more on cerp

[neckringer]

It appears that the DOI via the Federal Task Force and then Rock are becoming concern about the lose of popular support their project. It would be great if some in DC were to place a phone call to the right people about how the sportsmen are being written out and planned out of the world's largest restoration project. If restoration means getting rid of the people then should we actively support it?

Maggy is a well know state and national environmentalist. She has not been a real supporter of hunters but has not really openly fought us. She was a Martin County, FL commissioner for a long time. I am told she is one who might be causing problems on hunting Allapatta Flats.

Here contacting me is a significant note and I am sure she did not expect my response.

She is Janet Reno's sister.
Jack Moller

[neckringer]

It appears that the DOI via the Federal Task Force and then Rock are becoming concern about the lose of popular support their project. It would be great if some in DC were to place a phone call to the right people about how the sportsmen are being written out and planned out of the world's largest restoration project. If restoration means getting rid of the people then should we actively support it?

Maggy is a well know state and national environmentalist. She has not been a real supporter of hunters but has not really openly fought us. She was a Martin County, FL commissioner for a long time. I am told she is one who might be causing problems on hunting Allapatta Flats.

Here contacting me is a significant note and I am sure she did not expect my response.

She is Janet Reno's sister.
Jack Moller

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From: LJMoller@aol.com
Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 18:39:07 EDT
Subject: CERP Sportsment article
To: mhurchalla@hotmail.com
CC: LJMoller@aol.com



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Maggy
I have read the draft article you are thing about. Your work is in blue. My thoughts and issues as presented to me are in bold black. The bottom line what we thought would happen in the Sustainable and what you wrote are the same but in the real world it is not happening. Please read on to see what I mean. If these issues can be corrected then such an article would be good but it would be a lie to the public to publish what you have submitted.

Thanks
Jack

EVERGLADES

They call it CERP. It is the "Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan" to restore the largest wetland in
America.

What will it do for hunters and fishermen?It should improve the habitat not take habitat for water storage with compensation for lost wildlife habitat. It should improve hunter and fisherman access not remove it without replacement. It should create a healthier wildlife population so a sustainable harvest could be maintained for more sportsmen not destroy the wildlife by flooding them and the uplands they require. It will and is running the sportsmen out of the Everglades-read the newest version of the camp lease from DEP/SFWMD. These have been the ardent supports on the field for Everglades restoration since we were born; i.e., Freddy Fisikelli and Tom Shirley types. They are out of the woods, Big Cypress and Everglades under the banner of CERP. These are but a few and ones I know you know as well as Rock knows.

First, it's important to realize that the project is not just about Everglades National Park and the sawgrass heart of the Everglades. Everglades Restoration is about the whole South Florida ecosystem all the way north to the Kissimmee River and Mickey Mouse in Central Florida.

If you've caught a fish or hunted anywhere in South Florida, you know how important it is. CERP is about getting the water right so there will be fish and game in the future.
This true but the current plans do not have the water right in quantity, timing, or quality. There seems to be no plan changes being made or offered to do this. It seems to be more of the same, store water for water supply but not wildlife purposes. I have talked to Rock about this and he cannot commit to getting the water levels done - getting the water right. This a serious matter or major political folks, ones who donate more money to both parties than sugar are talking about pulling the plug and stopping support for CERP.
The whole spectacular fishing and diving area they call the Florida Keys is directly dependent on Everglades Restoration.
True but it seems the FL Bay folks are willing to write off the Everglades so they can get the water they need to supply their FL Bay. We cannot place 100% of the historic quantities of water that FL Bay needs on 50% of the Everglades and call it Everglades Restoration. We had away to get this water around the Everglades, WCAs, and on to FL Bay via the rock-belt plan but DOI/NPS/ENP stopped this with the help of Sierra and NPCA. So we are back to shoving more water into the already too wet Everglades. That is when there is water and it has not been short stopped by agriculture and urban interested in reservoirs north of Lake Okeechobee.

Not just endangered species, but the diversity of all game species in South Florida, are directly dependent on having enough sustainable habitat. To put it more bluntly: unless Congress votes next year to fix the water management system that is destroying South Florida, the fish and game simply won't be there.
This to is true or at least it should be. Buy the current plan will destroy the eastern 1/3 of the Big Cypress National Preserve by placing too much water on that part of the Cypress. It will then stop the CSSS from nesting in the East Slough area. I have talked with NPS folks in Atlanta and their response is they will either not remove L-28 or replace it if need be. This is not restoration as we thought. While working in DC for the Everglades Coordinating Council to pass CERP I had staffers tell me at all levels this project could be stopped by the Endangered Species Act right then. I assured them we, sportsmen, did not want to stop this project only make it move forward in a manner that would do what it was supposed to do. Restore to the extent possible the Everglades area.
Even if you're a hunter or fisherman who has never been to South Florida, CERP is still important to you.
This is most true as there will 5.2-million acres of public lands in the SFWMD area. However as current planned these prime properties will not be made available to sportsmen. If I had not been on WRAC and Kevin Henderson had not been on WRAC and spoken to me there would be no hunting on Allapattah Flats. Henry Dean tried to tell me he could not allow hunting because there was Farm Bill Money in the project. This is a lie as many hundreds of thousands of acres in the west are protected and open to public hunting via this money. Henry did commit to allow hunting. Time will tell as I understand this property in your county is not likely to have hunting. Again this is according to Kevin. Additionally the SGGE which was a project started in 1983 at Governor Graham's Son of Big Cypress Conference and was to be a wildlife management area is not going to be a WMA but a State Forest. True you can hunt a State Forest but not as much as a WMA. Further the USFWS maintains oversight over these 60 square miles of land. I have met with the manager of the FL Panther NWR. She is the one who holds the oversight. She cannot commit to hunting nor reasonable access. At this time there is no access and this has been the big issue with Collier County Commissioners.
This will be the largest environmental restoration ever carried out by the Corps of Engineers. It defines a new job for the Corps - to protect and restore the habitat that federal drainage systems have destroyed.
This is true but the ACoE according to SFWMD board members is the public entity stopping the needed infrastructure needs to make these CERP projects usable, people friendly and wildlife friendly. I know when I have talked with them they only see their work as moving and storing water. Yet, when I visit their projects in S. Carolina and other states they are people and wildlife friendly. No need for them not to be here too.
That's something that sportsmen nationwide can celebrate.
Yes, we should as it was Johnny J. Jones, sportsmen funded, of the FL Wildlife Federation who embarrassed Governor Graham in Johnny's famous magazine article that really made all this come about. It is the sportsmen who took out and continue to take out elected officials at levels of government to education them on what needs to be done. Freddy and Tom took some out at the request of Audubon the other day. BJ Powell and Rob Barton continue to press elected officials for the needs of the Everglades and their members. Yet groups like Sierra, NPCA, Florida Biodiversity and Wilderness are not supportive but on the contrary objecting to the needs of the systems-natural and people. They along with DOI/NPS are the cause of the fast retreating support for CERP.

[neckringer]

There is a third issue that's important. Will sportsmen be able to enjoy the benefits of this restoration?
True if you can get there and at the present time you cannot. If AL Bryan had not been on the scene and contacted me all the access from L-5 into Holly Lands, Ray Rotenberger and WCA3N would have been cut off. His fast work with FWC and SFWMD avert this major problem. You see the projects are moving ahead without being fully reviewed and evaluated by all. The "Yellow Books" talk about assessments of recreation values and uses on public lands but they do not address and they did not address the private lands that would be taken as a part of CERP.
There's good news on that front. The planning process that has been used to develop CERP has been user friendly about public access and public recreation.
As pointed out above this has not happened. The pressure I put on the agencies has brought about the WRAC-recreational committee. This committee is much needed but about 5 years too late. There is not time for debate, discussion, give-and-take as the infrastructure plans are too far along for this occur as it did on the Sustainable. Basically the agencies have not their PIR and other studies fully and properly. This issue may well cause problems in the future as some are talking about hooking up with sugar and the Indians over these and other matters.

This has not even been true on the Kissimmee River. I was invited to help resolve a fisherman access issue by a county on this river. They had not been informed that they would lose their only boat ramp to 60 miles of the river. Johnny and I both had to help another group who was about to lose their access to this restored river. There had been no involvement by the agencies at the local levels that we could see. If these few have come forth how many others are there? A survive should be done at once and reported to WRAC and Federal Task Force as to how all CERP related projects and South Florida Ecosystem projects are go impact sportsmen and access to the natural system.
Some feel that Everglades Restoration is hopelessly optimistic because of the long term commitment that will be required. It's a huge project that will take years to complete.
This true but if we can get immediate corrections in agency attitude and translate this to actions on paper plans, budget and ground work in progress there will be no concern. Why?- there will be strong support groups that will pass on the love of the area for ever. Condo folks do not really care about swamps only where they get their cheap water from. I know as I got the NE Dade Condo Association to support Everglades Restoration long before the Sustainable or CERP. They liked the Everglades on TV but they wanted assurance they could keep getting cheap water, not fish, deer or swamp to admire from the levee.
Others see real progress in the fact that the first major component will be up for Congressional funding in 2004. That component is the Indian River Lagoon Project. It deals with the canal system east of Lake Okeechobee which has destroyed the St. Lucie Estuary and part of the Indian River Lagoon.
True and a high spot in your life. Great work! But no answers from anyone including Paul Parks as to where this water that is now going out the St Lucie will go. It cannot go west. It cannot go south into the Everglades as it is dirty and there is too much at the time it has to be dumped. Yet, no one really wants to address storing water on the EAA-growing water. And there is certainly not the will to do the political work to take the EAA like we took 725,000 acres for water needs to western ENP - the Big Cypress National Preserve. Which under Clinton, Gore, Donald Barry and Donahue have stopped reasonable access to 95% of the Preserve. Yes, an ORV management plan is needed and I, we, pressed for one for many years but the DOI/NPS said they did not have the money. Now their solution is to stop access to most of the land and not open the Addition since 1988. Which was the first so called Everglades Restoration project under Governor Graham's Save the Everglades. Thus it is very hard to tell sportsmen that CERP is a benefit to them. They have lost for now, counting Big Cypress, the Big Cypress Addition and the Florida Panther NWR (a part of the Son of Big Cypress) and SGGE nearly a million acres of huntable land. No access or the agency say no!
The project got a jump start that pushed planning forward and resulted in early completion of the IRL Plan. In the mid nineties, heavy rainfall resulted in massive canal dumping with dramatic impacts on the St. Lucie and the Lagoon. Dead fish and sick fish with open sores left the surrounding community appalled and demanding action.
This too is true but the major reason for this man caused nature enhanced flood was Sam Poole working with Dick Ring, ENP, to implement Mod Waters. If they had not stopped dumping water going into a known wet period we would not have destroyed the remaining Everglades uplands and the impacts on the estuaries would not have been so bad. True the DOI says they are working for restoration of the full system. Only, they cannot tell me what they mean by restoration. Is if impounding water north of US 41 or pushing it into a free flowing system north of US41 so fast that it turns these lands into a littoral zone as Arron Hieger told Tom Shirley and I what would happen under the present plans.
The IRL Plan serves as a perfect start for Everglades restoration.
- There is tremendous community support for the adopted plan.
- Agriculture, business, sportsmen's groups and conservationists support the plan. Devisive arguments between environmentalists, urban users and agriculture don't apply to this component.
- Martin County, with only 120,000 people, has raised over $50 million dollars to buy land for CERP projects
I have addressed this matter and your county has a chance right now to start the change in perceived attitude about CERP project by sportsmen.
Success in getting the IRL Plan through Congress will determine the future of the Everglades. If the lead project can't make it, prospects for the larger restoration are grim.
This is very true and why I tried to get the Everglades Coalition leadership at the pre-legislative CERP meeting in DC to obtain full funding for CERP. This would have made sure the project is not started and other pressing national and world matters did not displace the funds needed for CERP. Of course the other side of this is the budget cost sent to Congress were not accurate and cost over runs will be way above the figures given Congress. As it is with such projects. I talked with Dennis Duke about this funding issue and the cost in the Yellow Books. He informed me that those figures were just best professional estimations. In other words as one elected person told me mere guesses--true
Nationally, if we let America's Everglades die, we will all be the losers.
I fear you are correct hear and Rock has decided to late to pay attention to the issues I have been raising for the last 7 years. But there is nothing wrong with starting to work on the problem. But, evidence must be seen fast or the land slide against CERP by those who started it will be too big to run around.

I appreciate your thoughts and efforts. Good luck and I will do what I can do here. I do know some sportsmen who are publishing writers, or publishers of major publications catering to sportsmen. But I will not participate in something that is not correct.

Rock and others have much work to do. I have shared similar thoughts with J Greene, who I also have the utmost respect for as for you.

Please feel share this with whom ever you like. Problems cannot be corrected in a vacuum.

Thanks
Jack

[Converted]

Thanks for posting that neckringer.

I'd love to see you at the WRAC mtg in WPB if you can make it. Rock has been there the last two times for the Mod waters discussions and your input would be welcomed.