manatee deaths
At the May 10 South Florida Water Management District Governing Board meeting, member Ben Butler said he’s heard “numerous concerns” about the district’s use of herbicides. Butler, manager of the family-owned dairy farm Butler Oaks Farm north of Lake Okeechobee,…
So far this year, 133 baby manatee have been found dead in Florida, a mortality rate more than twice the five-year average and more deaths than any other entire year since the state began keeping records in 1974. Still, manatee…
When is $100 million not a lot of money? When it comes to saving the Indian River Lagoon. In December, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced the allocation of $100 million in state funds through the Indian River Lagoon Protection Program for…
First the good news: The record pace of manatee deaths in Florida has slowed. Two years ago Florida saw a record 1,100 manatee deaths. The primary cause of this “unusual mortality event” was starvation due to the loss of seagrass…
In Florida our iconic waters are central to our quality of life; perhaps even our culture. But we do not have a “culture of clean water.” The phrase was coined by Dr. Paul Gray of Audubon Florida, speaking at a June…
In a Jan. 2 piece, TCPalm’s environmental columnist Ed Killer hit the nail on the head by noting that as bad as 2021 was for Florida’s environment, 2022 could be worse: The list of assaults on the fragile environment seems endless: biosolids, wildfires, invasive…