Riverland Residents Fight to Save 400 Trees From Developers

Riverland Road is known for its quiet streets and veil of tree canopy. When one owner wanted to dissect his 5.19-acre property into 13 parcels of land to make way for a new road, sidewalk, and 13 new homes, the residents of Riverland worried about the fate of the more…

Artist Gives Black Olive Trees Cut Down on A1A a Funeral

After the sun set on July 10, Robin Merrill headed over to the A1A median between Oakland Park Boulevard and NE 21st Street. The stump  of a black olive tree lay at her feet. The artist and owner of Upper Room Art Gallery bowed her head. “Thank you,” she said…

Volunteers Protect Sea Turtles Because Authorities Don’t

“Ninth Street and A1A Boulevard.” Richard Whitecloud relays his oceanfront location to the emergency dispatcher. “The fatalities just keep racking up in this intersection,” he mutters. “Dammit, man. Intersection of death!” Whitecloud, six feet one with long, curly hair kept back in a ponytail, bends down to inspect a corpse:…

Fort Lauderdale Developer Designs Solar-Powered Homes

Sea levels are inching up. Flood days are increasing. The threat of stronger, more powerful storms looms over us. The effects of climate change have never been more apparent in South Florida. Despite a governor who refuses to utter the C word, Floridians are more conscious about their carbon footprint…

Broward Cities Should Ban Smoking on Beaches, Cleanup Organizer Says

A Fort Lauderdale man says Broward’s coastal cities should ban smoking on public beaches.  Bobby Lieberman says that he has spoken to numerous city officials in Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood Beach in an effort to get smoking banned — and when he does, he brings along a clear, coffin-shaped container filled…

Seven Ways the City of Fort Lauderdale Is Preparing for Sea-Level Rise

For city officials, Hurricane Sandy was was like Fort Lauderdale’s real life The Day After Tomorrow. In October 2012, the category two storm whipped up 15-foot high waves that pummeled Fort Lauderdale’s coast. The tide breached the sea wall and flowed freely across A1A. The road was not passable, entire neighborhoods…

Scientists Wary of Fort Lauderdale’s Proposed Seawall Plan

Fort Lauderdale has over 200 miles of sea walls. During high tides and storms, sea walls protect properties from coastal flooding. Legally, a city ordinance dictates that sea walls be no higher than 5 and a half feet. As sea levels rise, especially during the really high tides in September,…

The 19 Best Environmentalists in South Florida

Today, we have fresh water to drink, clean air to breathe, and sea turtles to awwwww at.  But let’s be very clear: these are not givens — particularly in a state driven by Rick Scott, a Republican legislature, and constant development. In Florida, there’s practically a war on nature. Wild…

Pro-Fracking Group “Vets4Energy” Is a Front for the Oil Industry

More than 20 counties in Florida have signed ordinances banning fracking, the controversial process by which water, sand, and an unnamed cocktail of chemicals are jammed into the ground, in order to extract oil and natural gas. The process has been blamed for contaminating groundwater. Around the time Broward County…

Dredging Killed Miami’s Coral Reefs, and the Same Could Happen in Broward

A half-mile off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, 35 feet below the ocean’s surface, two battery-powered golden-yellow submarines the size of Volkswagen Beetles puttered around Barracuda Reef. In one submarine’s cabin — a transparent sphere that looks like a giant fishbowl — sat Rachel Silverstein, a dark-haired PhD who holds…