Florida Governor Declares February Hiking Trails Month
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, February 5, 2009 (ENS) – Florida Governor Charlie Crist has proclaimed February to be Florida Hiking Trails Month to celebrate the more than 2,500 miles of hiking trails on the state’s public lands. The weather is mild, hurricane season is months away, and paved rail-trails, urban trails through cityscapes and wilderness trails criss-cross [...]
Read More »Florida Governor Celebrates Everglades Land Purchase Vote
TALLAHASSE, Florida, December 18, 2008 (ENS) – Governor Charlie Crist today joined the chairman of the South Florida Water Management District, state environmental and economic officials, and environmentalists to applaud the SFWMD Governing Board’s approval this week in favor of an historic land acquisition for Everglades restoration. By one vote, the seven-member Board of the [...]
Read More »Record Atlantic Hurricane Season Ends, Time to Plan for 2009
MIAMI, Florida, November 28, 2008 (ENS) – The 2008 Atlantic hurricane season officially closes on Sunday, with a warning from Florida Governor Charlie Crist and state emergency officials to begin planning year-round for emergencies and natural disasters, especially hurricanes. “We welcome the close of this busy season that has touched the lives of so many [...]
Read More »Florida Forever Acquisition Protects Fresh, Pure Spring
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, November 20, 2008 (ENS) – Governor Charlie Crist and Cabinet today approved the purchase of 54.74 acres of land bordering the Natural Bridge Historic State Park in Leon County about 10 miles south of Tallahassee. This Florida Forever purchase protects Natural Bridge Springs – one of Florida’s 33 First Magnitude Springs – those [...]
Read More »Florida Sugar Land Deal Recut to Protect Everglades
MIAMI, Florida, November 12, 2008 (ENS) – Florida officials have agreed to new terms for a land deal with the largest U.S. producer of cane sugar to increase the availability of water storage and flow to the vast Everglades wetland. The new agreement, subject to approval by the South Florida Water Management District, includes the [...]
Read More »Florida Voters Lift Property Taxes for Conservation Lands
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, November 6, 2008 (ENS) – Florida voters Tuesday approved an amendment to the Florida Constitution that will require the state legislature to exempt land that is permanently set aside for conservation from all property taxes. The tax exemption will apply to property taxes beginning in 2010. Known as Amendment 4, the measure was [...]
Read More »Florida’s Tri-Rail Trains to Run On Biodiesel Fuel
POMPANO BEACH, Florida, October 30, 2008 (ENS) – From now on, Tri-Rail commuter trains will operate on biodiesel fuel, the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority announced today. The goal is to operate the trains on a 99 percent biodiesel blend, when available. Tri-Rail is one of the few commuter rail systems in the country that [...]
Read More »Hurricane Ike Rampages Across Cuba, Threatens Gulf Coast
MIAMI, Florida, September 8, 2008 (ENS) – The state of Florida has received an emergency declaration to assist Monroe County which is currently evacuating residents from the Florida Keys in advance of Hurricane Ike, Governor Charlie Crist announced today. “Florida is facing a dangerous threat from Hurricane Ike,” said Governor Crist. “We remain grateful to [...]
Read More »Six Dead as Tropical Storm Fay Lingers in Florida
MIAMI, Florida, August 22, 2008 (ENS) – Floridians wish Fay would just go away, but the stubborn tropical storm that never became a hurricane is still hanging around and making life miserable across the northwestern part of the state. At 5 pm local time, the center of the storm was about 50 miles north of [...]
Read More »Biodiesel the Fuel of Choice for Orlando Public Transit
ORLANDO, Florida, August 4, 2008 (ENS) – A $2.5 million agreement signed at the Farm to Fuel Summit Thursday in Orlando creates a private-public partnership to help green Orlando’s public transportation. Governor Charlie Crist joined Linda Watson, chief executive officer of LYNX Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, to sign the agreement that awards $2.5 million [...]
Read More »Florida Sets Course to Eliminate Ocean Outfalls
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, July 6, 2008 (ENS) – Florida has a new law that will eliminate the use of ocean outfalls for wastewater disposal in southeast Florida – but not right away. Six existing outfalls along the southeast coast between Delray Beach and Miami currently discharge 300 million gallons a day of treated wastewater into the [...]
Read More »Greener Aviation Alliance Debuts at Florida Climate Summit
MIAMI, Florida, June 27, 2008 (ENS) – A nonprofit, public-private partnership to turn U.S. aviation a brighter shade of green was introduced Thursday in Miami as the apex of the Florida Governor Charlie Crist’s climate change summit. During the closing ceremonies of the 2008 Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Global Climate Change, the governor [...]
Read More »Florida to Buy Out Sugar Land for Everglades Restoration
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida, June 25, 2008 (ENS) – The largest U.S. producer of cane sugar, U.S. Sugar Corp., would close up shop under a $1.75 billion agreement to sell its 292 square miles of land to Florida for Everglades restoration, the company president and Florida Governor Charlie Crist said Tuesday. The deal, announced at [...]
Read More »Florida’s Environment Agency Makes Do With Smaller Budget
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, June 11, 2008 (ENS) – Governor Charlie Crist Wednesday signed into law a stripped down $66 billion budget that provides just $2 billion to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, DEP, to preserve and enhance the state’s land and water resources. Florida’s environmental programs have lost roughly one billion dollars per year over [...]
Read More »Florida Governor Declares Fire Emergency
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, May 12, 2008 (ENS) – Florida Governor Charlie Crist today declared a state of emergency as firefighters in Brevard and Volusia counties continued to battle at least a dozen separate brush fires on Florida’s central Atlantic coast fanned by high winds and dry conditions. Authorities believe many of the fires were deliberately set. [...]
Read More »Florida Forever Funding Approved Unanimously
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, May 5, 2008 (ENS) – Environmental groups throughout the state are delighted with the approval of funding for the land acquisition and protection program Florida Forever – or at least for the next 10 years. Although the Florida budget is tight this year, the Florida House of Representatives passed the bill unanimously today, [...]
Read More »Florida Renewables Key to 2008 Climate Summit
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, April 30, 2008 (ENS) – Florida Governor Charlie Crist today announced the 2008 Serve to Preserve Florida Summit on Global Climate Change. This is the second such summit convened by the governor, who says that since last year’s summit, Florida’s “green” economy has grown. “Florida’s businesses continue to demonstrate that there is gold [...]
Read More »Florida Asks Citizens to Report Environmental Crime
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, april 14, 2008 (ENS) – Public outreach and education will help increase awareness of environmental crimes, and when people are aware of such crimes, they will report them to law enforcement authorities, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, DEP. The state agency intends to encourage this type of reporting by participating [...]
Read More »Florida’s Largest Solar Power Array Dedicated in Sarasota
SARASOTA, Florida, February 13, 2008 (ENS) – The newest and largest solar power facility in sunny Florida was switched on Monday at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota County. The site is located on a former landfill that was closed in 1998 and is owned by the county. Governor Charlie Crist joined Florida Power & Light president [...]
Read More »Florida Stakeholders to Advise Energy and Climate Change Team
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, February 2, 2008 (ENS) – A team charged with developing a plan to achieve targets for statewide greenhouse gas reductions for Florida convened Friday to begin developing Phase Two of the plan with the help of stakeholders arrayed in six technical work groups. The Phase One report and recommendations were delivered to Governor [...]
Read More »Everglades Restoration Gains Urgency as Climate Warms
CAPTIVA ISLAND, Florida, January 14, 2008 (ENS) – Global warming means restoration of the Everglades is more important than ever, a University of Miami expert in coastal marine environments told hundreds of conservationists, scientists and state and federal leaders at the Everglades Coalition’s annual conference on the weekend. Dr. Harold Wanless said recreating enough of [...]
Read More »Southeast Governors Speed Up Water Dispute Resolution
From left: Alabama Governor Bob Riley, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue. December 17, 2007 (Photo courtesy DOI) TALLAHASSEE, Florida, December 17, 2007 (ENS) – The governors of Florida, Georgia and Alabama and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne today agreed upon a revised schedule [...]
Read More »Governor’s Request Keeps Manatee in Endangered Class
TALLAHASSEE, Florida, December 6, 2007 (ENS) – In September Florida Governor Charlie Crist spoke out for manatee conservation, and Wednesday the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded by giving the manatee a reprieve. The commission voted to defer a decision about reclassifying the state’s remaining manatees from endangered to threatened. The commissioners also asked [...]
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