline.com/stories/toxic-algae-bloom-raises-concerns-in-doctors-lake,7881

http://www.mypanhandle.com/news/fl-delegation-urging-trump-administration-to-review-water-scotus-case/775726598
http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/health/2017/07/26/run-walk-bike-lake-o-stuart-beach-protest-discharges/511831001/
http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/health/2017/07/26/run-walk-bike-lake-o-stuart-beach-protest-discharges/511831001/
no discharges
Where's the urgency as toxic algae bloom grows in Lake Okeechobee? | Gil Smart
 Brian Mast
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/letters/fl-letter-coral-reefs-port-everglades-20170726-story.html
University of Miami
Broward County
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/column-south-florida-compact-is-model-for-local-climate-change-solutions/2331622
http://www.wptv.com/news/region-okeechobee-county/state-says-blue-green-algae-in-lake-okeechobee-is-not-toxic
​