Too much water in the Glades. The FWC steps in. Nice story by Sue Cocking in the Miami Herald.
After above-normal rainfall in June and July, water levels in the
Everglades are the highest on record for this time of year, with the
historical peak of hurricane season still ahead.
That’s got
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioner Ron Bergeron of
Weston extremely worried. Bergeron, the commission’s point man for
Everglades restoration, has been tooling around the ’Glades on his
airboat this past month, watching with growing alarm as the water rises
around tree islands and levees, forcing the local denizens — deer,
panther, marsh rabbit, bobcat, bear and even some wading birds — to
cluster together on high ground. With nowhere to run, they can quickly
run out of food and shelter.
If the waters keep rising for much
longer, the commissioner fears, the region will see a repeat of what he
calls the “massacre” of the mid-1990s, when months of high water wiped
out 90 percent of the deer herd and other animals.
Bergeron is calling for emergency action by the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, working with other federal and state agencies, to begin
lowering water levels in the 700,000-acre conservation area between Alligator Alley and Tamiami Trail.
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