Audubon supported the ban and thanks all advocates who helped call on the County to freeze new mining permits.  The third and final vote needed to make this decision final will be at the end of August and as that time nears, Audubon will provide more details and information on how to help.

Read about the decision here.

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Wes Skiles, photographed at Ginnie Springs in 2001, shortly before departing to co-lead a National Geographic-sponsored expedition to Antarctica to document and photograph the largest iceberg in history. Photo by John Moran.

By John Moran

World-class explorer and image maker Wes Skiles, 52, died July 21 in a reef-diving incident in Palm Beach County, where he had been working on assignment for National Geographic.

Wes was best known for his work in educational and adventure science films and for his pioneering exploration and documentation of Forida’s springs. His death comes days before publication of his cover story on the Blue Holes of the Bahamas in the August National Geographic.

Over the past 20 years, Wes created and produced more than a dozen films for major networks including PBS and was a pioneer in the field of high definition imaging, employing innovative techniques as both an underwater and topside shooter. In addition to his acclaimed Water’s Journey series of films, he directed the IMAX film “Journey into Amazing Caves” and led a major National Geographic expedition to Antarctica to film the largest iceberg in recorded history. His primary goal was to focus public attention on the earth’s most important resource, water.

Wes successfully filmed where no one had before. His unstoppable spirit of adventure led him to exotic destinations and fantastic voyages.  At ease with both motion and still photography he divided his time working on assignment for National Geographic Magazine and with television’s top producers of science, adventure and natural history programming.

Wes’s devotion to the study and protection of Florida’s springs led him to serve as the education chairman of the Florida Springs Task Force. His work in exploration and survey within Florida’s groundwater systems has been widely published in scientific journals and publications. He established both Karst Environmental Services and Karst Productions in order to pursue a career centered on his primary interest.

His bio goes on and on, with tales of escaping shark attacks and collapsing caves and dodging hurricanes over many years, all the while making fantastic pictures and managing to come home in one piece. Skiles’s life story reads like a screenplay from a Jules Verne movie.

So how did he get this job? This is my favorite part of Wes’s story. He’d be the first to tell you that in spite of an early love of science, he barely made it out of high school, and never went to college. He enrolled in the School of Life and pursued a degree in “curiology,” as he called it. Shortly thereafter he had a boat and was running a diving business in Haiti, setting the stage for a life of adventure to follow.

Along the way he developed sound business acumen and figured out how to actually get paid to shoot the pictures he loved to shoot. Wes’s adventures took him all over the world but his first love, apart from his family, was exploring the waters of Florida: the rivers, lakes, coasts, swamps and especially the springs. The writer Loren Eisley said that if there’s magic to be found on the planet, it is to be found in water. Eisley and Skiles would have found much in common.
Wes was about more than just adventuring for the sake of a good time. He was a man on a mission, and his mission was to educate and to inspire the people of Florida; to show us and teach us about our remarkable array of water resources and how each of us has a role to play in safeguarding this precious resource.

Wes largely directed his efforts to reach out to people who generally paid little attention to the environment, and was equally at ease talking to schoolchildren, dairy farmers and governors. He knew his work made a difference when he got letters such as the one that read, “You’ve done for the springs of Florida what Jacques Cousteau did for the oceans.”

Wes was a towering inspiration. His work took us places we could never imagine, and helped us to see and appreciate the world in a new light. His impact lives on. And for that, Wes, on behalf of my grandchildren yet unborn, and for all the people of Florida who never had a chance to personally acknowledge the important work you did, I say thank you.

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If approved, the moratorium will allow time for the BOCC to consider changing the way mining applications are approved- a process the County is in the midst of reviewing that could give them greater discretion to consider the impacts of new mines.  Audubon and conservation partners support changes requiring a land use change to the County’s Comprehensive Plan and reviewing the cumulative impacts of such mining on Everglades restoration and other environmental issues.

More than 20,000 acres of new rock mines have been approved in the past few years.  This temporary freeze on mining applications should allow the BOCC to develop new rules to address ongoing debates and recognize changed circumstances, including the importance of maintaining lands for sustainable agriculture and Everglades restoration in the Everglades Agricultural Area.

The BOCC has already taken the first step toward putting this moratorium in place, but Thursday’s vote is critical to moving it forward.  If you live in Palm Beach County, please write your Commissioner and ask that he or she approve the mining moratorium.  To find your Commissioner, click here.

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While Florida has a drilling ban in statute, that law has narrowly escaped being overturned in the last two legislative sessions by legislators at the behest of the oil industry.

The decision before legislators today was whether they would allow the people to decide on a permanent oil drilling ban. If 60 percent of voters agreed this November, the prohibition would have become constitutional, removing the Legislature’s ability to overturn it.

Rather than consider the measure, the House decided it would rather not let the people vote. In a strategy described by some as “gavel and go,” the House convened and a majority voted to adjourn without taking up the constitutional amendment resolution. See how your representative voted here (a “yes” vote was a vote to adjourn the session without considering the drilling ban amendment. “No” votes wanted the issue to be heard.)

The Florida Senate convened shortly before the House adjourned, discussed the issue briefly and also voted to adjourn without considering the matter. Senators Paula Dockery (R-Lakeland), Mike Fasano (R-New Port Richey), and bill sponsor Alex Villalobos (R-Miami), dissented that the public deserved for them to vote on the constitutional amendment, even if it could not be placed on the ballot without House concurrence. Nevertheless, the Senate voted to adjourn without a vote on the drilling ban. See how your senator voted here (again, a “yes” vote was a vote to adjourn the session without considering the issue).

Hundreds of Floridians from around the state converged on the Capitol today to urge the Legislature to let the people vote and were essentially ignored by this swift decision. The House of Representatives’ behavior today was a sobering display of the petroleum industry’s influence in the political process at the expense of the people of Florida.

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Read about the growing public support for a ban on oil drilling in state waters Here.

Tell your representatives to Let the People Decide: Amend Florida’s Constitution to Permanently Ban Drilling in Florida’s Waters.

Some legislators argue Florida already has a ban in general law, but this rule can be easily be overturned with legislation. For the last two years, in fact,  a coalition of advocates for Florida’s coastal environment and economy have only narrowly staved off the attempts by the oil industry and certain legislators to open Florida’s nearshore waters to oil drilling.

The BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster is a clear example of why we need a permanent ban on oil drilling in Florida’s jurisdictional waters. Click Here to Write Your Legislator Today. Click Here to Find Your State Legislator and Call  Him or Her to Let the Voters Decide.

We can win this battle so our children don’t have to.

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The largest undertaking in the history of the Wetlands Reserve Program, USDA will provide funding for agricultural landowners to store water and restore wetlands on their properties.  One of the greatest challenges to restoring Lake Okeechobee’s health, preventing harmful estuary discharges, storing enough water for droughts, and cleaning water, is finding enough beneficial places to store valuable rain water.  This project funds such storage capacity in the area of the Fisheating Creek tributary, truly a monumental effort.

“This is a pioneering approach to achieving ecological benefits in a cost effective way, without displacing agricultural interests,” said Charles Lee, Audubon of Florida Director of Advocacy. “By restoring these wetlands with the assistance of USDA, we create healthy habitat and stimulate abundant wildlife populations even when public conservation land acquisition is not an option.”

Fisheating Creek is the last free-flowing tributary to Lake Okeechobee—and home to some of the most pristine habitats in central Florida. The Wetlands Reserve Program will help enhance and protect the region and serve to connect lands in a wildlife corridor between inland natural areas and coastal natural areas, including conservation lands in Babcock Ranch.

“Redirecting government agency efforts to restore the hydrology and water quality of the Northern Everglades has long been one of our goals,” Lee said. “Cooperative projects with landowners and the acquisition of easements is more cost effective, and more likely to receive broad public support, than conventional efforts to manage water through large engineered public works projects in this area.”

USDA’s easement purchase coupled with nearby efforts of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) to establish a cooperative dispersed storage project with Lykes Brothers on 16,000 acres of Nicodemus Slough will help re-establish a more natural water table and restore wetlands on nearly 45,000 acres on the northwest shoreline of Lake Okeechobee. Audubon and other Everglades advocates celebrate this important partnership between USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, The Nature Conservancy and the SFWMD to restore and manage the property.

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Click here to find the mall nearest you.

Read about the partnership here.

Florida Audubon is accepting contributions for Gifts for the Gulf from people who want to help wildlife threatened by the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.  Funds are placed in an account used just for oil spill response. To donate, click here.

To sign up for our Gulf Spill Response volunteer network, click here.

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We were all thrilled with the news reports that the BP Deepwater Horizon well appears to be capped. Tar balls and sheen are washing up on Florida beaches, however, and the Gulf is still awash in oil. We need to focus on long-term clean up and a permanent ban on drilling in Florida’s state waters.

Governor Charlie Crist has called a special session of the Legislature to craft a permanent ban on oil drilling in state waters and proposed amending Florida’s constitution to make our state jurisdictional waters between three and 10 miles off limits to oil production.

Conservation groups are organizing a Hands Across the Capitol event at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday in Tallahassee.  Hands Across the Capitol is an extension of Hands Across the Sand. Join us in Tallahassee and then meet with your legislators to urge them to give the people of Florida the power to protect our beaches, ecology and economy.

Some legislators argue Florida already has a ban in general law. Unfortunately, these rules can easily be overturned with legislation.  In fact, for the last two years, a coalition of advocates for Florida’s coastal environment and economy have only narrowly staved off the attempts of the oil industry and certain legislators who would open Florida’s nearshore waters to oil drilling.

Now with the BP Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, the time has come to permanently ban oil drilling in Florida’s jurisdictional waters.  And you can help make our beaches safer.

Come to Tallahassee Tuesday and SEND your letter today calling on your Florida representative and senator to put a permanent drilling ban on the ballot.  Let’s make sure a Gulf oil disaster never happens again in Florida by permanently banning oil drilling in our state waters. We can win this fight so our children don’t have to.

If you cannot make it to Tallahassee you can still contact your legislator and urge them to vote to ban oil drilling.

Check out these resources if you can attend Hands Across the Capitol.

Find your state legislators’ info so you can schedule an appointment.

Want to register? Looking for a ride share? RSVP here so we can get you information on lobby training schedules and details for the big day.

Coming up early? Places to stay in Tallahassee.

Downtown Tallahassee parking map.

Capitol complex layout.

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Let the People Decide.

Governor Charlie Crist – responding to the horrors of the BP Gulf Oil Spill – has convened a special session of the Florida Legislature on July 20.

Your legislators need to hear from you today:  Make the ban on oil drilling in Florida’s coastal waters permanent.

The oil on Florida’s beaches is a stark example of why oil drilling should never be allowed in Florida’s coastal waters. While state law limits drilling in Florida waters, the Legislature can undo the ban in a matter of days.  At the request of the oil companies they almost did that last year.

To protect Florida’s beaches now and for our children and grandchildren we need to give the people a chance to vote on an amendment banning nearshore drilling on November’s ballot. Once the people of Florida place this ban in the Constitution, only the people of Florida—not legislators—can remove it.

Please call or write your legislators. Let the people decide to Protect Florida’s Beaches. Put the oil drilling ban on the November ballot.

Click here to write to your legislator today. And thank you for caring about Florida’s special places. We can win this fight so our children don’t have to.

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Jones was the individual most responsible for the successful campaign to restore the Kissimmee River in Central Florida. As a youth, Jones had spent much of his free time hunting and fishing in the Kissimmee River and watched as the Corps of Engineers destroyed the river through channelization. He vowed to reverse the process and convinced the conservation community, including Audubon, to make Kissimmee restoration a major priority.

Jones transformed the Florida Wildlife Federation from a group of local hunting clubs into a powerful statewide conservation organization. Under his leadership, the Florida Wildlife Federation became a major actor in the successful effort to stop the construction of the Everglades Jetport, and the lobbying effort to convince Congress to pass legislation authorizing and funding the acquisition of the Big Cypress National Preserve.

In addition to restoration of the Kissimmee River, Jones will be remembered for his tireless efforts to obtain state support for Florida’s first major land acquisition programs, “Lands for You” the “Environmentally Endangered Lands” program, and the “Conservation and Recreation Lands” program. One of the most significant purchases ever was Jones’  special crusade to preserve the 60,000-acre Three Lakes Ranch wildlife management area in Osceola County.

With the passing of Johnny Jones, the conservation movement in Florida mourns the loss of one of its most important, dynamic, and powerful leaders. Read about it here.

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St. Petersburg College will present the Impact of the Oil Crisis in the Gulf on Tampa Bay from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 14 in the SPC-Seminole Campus Digitorium (UP 160). Download the invitation to the St. Petersburg forum here St Pete Oil Spill Forum Invitation.

In Miami, the Community Forum on the Gulf Oil Disaster: From Crisis to Solutions is scheduled for 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, July 15, at the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, 4600 Rickenbacker Causeway. Download the invitation to the Miami forum here Miami Oil Spill Community Forum Invitation.

Space is limited for each of these events. So Register Early Here.

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The boardwalk at Audubon's Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary

Audubon and a coalition of five environmental organizations just settled two lawsuits against two of three major residential and golf projects proposed for wetlands near Corkscrew Swamp. This important victory is part of Audubon’s Save our Swamp campaign to protect Corkscrew and the Cocohatchee  Slough.

Major improvements have been made in these two projects resulting in more than 200 acres less wetland impacts and hundreds of acres of wetlands restored for wood stork and other imperiled species habitats, plus moving a major road from wetlands into old farm fields and reducing dwelling units by 750.

Added to the October 2009 court win against the adjacent Mirasol project, which revoked that wetland-destroying federal permit, these settlements represent a major win for the sensitive ecology surrounding Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.  The Mirasol project would destroy 645 acres of wetland and habitat, more than twice the impacts of the two settled projects combined.  The five groups are preparing to oppose an expected third submittal of the Mirasol federal permit application, a conservation battle dating back to 2002.

Read the Naples Daily News account here.

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“By calling this special session, Governor Crist is listening to Floridians who really care deeply about protecting Florida’s beaches, wildlife, and its economy,” said Eric Draper, Audubon of Florida’s Executive Director. “The Gulf Oil Disaster and its harmful consequences are stark examples of why Florida’s leaders must protect our state by approving a ballot measure for a Constitutional ban on oil drilling in Florida jurisdictional waters, within up to approximately 10 miles of our coasts. We commend Governor Crist for calling this special session and we will encourage Florida’s legislators to vote to put the amendment on the ballot so that voters can choose real and lasting protections for Florida’s environment and economy.”

Watch the Governor’s announcement here.

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Snowy Plover

As oil washes up onto Florida’s Gulf coast beaches, threatened snowy plovers, Wilson’s plovers and other sensitive birds are threatened–not only by the oil but by clean up crews if they are not extremely careful.

Read about it in this National Geographic article that ran today.

Join Florida Audubon’s efforts to respond to the Gulf oil spill by signing up to become a bird steward here.

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Ghost Orchid Blooming in July 2010. Photo Courtesy of Rod Wiley

A rare ghost orchid has exploded with 14 buds this month, marking its second bloom this year and its fourth consecutive year on an ancient bald cypress tree at Audubon’s Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary near Naples.

Extremely rare, the ghost orchid’s delicate white flowers are beginning to blossom and should be in flower through July. Earlier in March, 2010, one blossom was discovered, mysteriously early in the season. Since 2007, the elusive flower has bloomed in June or July. Area biologists nicknamed this specimen the Super Ghost, since typically ghost orchids might have between one and three blossoms per year, if they bloom at all.

“This number of blooms is unprecedented, and promises to be the best ever blooming of the ghost orchid,” said Ed Carlson, director of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

The ghost orchid (Polyrrhiza lindenii) is an epiphytic orchid that grows without leaves on the trunks of trees in a small concentrated area of Southwest Florida.  The plants are usually only visible to intrepid adventurers who must hike through hip deep water in the area’s cypress, pop ash and pond apple sloughs to reach them. Preyed upon by poachers, the flower was the subject of bestselling author Susan Orlean’s book The Orchid Thief and the subsequent movie adaptation.

The ghost orchid is one of a number of extraordinary species of plant and wildlife that make Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary their home. The 13,000 acres also protect the largest stand of old growth bald cypress in North America. Because of its unique and rich biodiversity, Corkscrew was officially designated a Ramsar Wetland of International Importance in 2009, underscoring the need to protect this vital resource from a host of threats, including invasive species and development in sensitive watersheds for which Corkscrew serves as an essential link. Nearly 200 species of birds thrive in the sanctuary, renowned as home to America’s largest nesting colonies of Wood Stork, a federally endangered species. The storks nest in majestic 600-year-old bald cypress, reaching heights of 40 meters.

Orchid lovers have a window to spot the ghost orchid blooming through July.  Visitors to the sanctuary will find spotting scopes for easy close-up views set up along the sanctuary’s boardwalk.  Serious photographers should bring long lenses, as the plant is growing at a height of about 50 feet on the trunk of a bald cypress tree located 150 feet from the boardwalk.

Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, located at 375 Sanctuary Road West, in Naples, is open to visitors from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. everyday between April 11 and September 30. Between October 1 and April 10, Corkscrew is open to the public from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Admission to the boardwalk within one hour of closing is not allowed. The Sanctuary may close when severe weather threatens. For more information on admission fees, call (239) 348-9151.

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