U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be in South Florida this week reviewing damage from Hurricane Irma and getting a briefing about Everglades restoration efforts, according to his office.
Hurricane Irma mangled Florida’s national and state parks, turning places meant to be enjoyed into disaster zones that could take weeks or longer to reopen.
Rep. Francis Rooney is going python hunting. The Naples Republican announced Monday he plans to take part in the South Florida Water Management District’s python elimination program on Aug. 10. The program aims to eliminate the Burmese python, an invasive species, which damages the Everglades ecosystem and its native wildlife.
Florida could grow to more than 33 million residents by 2070, and the percentage of the state that is developed could jump from less than 20 percent to 33 percent, according to a new study presented Wednesday. Florida’s population would expand by 15 million people from 2010 to 2070 if growth trends continue, according to the study conducted by the University of Florida’s GeoPlan Center for the smart-growth advocacy group, 1000 Friends of Florida, and the Florida Department of Agriculture…
The National Park Service has given the green light for a Texas company to explore for oil and gas in the Big Cypress National Preserve. Park service officials said Friday that a 20-month environmental review showed there would be no significant impact if Burnett Oil Company did a survey 110 square miles in the national preserve. The survey will use sound waves from truck-mounted vibrators to create three-dimensional map of potential oil and gas reserves. The park service says if…
An environmental advocacy group says 2015 was the deadliest year for Florida panthers. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said Wednesday that 41 Florida panthers died in the wild in 2015, exceeding last year’s previous record of 31 panthers. The group says 70 percent of the deaths were from collisions with motor vehicles. The Florida panther has been listed as an endangered species for more than 40 years. Environmental advocates say a loss of habitat has been aggravated by the…
Renewed hunts for oil in sensitive Florida ecosystems have environmental groups raising questions about the state’s regulation of the oil and gas industry. A Miami company, Kanter Real Estate LLC, has submitted a permit application to drill an exploratory oil well on the eastern edge of the Everglades. Meanwhile, federal approval is pending for a seismic survey meant to locate new areas for drilling in the Big Cypress National Preserve, a freshwater swamp whose health is vital to the neighboring…
