Bush trying to trick Florida with Everglades Photo-op
"Floridians aren’t fooled by the president’s photo opportunity," Schlickeisen said. "All he is saying, apparently, is that he won’t fight against laws passed last year to protect the Florida Everglades. It’s strange that he seems to want credit for that as a positive initiative for the environment. In fact, we’ve yet to see real environmental progress with this administration, though we’ve seen a lot of the opposite. If President Bush’s anti-environmental proposals are enacted, we could see oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico polluting the state’s beautiful beaches, imperiled Florida species disappearing entirely, and the timber industry exploiting the state’s few remaining wildernesses for profit."
Among the ways the Bush agenda would harm Florida:
By attempting to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Bush administration threatens the existence of several native Florida plants and many other species whose populations are at risk and whose habitats are disappearing. The White House has asked Congress to effectively deny citizens the right to petition their government to protect species under the landmark act. Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who once contended that the Endangered Species Act was unconstitutional, would gain the sole authority to decide which species should be protected.
"Florida has more listed endangered and threatened species than almost any other state. A commitment by this administration to fulfilling the promise of the Endangered Species Act is essential for Florida. The steps this administration has taken so far to undercut citizen involvement and cripple this law leave little hope that they would work to save imperiled Florida species," said Laurie Macdonald, director of Defenders of Wildlife’s programs in Florida.
Through its equivocal statements on new federal rules banning logging, mining and road-building in 58 million acres of national forests, the Bush administration has opened the door to commercial exploitation of some of Florida’s natural treasures. Nearly 45,000 acres of scenic wilderness in the Apalachicola, Osceola and Ocala National Forests would have been off-limits to exploitation under the federal roadless rule, which the timber industry and other foes recently succeeded in blocking in court. Instead of vigorously defending the government’s case, the Bush administration has offered little resistance to that lawsuit and is preparing to severely weaken the rule even if it eventually survives the court challenge.
The Bush administration reportedly favors drilling for oil off the coast of Florida. That’s even though, as a presidential candidate, Bush opposed drilling and, as president, he promised to defer to governors of Gulf Coast states. His brother, Gov. Jeb Bush, is adamantly opposed to drilling because he says it would pollute the state’s coast and hurt the tourist industry.
Schlickeisen also pointed out that even as President Bush visited the Everglades and declared his support for national parks, the administration reportedly was preparing to scuttle a National Park Service plan to protect the nearby Big Cypress National Preserve from environmentally- devastating off-road vehicles.
Home to many endangered and threatened species, Big Cypress borders Everglades National Park and is part of the national park system itself. Off-road vehicles now are given virtually unrestricted access to Big Cypress, and they’ve plowed enough miles of destructive trails inside the preserve to encircle the planet.
"If President Bush is genuinely concerned about our national parks, he will support the U.S. Department of the Interior’s reasonable plan to manage off-road vehicle use in Big Cypress," Schlickeisen said. "It’s only common sense to restrict off-road vehicles to designated trails so that we can save this beautiful preserve for the enjoyment of future generations."
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Defenders of Wildlife is a leading nonprofit conservation organization recognized as one of the nation’s most progressive advocates for wildlife and its habitat. With more than 430,000 members and supporters, Defenders of Wildlife is an effective leader on endangered species issues.
Contact(s):
Cat Lazaroff, (202) 772-3270
