The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has extended the public comment period for a proposal to turn 150,000 acres of savanna ranch land north of Lake Okeechobee into the “Headwaters of the Everglades National Wildlife Refuge.” The acquisition would cost $700 million, and around a third of the land would…
Rep. Allen West isn’t too happy about the State Department’s decision — or as West says, “Campaigner-in-Chief” Obama’s decision — to delay the Keystone XL Pipeline project, which means it’s time for another rhetoric-loaded statement from the congressman.According to the State Department, a more thorough analysis of some of the…
Several environmental groups, led by the Washington-based Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, filed a lawsuit last week against the National Park Service, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over plans to open up the Big Cypress Addition Lands to a few hundred permitted…
The beach: not where your garbage goes.People apparently didn’t know that this year, as the Broward County Natural Resources Planning and Management Division reports today that volunteers picked up more than 4,500 pounds of people’s crap left at county beaches.Of the 72,000 pieces of garbage picked up last month by…
What’s currently “Hurricane” Rina is expected to be some wind and possible rain by the time it would affect Fort Lauderdale, according to multiple weather forecasts.Rina is expected to weaken from a category two hurricane to category one tomorrow, and while South Florida isn’t in the direct path of the…
Not long after the Broward County Natural Resources Planning and Management Division released its report detailing how rising sea levels could cause major flooding across Fort Lauderdale, Florida Atlantic University has released its own report detailing climate change in South Florida and how to combat its effects.Again, it’s the rising…
The Everglades is too far gone for anyone to let it take its natural course. South Florida’s entire inland economy depends on a water system that stays around the same level all year long, avoids flooding communities (cough, Weston, cough) that are stupidly built in the natural flow of water…
In next Wednesday’s meeting, the Broward County Commission will move to adopt language in its state and federal legislative programs “opposing any oil drilling or exploration in or around the Everglades.”The legislative programs are a set agenda of issues that the County Commission hires lobbyists to push for in both…
If you’re looking for a reptile or amphibian species that “causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health,” chances are, it’s in Florida.According to a 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher, the state takes the cake in the invasive species…
A 20-year University of Florida study out last week says Florida has the most invasive reptiles and amphibians in the world. A day or two after that came out, state officials declared war on giant African snails in Miami-Dade County.Yep, Florida apparently has a nasty invasive species problem, and Kristina…
The South Florida agency charged with securing water — the stuff that makes your shampoo foamy — for future generations has been having a tough time lately.Rick Scott and the GOP-led Legislature capped property taxes the district could collect. Layoffs of scientists and other staffers numbered in the hundreds. Now,…
An alligator that wildlife officials believe attacked a 90-year-old woman last week before being shot in the head — and possibly hit by a car — was finally captured yesterday and euthanized.Margaret Webb was attacked by the alligator on Wednesday near her Copeland, Florida, home, and although her life was…
Finally, a pair of Gainesville biologists have discovered another reason for men having ring fingers longer than their index fingers, and as folklore would have it, it’s related to sex.The findings of the University of Florida College of Medicine developmental biologists, Martin Cohn and Zhengui Zheng, add to the long…
A room at the Weston Hyatt was split down the middle last night between hunters and environmentalists who offered two-minute commentaries on what action the Park Service should take regarding deer hunting in the 146,000-acre Big Cypress Addition Lands.If you had to ask this Pulp reporter to make a wager,…
Sitting in his Palm Beach mansion, a storm-weary South Floridian, Rush Limbaugh is right to scoff at the nation’s reaction to Hurricane Irene. He contends President Obama wanted the storm to be worse than it was, and he has a point.Fears about the storm were way overblown. Who cares about…
The National Park Service is poised to implement a plan that would allow hunting in one of the last outposts of untrammeled land in the Everglades: the northeast corner of the Big Cypress National Preserve.The rest of the preserve is already open to hunting, but this section, called the Big…
Here in South Florida, we have been through our fair share of hurricanes, some crazy ones and some that feel like just another Florida summer afternoon shower. Truth is, a lot of Floridians don’t take hurricanes seriously enough, considering them just a reason to not go to work and to…
Billionaire oil barons Charles and David Koch are the sugar daddies behind the Tea Party. They have given at least $100 million to right-wing causes over the years and are alternately reviled and admired for their enormous web of influence in Washington, D.C. But why should you care about David’s…
Projections of Hurricane Irene this morning shift the storm a bit more east than yesterday’s predictions, but it still leaves relatively small parts of Broward and Palm Beach counties within the forecast “cone.”The other news is that the hurricane is expected to reach category four, which includes wind speeds between…
The forecast of Hurricane Irene has changed quite a bit from early this morning to now. It’s projected to reach category three by Thursday morning — which means winds of at least 111 mph — but instead of landing in South Florida by Thursday as predicted in earlier forecasts, it’s…
Irene, the first hurricane in the Atlantic in the 2011 season, is expected to reach Florida between Thursday and Friday, according to the National Hurricane Center.According to a release from the NHC at 5 a.m. today, “Irene has become much better organized” overnight, despite bowling over Puerto Rico yesterday.Some of…
This might come as a disappointment to animal hoarders, but well adjusted pet owners will be happy to learn that a local scientist’s research could slow pet overpopulation. William Ja, a Scripps Institute researcher who has a doctorate in chemistry, is working to streamline a cell-level cancer treatment. If he…
