Audubon of Florida News

The disastrous spill and leakage of oil from the sunken Deepwater Horizon oil rig is drifting toward Florida’s Gulf Coast. Help rescue Florida’s coastal birds. The 3,200-square-mile slick is just miles from Florida’s pristine, westernmost Panhandle beaches.  If efforts to stop its progress fail and oil continues to drift toward us and along the peninsula, it could harm birds, seagrass beds, coastal marshes, and eventually the mangrove islands off the Florida Keys. View the birds at risk of an oil spill.

You can take action in many ways:

1. Volunteer to rescue injured birds and to clean oil off Florida’s beaches and other coastal areas.
2. Sign the petition opposing state and federal plans to expand oil drilling in Florida’s water.
3. Contribute to our special fund to rescue birds injured by the oil spill and underwrite advocacy so this never happens again.
4. Recruit your friends and family to join Audubon’s response efforts.

Your time and money can make the difference.

Add your name, address, telephone and email address to Audubon’s rescue volunteer registry. Should oil make landfall on Florida’s beaches, Audubon will function as a clearinghouse, connecting local members of the volunteer registry with oiled wildlife response leaders for your area’s beaches.

Sign the petition calling on President Obama, Governor Crist and other public officials to drop proposals to expand oil and gas exploration near Florida’s coastal areas.  They cannot ignore thousands of Floridians standing together like we did at our statewide Hands Across the Sand rallies February 13th.

Contribute to our special fund to rescue oiled wildlife, should it become necessary, and underwrite advocacy to Protect Florida’s Beaches and our coastal birds and wildlife.  Your money will be used exclusively to fund wildlife rescue and treatment and to tell national and state decision makers that Florida’s coast is too important to put it at risk from dirty and dangerous oil drilling.

Read more about the spill and its environmental impacts at:
Reuters: Gulf of Mexico leak grows, oil slick nears shore
Reuters: US Gulf of Mexico spill may hit coast this weekend
Tampa Tribune: Oil spill burn-off may affect Florida’s west coast

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Audubon experts across the Gulf Coast are monitoring the spread of thousands of gallons of oil that threaten to turn last week’s drilling platform explosion into a growing environmental disaster.

“The terrible loss of 11 workers may be just the beginning of this tragedy as the oil slick spreads toward sensitive coastal areas vital to birds and marine life and to all the communities that depend on them,” said Melanie Driscoll an Audubon bird conservation director, who is monitoring the situation from her base in Louisiana. “For birds, the timing could not be worse; they are breeding, nesting and especially vulnerable in many of the places where the oil could come ashore.”

Sensitive coastal areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida are all potential targets of the growing spill.  “The efforts to stop the oil before it reaches shore are heroic, but may not be enough,” added Driscoll.  “We have to hope for the best, but prepare for the worst, including a true catastrophe for birds.”

In Florida, Audubon is recruiting volunteers and making its Center for Birds of Prey available for bird cleansing and rehabilitation. Elsewhere, the organization is gearing up to help mobilize volunteers and provide other assistance in the event the oil reaches sensitive shorelines.

Several “Important Bird Areas,” designated by Audubon and its partners for their essential habitat value to bird species lie within potentially-affected areas.  Those under immediate threat include Chandeleur Islands IBA and Gulf Islands National Seashore IBA in Louisiana and Mississippi; and the Active Delta IBA in Louisiana, which includes Delta National Wildlife Refuge and Pass-a-Loutre Wildlife Management Area.

Among the birds are prompting special concern:

Brown Pelican – The state bird of Louisiana nests on barrier islands and feeds near shore. Their breeding season just began and many pairs are already incubating eggs. Removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list only late last year, Brown Pelicans remain vulnerable to storms, habitat loss and other pressures. Their relatively low reproductive rate means any disruption to their breeding cycle could have serious effects on the population.

Beach-nesting terns and gulls (Caspian Tern, Royal Tern, Sandwich Tern, Least Tern, Laughing Gull, Black Skimmer) – These birds nest and roost in groups on barrier islands and beaches. Some species have begun nesting or building pair bonds in preparation for nesting. They feed on fish and other marine life. Roosting and nesting on the sand and plunging into the water to fish, they are extremely vulnerable oil on the surface or washing ashore.

Beach-nesting shorebirds (American Oystercatcher, Wilson’s Plover, Snowy Plover) - These birds nest on the ground on barrier islands and beaches. They feed on small invertebrates along the beach or – in the case of oystercatchers – on oysters. They are at risk if oil comes ashore or affects their food sources.

Reddish Egret – Populations of these large, strictly coastal egrets have dwindled due to habitat loss and disturbance. As specialized residents of coastal environments, they have nowhere else to go if their feeding and nesting grounds are fouled by oil.

Large wading birds (Roseate Spoonbill, Ibises, Herons, Egrets) – Many herons, egrets and other species feed in marshes and along the coast and nest in large colonies called rookeries. They are vulnerable if oil comes ashore in these areas. The central Gulf Coast region hosts continentally and globally significant populations of many of these birds.

Marsh birds (Mottled Duck, Clapper Rail, Black Rail, Seaside Sparrow, Marsh-Dwelling Songbirds) – Many of these birds are extremely secretive, hindering understanding of their population dynamics. Recovery efforts would be difficult or impossible if oil accumulates in the coastal salt marshes where they live

Ocean-dwelling birds – Birds that spend a significant portion of their lives at sea, including the Magnificent Frigatebird, may be affected by oiled waters. Contact with oil could lead to ingestion or damage to feathers.  Oil also threatens their food supplies. These birds are difficult to monitor, and potential impacts are not fully understood.

Migratory shorebirds (plovers, sandpipers and relatives) – These birds’ travels span the western hemisphere. But many species are currently en route from wintering grounds in South America to breeding grounds in boreal forests and arctic tundra. They congregate in great numbers on beaches and barrier islands to rest and refuel during their long journeys.

Migratory songbirds (warblers, orioles, buntings, flycatchers, swallows, and others) – Many of our most colorful and familiar summer songbirds fly nonstop across the Gulf of Mexico twice each year as they migrate between their breeding and wintering grounds. The biggest push of spring migrants moves across the gulf during a two-week period from late April to early May. The journey across 500 miles of open water strains their endurance to its limits. They depend on clear skies and healthy habitats on both sides of the gulf in order to survive the journey.

“It is unfortunate that it takes a potential disaster to remind the nation of the risks involved with our addiction to oil,” said Audubon Legislative Director Mike Daulton.  This spill would give anyone pause regarding the pursuit of risky drilling in environmentally sensitive coastal areas. For the long term, we need to move as quickly as possible from the addiction to fossil fuels to the promise of clean, renewable energy.”

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BABY OWL SHOWER
Saturday, May 8th, 10AM-2PM
1101 Audubon Way, Maitland, FL

What is a “Baby Owl Shower,” you say?  This event started in the 1980’s after the birth of the first baby at the Center from one of our resident birds, a Red-tailed Hawk we named “Uno” (who was later released back to the wild). It has now become our special day to celebrate spring and the many babies received at the Center and to focus our education program on the ways that Audubon rehabilitates orphaned birds of prey. Instead of admission, we ask for “baby shower gifts” of items used in bird care at the Center.  Spring is our busiest season so we are in great need of items to offset increased expenses of caring for these young birds.

Top Ten Reasons to Attend

1. A great family event for kids, thought adults seem to enjoy themselves just as much!
2. A day to celebrate Mother’s Day and spring!  Bring your mom, she will love it!
3. Admission that day is free with a “baby gift”.
4. Awesome prizes for Raffle!  Raffle items donated by Wild Birds Unlimited, Audubon, Gatorland and more!
5. You can view more than 20 species of raptors in one day!
6. You can participate in numerous enviro activities offered by groups including: The Orlando Science Center, Orange Audubon Society, Kissimmee Valley Audubon Society, Orange County Environmental Protection Department, South Florida Water Management District and Pine Lily the Osceola County native plant society.
7. You can play games seen on TV (Minute to win it)!  Light as a Feather and Feed Me!
8. You can view non releasable baby raptors (if available).
9. Get a caricature done by Audubon volunteer and artist Maria Bolton-Jouber.
10. And the number ten reason to attend would be to support Audubon Center for Birds of Prey and bring your friends for a great day of fun!

Please contact us with questions 407-644-0190 or visit us online.

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From the St. Pete Times:

It started as an idea. Environmental activist Lorraine Margeson and ranger Jim Wilson first proposed the notion of a floating dock for the tiny least terns at the December meeting of the Suncoast Shorebird Partnership. Now they’re about to see if that idea, turned into reality by volunteers, will float — and serve as a spot for the bird to nest. It’s the reason Wilson has been collecting and reassembling materials from a 2001 refurbishment of the docks at Fort De Soto Park.

The result — a 16- by 24-foot floating dock covered in gravel and sand at Fort De Soto Park — was completed over the weekend. Named Le bateau d’amour de Laridae, which refers to the family of birds to which the least tern belongs, it is intended to lure the species that since the 1950s has made its home on gravel rooftops around St. Petersburg. As those rooftops have disappeared, the terns’ numbers have dwindled, from 52 measured colonies in 2002 to just 18 in 2009.

Wilson hopes the dock will bring them back. “What I’ve seen in this conservation area is, if you build it, they will come,” he said. “They’ve gotten into a pattern of knowing this is a safe zone.” As he spoke, American oystercatchers tended their eggs and least terns worked through their peculiar scratching-and-nesting ritual nearby. If other terns nest on the dock, they in theory will benefit from it rising and falling with the tide.

“About a year ago we had serious discussions about losing bird populations through overwash,” Margeson of the Shorebird Partnership said. “If we have a water event, the raft would float up with the water.” The partnership performs as many as seven “chick checks” on rooftops and works to protect birds through its beach steward program. Despite those efforts, the tern population declined from 3,400 in 2003 to 1,600 in 2009. The dock is the group’s latest idea. “It’s a whole big picture thing,” Margeson said. “This raft is coming into play as an idea, an experiment that may or may not work.”

Among those pushing for its success is Dr. Beth Forys, an Eckerd College conservation biologist who works with the Audubon Society and land managers. Forys said seven decoys would be interspersed on the float to attract the birds. “This is an experiment to see who’s going to use the raft,” she said. “Will it just become a pelican perch? We know there are birds (terns) in that area that are ready to nest.” She lauded Wilson and Fort De Soto Park for taking the initiative to help the birds. A nonprofit group, the Friends of Fort De Soto, is picking up any additional costs.

“It’s this type of grass-roots effort, if you will, to get everybody working for a common goal that’s come so far,” Wilson said. “If this is a viable option, it could open up a lot of success to nesting and give resource managers an option as opposed to closing beach areas to people.”

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From the Palm Beach Post:

As the drilling rig Horizon burned on the oily surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a small group of environmentalists, government officials and oil speculators gathered at a hotel in Jacksonville to discuss environmental impact of offshore drilling — in the Atlantic Ocean.

Three weeks earlier President Obama stunned environmentalists and the oil industry when he agreed to expand oil and gas development and exploration along much of the eastern seaboard – from central Florida to southern New Jersey. Six public hearings in coastal cities — including the meeting in Jacksonville — were hastily scheduled to allow the public to discuss environmental concerns.

And then — unexpectedly — came the Horizon explosion, injuring 17, leaving 11 unaccounted for, before the rig sunk beneath an oil slick five miles long and growing. The timing wasn’t lost on anyone. “People say, ‘See, that’s why it’s a bad idea,’” said Lesley Royce, conservation director of the Duval County Audubon Society, who attended the meeting. “I hate that that happened, but it is an example of what can happen.”

Building an oil rig or platform in the ocean is not much different than building one in the Gulf of Mexico, said Ted Bourgoyne, Professor Emeritus of the College of Petroleum Engineering at Louisiana State University. As for safety, a rig or platform in the ocean is not necessarily more dangerous than one in the Gulf, Burgoyne said. Each position is unique. Depth and current are among the biggest hazards, he said. “I wouldn’t hesitate to work out there,” Bourgoyne said. “There hasn’t been an accident of this magnitude since 1964″ — when a blowout on a Gulf drilling barge killed 21 crew members.

Until now discussions about drilling off Florida’s coast have focused on the Gulf of Mexico. Gov. Charlie Crist re-ignited the debate in June 2008 when he announced that he supported research but still opposed drilling. Florida lawmakers did not introduce any bills about off-shore drilling this year. However, on April 9 a special house committee released an independent risk analysis that found oil spills from offshore drilling in the Gulf “are unlikely to present a major risk to Florida.”

“It is important to state the obvious: there is great uncertainty about whether there are commercial hydrocarbons to be found in State waters and, if found, their quantity. Drilling is required to prove reserves, and no drilling has taken place for 25 years….”

On March 31 the drilling debate turned eastward, when President Obama appeared with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to announce a strategy to expand oil and gas exploration and development on the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf — the submerged land at least three miles offshore.

But before oil companies can even begin to explore for oil, there must be hearings on whether the exploration techniques alone — which use very loud sound waves to map below the sea floor – will harm sea life. The loud bursts of sound from underwater air guns may be harmful to whales, which depend on sound waves to communicate and orientate themselves.

Environmentalist group Greenpeace reported that in June 2008 approximately 100 rare melon-headed whales were stranded following offshore seismic surveys by Exxon-Mobil off the coast of Madagascar. The oil company denied a connection between the stranding and testing. Still, Royce is concerned. The endangered Right Whale gives birth in the waters off Jacksonville.

“Say you have a neighbor having a wild party and it’s annoying,” Royce said. “Just because you’re not dying doesn’t mean it’s not harmful. It’s way too big a risk.”

Chip Gill, president of the International Association of Geophysical Contractors, said the timing of whale migrations is well documented and surveys are not done during whale migrations. The blasts of sound from air guns crescendos, so whales and other sea life are not blasted with the loudest sound waves first and have time to leave the area.

Of the all areas off the east coast being considered for exploration, Florida’s coast is among the “most” sensitive designated by the Interior Department. As for whether there is oil off Florida’s east coast, no one knows. Even if there is, it would probably be at least five years before any drilling would begin, Gill said.

“I don’t think anybody expects the Atlantic seaboard to have oil and gas reserves up and the down the whole coast,” Gill said. “Really, nobody knows.”

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An oil well at the site of a drilling platform that exploded and sank is spewing up to 1,000 barrels of oil per day into the Gulf of Mexico, 50 miles from Louisiana’s coast, a Coast Guard commander said today. Rear Adm. Mary Landry said the leak was discovered this morning, at a well that had been connected to the destroyed oil rig and previously had been considered secure. She said the well is leaking from the sea bed, 5,000 feet below the gulf’s surface. “This is a very serious spill,” Landry said at a news conference in Robert, La.

The leak is at the site where the massive oil rig Deepwater Horizon exploded on Tuesday — requiring the evacuation of 115 workers — and burned until it sank two days later. Eleven workers are presumed to have died in the disaster. The cause of the explosion is unknown. It was unclear how the leak in the well would be plugged.

“Our response plan is focused on quickly securing the source of the subsurface oil emanating from the well, clean the oil on the surface of the water, and keeping the response well offshore,” said Landry.

Before the discovery of the leak, the Coast Guard had said the well was not leaking oil – and cleanup had focused on a “sheen” of petroleum on the water’s surface that the Coast Guard said has grown from one mile by eight miles to 20 miles by 20 miles over the past several days. The edge of that sheen is now roughly 40 miles from Louisiana’s marshy coastline, the Coast Guard said. But containment and cleanup of that “oily water” mix was suspended today because of high winds, rain and eight- to 10-foot waves, Petty Officer Connie Terrell said. Nearly 34,000 of gallons of the oil-and-water blend have been collected, Terrell said.

The sunken rig was owned by the Swiss firm Transocean Ltd. and leased to British oil company BP PLC, which had been doing exploratory drilling from the platform.

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The Florida House of Representatives leadership is holding the state’s lead planning agency hostage in the waning days of the session. By refusing to act on bills reenacting the Department of Community Affairs for another 10 years under the state’s sunset review process, the House is trying to stack the deck in favor of the building industry. And taxpayers and residents lose when developers are allowed to build without regard for the public costs of their projects.

The House’s stance is a slap to the public and DCA Secretary Tom Pelham and his employees, who are the last defense against the irresponsible growth that crowds schools, damages the environment and ruins natural resources. Legislation fully reauthorizing the DCA for another 10 years – as recommended by the state’s Joint Sunset Committee and the House’s own Government Accountability Act Council – was approved 38-0 Thursday by the Senate. But in the full House, reenactment legislation isn’t moving. This inaction speaks loudly about the grip of the development lobby and the ridiculous belief of many lawmakers that eliminating development controls will boost the economy.

The economic downturn exposed Florida’s dependence on nonstop subdivision construction as an unsustainable Ponzi scheme. But the House leadership is in denial. Some observers wonder whether the inaction is a stalling tactic to be used during budget negotiations with the Senate or if this sets the slate for the department to be eliminated next year, when Rep. Dean Cannon, a Winter Park Republican, takes over as speaker. He has consistently sought to dismantle sensible growth laws. The only good news in this sorry episode is that the DCA won’t die this session if the House members continue to ignore it. It will roll over for at least one more year. But next year, it will be in limbo again, making it more vulnerable to the political muscle of the development industry.

As we’ve stressed before, Florida needs this agency, whose chief responsibility is to ensure that communities don’t violate their own comprehensive land use plans whenever a developer proposes a sprawling project. To eliminate its review authority would doom the state to the same kind of scattershot development that has proved so costly to taxpayers. Though growth has slowed to a crawl in many areas, communities haven’t let that stop them from continuing to revise their plans, the road maps for growth. DCA’s expertise is needed to review these amendments and ensure they are appropriate.

The House’s inaction could backfire. It reinforces the claims of Amendment 4 proponents that state and local officials can’t be trusted to protect citizens from reckless development projects. The Hometown Democracy proposal would mandate that amendments to a comprehensive land use plan go before voters if first approved by local governments, a cumbersome requirement that could shut down growth. The best way for lawmakers to counter such arguments is to affirm the stature of Florida’s essential growth regulator. But Cannon and company appear intent on giving developers anything they want. Lawmakers in the House who have their eyes closed and fingers in their ears have some explaining to do for keeping the Department of Community Affairs in limbo. They need to reenact this vital state agency.

All Floridians concerned about the future of their state should contact Cretul and Cannon to urge them to use their leadership positions to assure the reauthorization of DCA in the 2010 legislative session. You can reach them here.

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Here’s a lesson for middle-school students who will be required to take civics classes under a proposed law headed to the governor: Look out for closed-door shenanigans when a law gets passed — or not — in Tallahassee.

Example: The fate of the Department of Community Affairs, the state’s final arbiter of growth management laws that ensure new development doesn’t hopscotch outside designated urban areas. Every 10 years the Legislature reviews whether agencies are still warranted. This year, the DCA’s review passed in the Senate, and after initial blocks in the House two committees gave the nod.

Then came the roadblock.

With barely a week left in the session, the full House has yet to vote on the DCA’s fate. Why? Because incoming House Speaker Dean Cannon has made no secret that he loathes growth management laws and the agency that stands between sprawl and sustainable growth so that schools, roads and sewer systems aren’t overwhelmed. If nothing happens, DCA will be in limbo for another year.

Delaying DCA’s reenactment likely will strengthen the case for those who back Hometown Democracy, Amendment 4, to the state Constitution. It would require local voters to decide on every new project outside their community’s designated urban areas.

Builders don’t want this; neither does Mr. Cannon. Yet House stalling tactics can backfire. Call their intransigence a textbook case in the law of unintended consequences.

All Floridians concerned about the future of their state should contact Cretul and Cannon to urge them to use their leadership positions to assure the reauthorization of DCA in the 2010 legislative session. You can reach them here.

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