September - Sierra Club Florida

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4 Suwannee-St. Johns Sierra Club September 2012 Inner City Outings: Connecting Children With Nature BY MARYVONNE DEVENSKY On Friday, Aug. 3, we had an outing with six members of the Environmental Ambassadors, a program sponsored by Nkwanda Jah and the Cultural Arts Coalition to educate high school students on environmental issues and concerns. On that day, we went to Crescent Beach. After some swimming at the beach and a picnic, we met Brenda Cannaliato, an educator at the UF Whitney Lab of Marine Science Research in Crescent Beach. We visited the beautiful facility located right on the Matanzas River, as well as the research lab. We were fortunate to see two live Chambered Nautili swimming in a tank, an amazing sight. We learned about the research done on the sense of smell of the Florida lobster and the eyesight of the horseshoe crab, a marine creature gifted with seven eyes. After that visit, we took a walk on the beach where the students were most interested in learning about various jellyfish in small pools of water with Maia Mcguire, biologist with the Florida Sea Grant Extension service. She demonstrated to us how small particles of plastic are now an intrinsic part of the sand and become food at the base of the food chain. We discussed coming back to that beach during one of their beach clean-ups. Thank you to Roberta Gastmeyer for coordinating that outing. It was a great day. On Sept. 15, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m., the 3rd Annual Environmental Youth Summit will take place at the new GRU building (on North Main Street in Gainesville near 53rd Avenue). Lots of other local environmental organizations will be present, and so far we are expecting about 75 high school and college students to participate. If you want to volunteer, please contact me at marydeven@yahoo.com. For the coming months, we need to get organized and plan new ICO outings. We will have an ICO Volunteer Planning Meeting at the Cultural Arts Coalition Center (321 NW 10th St., Gainesville) on Thursday, Sept. 20, at 5:30 p.m. Refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact me at marydeven@yahoo.com. Photos courtesy of CreativeCommons.org. Support the Sierra Club and Get New Customers Ad prices for single issue: 1/8 Page: $35 1/4 Page: $65 1/2 Page: $120 Full Page: $175 Ad prices for 10 issues: 1/8 Page: $315 1/4 Page: $585 1/2 Page: $1,080 Full Page: $1,575 TO ADVERTISE, CONTACT ROBERTA GASTMEYER, 352-336-2404
September 2012 Suwannee-St. Johns Sierra Club 5 Bottle Bill Update from Florida Sierra Club BY FLORIDA SIERRA CLUB This article was originally published in The Pelican, the state Sierra Club newsletter, in July 2012. Florida is a state built on tourism, with our beautiful beaches drawing people from all over the country and world. In May 2012, a beach cleanup in Indialantic, Florida worked to clean up the beach for all to enjoy. During the cleanup of over 800 pounds of trash, they found over 200 pounds of glass. Thanks to them, kids will not get glass in their feet when they run smiling to the beach for the first time. But what about our other beaches? What can be done to protect our beaches and tourism? Hawaii a few years ago asked the same question, and their people answered with a Bottle Bill. A bottle bill puts a small deposit on beverage containers that encourages people to recycle them. Here in Florida there has been interest in the same kind of bottle bill to clean up our state. The 12 states that have a bottle bill recycle more containers than the other 38 states combined. They have been a great success in other states, cutting down on litter, creating jobs and helping to save landfill space. Industry has been asked to be involved, as many companies are interested in this issue. Coca Cola LLC has announced that they have a goal of ensuring that they recycle 100 percent of its bottles and containers by 2015. The proposed bill will add green jobs to Florida, as it proposes that privately run recycling centers be started to accept the containers so that grocery stores will not have to deal with them. Do you want to help clean up Florida and your county? The Florida Sierra Waste Minimization committee is looking for group members to help with a recycling committee in their area to help educate citizens and legislators about the proposed bottle bill that will be presented to the Florida Legislature this fall. If you are interested, please email linda.demler@sierraclub.org for more details. Free the Ocklawaha Removing Rodman Dam Makes Environmental, Economic Sense BY WHITEY MARKLE The following article was originally published by the Ocala Star-Banner on July 15, 2012. See more from the Star-Banner at www.ocala. com. The old Ocklawaha River must run free. Rodman Dam must be removed. How long can the politicians and bureaucrats continue to play with the Rodman Dam scandal? Since the Cross Florida Barge Canal was deauthorized by President Richard Nixon in 1971, the dam — since renamed the George Kirkpatrick Dam — has remained, symbolizing political chess in a very serious environmental game. Until the game ends, Silver Springs, the Ocklawaha River and the mighty St. Johns River will suffer. Additionally, the lower Ocklawaha, below the dam, is filling up with salt water as a result of the lack of fresh water that would run daily if the dam didn’t exist. Silver Springs and the subsequent springs of the Ocklawaha are the biggest source, about one-third, of the fresh water that feeds the St. Johns River. All of this is unnatural and needs to be removed. Additionally, and symbolically, there is the issue of migration. Manatees are slow and simple, but they apparently have inherited the homing instinct that tells them to head inland to the springs in severely cold weather. That is not possible with the Rodman edifice in place. And that is the basis for the upcoming lawsuit that will be filed if the dam is not removed. Very few people, nowadays, think the Rodman Dam is necessary. It costs a half-million dollars per year to maintain, for no apparent good reason, plus another half-million dollars to maintain the stagnant lake. The dead, drowned cypress trees that are still popping up like corks and have to be removed for the speeders. Only the bass-fishing contingency claims it is necessary to keep the “pool” full enough to run the big bass boats and catch the dwindling lunkers. Some refer to this mentality as “religious,” a lot like the airboat mentality. Thankfully, this mentality is dwindling as the drought takes its toll. Hopefully, the public will increasingly say no to the faster and louder train of thought. From Ruben Askew until the present — current Gov. Rick Scott excluded — Flori- da’s governors have sanctioned the removal of the dam and the old Ocklawaha’s restoration. Although all federal agencies involved have condoned the removal of the dam, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection actually has no permit (required) to operate the dam on its federal property, it still exists. North Florida’s politicians apparently still don’t understand that the natural attraction that William Bartram, Sydney Lanier and Margie Carr idolized are the very reason people are attracted to this part of the country, the old Ocklawaha being the centerpiece. Conservation, according to the dictionary, is defined as “preservation, protection and restoration of the natural environment, natural ecosystems, vegetation and wildlife.” If Scott and his tea party underlings are the true conservatives they claim to be and follow their basic philosophy, they will lead the way in conserving this old river system, not condoning the manipulation and consequential destruction of it. Election time is upon us, and it is time to forcefully asked the candidates these basic questions. And then, vote.
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September - Sierra Club Florida

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