Action Alerts
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Archived Alerts
These archived action alerts are no longer part of any of our current campaigns. To submit an action alert, please send an e-mail to Leah Ellington.
03/09/07: Join fight for Lee's voice on water board
Please contact Governor Crist immediately!
Dear Governor: The battle over Southwest Florida's seat on the powerful South Florida Water Management District board of directors is getting very intense, and coming down to a conclusion.
Lee County and Florida are best served if you appoint a Lee County resident to the seat who has a public-interest perspective, rather than a special-interest perspective.
We need someone who will fight hard to see that our estuaries and other natural systems are given the priority they deserve at the water management district, which has traditionally treated Southwest Florida like a poor relation.
We need a representative on that board who will be properly outraged when we suffer as we have when freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee flooded our estuary in recent years with nutrients that triggered devastating algae blooms. The results still clog the grassbeds of J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel, and litter our cherished beaches.
At least two excellent examples of such people, Wayne Daltry and Greg Rawl, are under consideration in Tallahassee. You could make a difference by contacting the governor's office and letting him know that you want someone on the board who will represent the people of Lee County and their social and environmental interests.
It matters because water has enormous impact both on the health of our environment and on the rate and direction of growth.
Environment and growth — huge factors when it comes to the quality of our lives. The water management district, with jurisdiction over most or all of 16 counties in southern Florida, is a 600-pound gorilla when it comes to these issues.
Daltry is currently Lee County's Smart Growth director and formerly served for 27 years as executive director of the Southwest Florida Regional Planning Commission for 27 years. Rawl, a highly regarded consultant for the county and other local governments in the area, has been a water resources professional for 26 years.
Both men have long records of public service, of passionate concern for the environment and for Lee County's interests, as well as deep local roots. They also have the support of the majority of county commissioners and several public interest groups.
Agriculture and development interests have always been well-represented on the board, and well-served by it. It's time for a new, fresh point of view, in our seat and the three others that you are due to fill very soon on the nine-member board.
Here's a great chance for you to break new ground by giving this powerful board a new spirit.
03/08/07: Your help is needed now!
On March 15 Governor Crist’s office will submit the Florida nomination for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. (The Council works to manage the fisheries and protect the habitats in federal waters, 9 to 200 miles offshore – not an easy task.) Our incumbent, Julie Morris, of New College in Sarasota, has been doing a terrific job. The position is highly technical and requires great mediating skills to deal with some contentious issues. She excels at this and should be re-nominated, unfortunately there are other user-groups battling for this seat.
We need you to submit support letters for Julie. Please read the draft letter below and consider modifying it to make your own.
Submit letters via email to: mavis.knight@myflorida.com or print and fax to 850-921-0733. You can phone in and have your support registered at: 850-488-2183.
Also, please respond and let me know that you have sent a letter.
Thank you very much for what you do to ensure we have a healthy Gulf for the future!
Kristina Jackson
Gulf of Mexico Sustainable Fisheries Campaign - Sierra Club
Phone: 352-375-1441, Cell: 352-318-7536
kristina.jackson@sierraclub.org
ATTENTION – APPOINTMENTS OFFICE, FLORIDA GOVERNOR CRIST
Honorable Governor Crist:
As an avid fisherman/diver/seafood eater and a Floridian, I would like to voice my support for the re-nomination of Julie Morris, of Sarasota, to the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.
This federal management position has a built in limit of three terms, we should keep her on for her third term. Her six-years of experience on the Council enhances her ability to work in the technical and sometimes contentious atmosphere of fisheries management. She has shown herself to be considerate of all stakeholders and supportive of policy that will best protect the resource and fishermen for the long-term.
Her background in academics, at New College in Sarasota, and environmental policy has enhanced the Council’s discussions of science-based management and problem-solving. Ms. Morris is attuned to Florida concerns and well-networked with Florida user-groups as she served on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Governing Board before moving to this larger regional management post.
Thank you for your consideration of my enthusiastic support for Ms. Morris as Florida’s nominee to the Council.
Sincerely,
Legacy Alerts
These archived alerts are legacy action alerts from the old Clean Water Network of Florida website located at cwn-se.org. Please keep an eye out for our new action alerts, which will feature an easy e-mail interface for our members!
Florida's Next Governor
Is there a true "clean water" leader in the line-up?
Send cards to the candidates: side one - side two.
Send a card back to us.
Northwest Florida Wetlands
Protect Panhandle wetlands: Listen to "Wyatt ERP."
Stop the pipeline to the St. Johns River!
Georgia-Pacific wants to install a 5-mile long pipe so the mill can pump its polluted wastewater directly into the St. Johns River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is poised to grant permission for installation of this pipe any day. Contact the Corps and tell them to deny the request for the pipe. Call 1-800-291-9405 and go through the recorded prompts until you get to Regulatory and Permitting.
Read more about the Proposed GP Pipeline.
Protect Florida's wetlands - call or write today!
Florida developers are pressuring our elected representatives in Washington to get the Corps to turn over wetlands permitting to the state DEP, so that the state can issue wetland destruction permits faster. This is a bad idea.
The Corps' rules protect 3 million more acres of Florida's wetlands than the state rules do and they consider the public interest of developing a wetland, whether a development will degrade water quality, and also if a project can be built elsewhere to avoid wetlands altogether. And the Corps can require an Environmental Assessment or Impact Statement before wetlands are destroyed. The Florida DEP has no authority to require developers to avoid wetlands or minimize impacts.
We shouldn't allow Congress to delegate another federal permitting program to the state - especially when our state's vanishing wetlands leave us vulnerable to the ocean's fury every summer. Take a minute and call or write to Bill Nelson, Mel Martinez, and your Representative in the US House. Tell them it's a bad idea to give wetlands permitting to the DEP. If you send anything in writing, please share it with us.
Call Senator Nelson Today!
The Bush administration in Washington is proposing changes to federal law that would weaken protections to fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico. The legislation would roll back provisions that are supposed to both end overfishing and rebuild depleted fish populations in as short a time as possible. The new legislation would also undercut the public's ability to participate in decisions about the Gulf. The damaging language is part of a reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Florida Senator Bill Nelson can exercise leadership on this. Will you take a minute to call Bill Nelson at 202-224-5274, or send him a fax at 202-228-2183? Tell the senator to oppose any weakening of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, for the sake of Florida's economy, the health of the Gulf of Mexico and the future of the Gulf's rich fisheries.