Celebrate Earth Day in FL Bay and Everglades

National Parks Traveler recommends celebrating Earth Day in Florida's Bay or Everglades National Park.

A private fund called Florida Bay Stewardship has been set up to help benefit the bay and Earth Day (April 22) will kick off the celebrations.

Events include boat and kayak tours of the bay, an Eco-Mariner course, and free cake.

Read the full story: Celebrate Earth Day in Florida Bay and Everglades NP

Photo by NPS

Endangered coastal spots to see

Coastal Living via CNN reports on nine environmentally-sensitive coastal tourist spots that could disappear in the near future. Among the sites are:

INSIDE PASSAGE, British Columbia: Much of the storied Inside Passage route between Washington and Alaska looks as it has for centuries. Unfortunately, visiting cruise ships trail a hazardous mess in their wake. On a typical week long journey, passengers produce sewage, gray water, and many tons of trash.

EVERGLADES, Florida (picture above): The Everglades is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, with 1.5 million acres of marshes, estuaries, and prairies, and shady stretches of pine, cypress, and mahogany. Decades ago, the Everglades' freshwater flow was altered to accommodate agriculture, growing cities, and safety concerns. The dams and diversions starved and polluted the delicate ecosystems and the species that relied on them.

ROATAN, Honduras: Divers and snorkelers rave about the majesty of Roatán's biodiverse waters and coral reef system. [Warming oceans], Coastal development, illegal fishing, and reckless divers have taken a toll [on the delicate reefs].

Read the full story: 9 coastal wonders to see now

Photo from National Parks Service

Six global conservation efforts

The Christian Science Monitor reports on six conservation efforts around the world and most in popular travel spots:

Costa Rica: has protected 1/4 of its land.

The Philippines: home-grown conservation is stemming rampant deforestation and illegal poaching.

Vancouver Island: reintroduction of sea otters has created new problems of sea urchin and abalone decline.

Florida Everglades: might never recover due to destructive non-native species.

Congo, Rwanda, Uganda: Mountain gorillas now with a 14 percent population increase live in the shared borders of all three countries and have survived civil war and poaching.

Madagascar: Deforestation and poverty is destroying habitats of native species such as the lemur (picture above) but carbon offset trading could save the forests that are now being bought by companies such as Dell and turned over to international conservation organizations.

Read the full story: Where they rebuild nature

Everglades scourge: Asian swamp eel

National Parks Traveler reports on a threat to native species in Florida's Everglades; the introduced Asian swamp eel.

This exotic fish, pictured right, was most likely introduced by someone carelessly dumping their aquarium pets into the waters claims NPT.

"That is bad news, indeed, for the Everglades ecosystem. The swamp eel is a voracious feeder with a generalized diet that includes food critical to the survival of wading birds, fish, and many other native species of the Everglades. The results could very well be catastrophic if swamp eels were to become abundant enough."

Read the full story: Creature feature: meet the Asian swamp eel

Florida's Everglades restoration in question

The Miami Herald reports on the $7 billion restoration of Florida's Everglades that hasn't made any progress according to a new study.

The National Resource Council report released on Monday claims that government bureaucracy has tied up the progression of many of the restoration projects in the Everglades and finds the wildlife and vegetation has continued to decline:

'''We've invested in all this science and this engineering development and we still don't have one completed project. Well, how can that be?,'' said William Graf, chairman of the 13-member committee that wrote the report. 'I think the conclusion is we don't have the political and public will to do it.'"

Read the full story: Report blasts slow progress on Everglades restoration

Florida judge claims EPA violated laws over Everglades cleanup

The Miami Herald reports on a federal judge's ruling over the controversial Everglades cleanup.

U.S. District Judge Alan Gold says that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violated the Clean Water Act when it "ignored the law and its own recommendations when [they] approved the state's revised schedule for cleaning up farm-tainted water flowing into the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee -- avoiding a December 2006 deadline to reduce pollutants in the Glades."

Judge Gold went on to say the state Legislature led by then Governor Jeb Bush "'violated its fundamental commitment and promise to protect the Everglades' by relaxing rules limiting the amount of damaging phosphorus in the Everglades ecosystem."

The lawsuit was brought on by the Miccosukee Tribe and the environmental group Friends of the Everglades. In an earlier post this month, Ecotravel News reported on the demise of an Everglades bird that the Miccosukee Tribe blamed on failed federal wildlife protection programs.

Read the full story: Judge: Glades cleanup ignored

Everglades-named bird wiped out

The Miami Herald reports on the disappearing Everglades Snail Kite.

Writer Curtis Morgan sets the somber tone for the story in the first sentence: "It's never a good sign when an animal disappears from the place that gave it its name."

The kite's numbers have dropped dramatically and the recent droughts and water management projects haven't helped.

Local Indian tribes say federal wildlife protection schemes have failed in the Everglades and are to blame for the kite's demise. The Miccosukee Tribe points to the protection of another bird - the Cape Sable seaside sparrow - that indirectly helped kill-off the kite. Planned flooding to help protect the sparrow in certain areas in the Everglades drowned one of the kite's main food sources, the apple snail.

Read the full story: A rare bird all but vanishes from Everglades