Restoring the Everglades
Jun 25th, 2008 at 6:00 am by Susie
If Charlie Crist does what he promised to do, this is a very good thing:
In an ambitious maneuver to help restore the Everglades, the state of Florida has struck a tentative deal to buy U.S. Sugar Corp. for $1.75 billion and turn many of its 187,000 acres of farmland into reservoirs.
The plan, described by Gov. Charlie Crist as the largest conservation purchase in Florida’s history, envisions restoring some of the natural flow of water to the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee.
Crist, who has been mentioned as a possible running mate for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, made the announcement Tuesday after months of secret negotiations with the sugar company. He called the purchase “as monumental” as the founding of Yellowstone National Park. The patchwork of farmland totals 292 square miles, about equal to the land area of New York City’s five boroughs.
The surprise effort is aimed at halting the degradation of the Everglades, which at 1.5 million acres is the third-largest national park in the lower 48 states, behind Death Valley and Yellowstone. Over the years, water from areas north of the massive marsh has been diverted to the fast-growing cities of South Florida and for agriculture, and pollutants from sewage and farming have flowed in.
That’s fabulous news.
I think it’s fabulous IF they are even considering restoring the Everglades. And why now? And if Charlie is so concerned about the environment, why the big flip-flop to drilling for oil off Florida’s coast? I am having a hard time believing that the Everglades are going to be a priority for anyone with the authority to touch it, as long as oil and money are the national religions.
I am suspicious, because these things never go as planned, or as stated in the mass media.