Manatees Are Managing The Best That They Can, For Now

As if they didn't already have enough challenges

in their daily lives, now the Manatees on Florida's

A Manatee Mother and Calf

Gulf Coast will have yet another human created 

hazard to threaten their safety; oil drilling.

Recent approvals in Congress will give the big oil
companies a green light to drill away in the fragile
Manatee habitats of the pristine waters of the
Gulf Coast of Florida.

Sierra Club News

Congress Deserves an F

Orlando's New Turtle Trek Brings You Face to Face With Turtles

A Loggerhead Sea Turtle

Yes, this is the land of magic and SeaWorld Orlando
will be making a lot of it for the lucky visitors to their Park.

Their newest attraction which opens today has everything
any turtle lover could ever want, including a 3D 360-degree dome,
to experience their video/film in a setting something like a
theater-in-the-round.

Learn more about this exciting new way to enjoy our wildlife:

SeaWorld's Turtle Trek: Keeping It Hyper-Real

Turtle Trek Opens Today

Turtle Trek At SeaWorld Orlando: YouTube

Today Is Another Twofer

The Rodman Dam

First, the damn dam may finally, thankfully, be coming down.

Nearly fifty years later, the biggest mistake in the history of
Florida's natural environment is about to become ancient history.

The Rodman Dam is facing the final hoop to be jumped through

and wiser/cooler heads in this state may indeed prevail at last.

Can you hear the sighs of wildlife up and down the Ocklawaha River?

After 44 Years, Dam To Be Razed

The Babies Are Headed North

After a tumultuous winter in the South, the fledgling
Whooping Cranes have left Alabama and are headed
North to Wisconsin for the summer.

One female left early and is already up there.

Hopefully next winters trip to Florida will be unfettered
by beaurcratic red tape and human interference.

Safe journey little ones, see you this winter~

Endangered Whooping Cranes End Winter Stay In Alabama

Young Whoopers Take Flight

In Honor of Earth Day Tomorrow

        
 

Please consider these things in your reflections about what this

very important day means to you personally:

Two years after the greatest environmental disaster in this country,

Wildlife in the Gulf are still dying.

For Earth Day: 9 films that will change the way you think about the World.

Court Rules Against Habitat for Florida's critically Endangered Panthers.

In spite of the massive outcries from all over America,

the ugly Keystone Pipeline is still not dead.

April 28th is the Fourth Annual Save the Frogs Day.

And lastly, somewhere in an Ocean near you today,

a whale may respond to some military sonar testing

and become confused, or disoriented and beach itself causing its death.

Please remember on this Earth Day, that we share this entire Planet

with those who have no voice, other than ours, to speak for them.

Please make your voice heard for them on Earth Day and every day.

God Bless.

Is Florida HB 1117 Really Dead or Not?

If you don't read the St. Pete Times, or the Daily Commercial, you could be missing

out on the best Environmental reporter in this or any other state,

his name is Bill Maxwell and he always goes for the jugular.

Case in point, Bill's story today on the true status of the

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my bill,

a subject written about on this Blog on March 15, 2012. (See Blog below)

Only a few short days ago, it looked like Governor Scott was sending this

nasty bill to the junk pile, (See Blog below) but not so fast, Bill says.

As Mr. Maxwell so accurately points out today, nothing is ever really over,

not when it comes to politicians.

They are always looking out for number one and that would be themselves.

So, will this bill really stay dead?

We shall see.

Don't blink, turn your back or close your eyes.

Politicians are counting on you having a short attention span and a bad memory.

But, please do read Bill Maxwell's great story:

Ecological Shortsidedness Alive in Florida

Why Would You Want to Save a Tiny Lizard, When You Could Have Another Car Dealership?

In a world where money is king, animals

have to do the best that they can to survive.

A Florida Sand Skink

Here in Lake County, we have a perfect

arrangement for businesses to get around

those annoying Environmental protective laws

and deal with Endangered Species interference,

they simply donate a sum of money to go towards another area where this particular endangered animal is found and then they are free to build and kill at will.

Does anyone actually oversee this donating process or do we assume it will be done as specified?

God knows that we do not have enough Car Dealerships in Central Florida,

and we certainly should not let an animal stand in the way of new business.

I feel so bad, but not as bad as these tiny lizards who do not know that they are

about to be bulldozed to their deaths, so that a new Car Dealership can be built.

Can you say Boycott?

Until April 23rd, you can send FWS your thoughts at:
 northflorida@fws.gov     SUBJECT:  "Attn: permit number TE65123A-0"

New Nissan Dealership Could Harm Sand Skink

Sand Skinks Have Turned Up in Eight Lake County Projects

There Is So Much Good to Say Today.......

                    

First, the Governor has intelligently rejected the Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my, bill....

Next, the Miami Blue Butterfly has been granted Federal protection, now that no one can seem to find one anymore!

The American Crocodile has not only survived human interference, but has actually blossomed in South Florida.

If you are concerned about the possibility of hunting beginning in the only Panther Habitat in the Big Cypress Preserve, the deadline for comment has been extended, please make your thoughts known to the Parks Department.

And finally, protection for wild turtles in this country from being caught and sold by the millions worldwide may become a reality.

This has been a good, busy week for Endangered Wildlife.

Time to celebrate!

Mighty Marjory, the Mother of the Everglades

Yesterday was the birthday of a remarkable woman,
Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Marjory Stoneman Douglas with a
Miccosukee Tribe member in 1965

She would have been 122 years young and

we could really use her help right now,

because the place that she loved nearly all

of her adult life, is still in trouble.

Today her beloved Everglades is still being

polluted by the big Sugar companies and robbed
of its life giving water supply by the greedy
in south Florida.

This vital Ecosystem has improved very little

since she died in 1998 and it is sad because she

fought so hard, for so long to change the selfish

thinking that put this natural treasure and those

that call it home, in such serious jeopardy.

Well educated and well bred, Marjory was the

daughter of a wealthy father and could have had an

easier life working at his newspaper, the Miami Herald.

But instead, she chose to fight for causes that very few others
at the time embraced, like women's rights, racism, preserving the
environment and saving a wild wilderness called the Everglades.

She was truly a mighty woman and we should honor her lifetime
of struggles, by finishing what was most important to her,

by saving the Everglades.

They're Finally Back!

A few mornings ago when I took our Airedale

A female green treefrog

out in the early darkness, a friend was waiting 
for us on the front porch,
a tiny female green treefrog.

It had been so long since we saw them last,

that we were wondering if we had lost them all over the winter,

but there she was telling us that it was finally warm enough

for them to come out for the summer.

Welcome back little ones and happy hunting.

Right Whales Births

One of the most Endangered mammals on Earth,

the Right Whale, has apparently recorded very low

A Right Whale mother and calf

birth numbers this year.

After two trips and six days last Spring to Flagler Beach,

which normally has frequent sightings and seeing none,

we are not surprised.

Locals there who often see them just off shore at this time, said that there had been few reports of any that year.

Academic thinking is perhaps a lack of food, but we have another thought.

The US Navy, who is now and has been for years very active along the Atlantic Coast, has just begun a new offshore training range in the pathway that the whales use to travel up and down the Coast to give birth here in Florida and Georgia.

It seems like Endangered Wildlife just can't get a break.

We stopped the hunting of these whales in the 1930's,

but now our Military has become their biggest enemy.

Poor Calving Season for Right Whales