Army Corps Upholds Wetlands Protections For Western Everglades and Endangered Wood Stork

Reprinted from the Audubon Newswire

On December 7, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers upheld Clean Water Act wetlands protections by denying a permit for a golf course development that would have destroyed several hundred acres of wetlands in the Western Everglades that is habitat for the endangered Wood Stork. Ultimately, the development plan could encompass the loss of approximately 2,000 wetland acres in the Cocohatchee Slough in Collier County.

The permit applicant, J.D. Nicewonder, proposed an 800-unit, 36-hole residential golf course community on a 1,713-acre tract of land known as the Mirasol development. The permit had been under consideration for over four years due to the large amount of wetland impacts proposed. The slough is a natural flowway extending southward from Southwest Florida's Corkscrew Swamp to the Cocohatchee River and Wiggins Pass Estuary. The slough was identified by the Corps as an historic flowway. Both the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the Southwest Florida Feasibility Study call for maintaining and restoring historic rivers, sloughs or flowways, and strands.

The drainage for the projects could have extended beyond the project boundaries, threatening upstream water levels and wildlife at Corkscrew Swamp. When Clean Water Act permits are proposed in the habitat of endangered species such as Wood Storks, the Corps of Engineers seeks the advice of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which approved this project despite estimates that it would destroy 960 acres of Wood Stork habitat.

David Anderson, executive director of Audubon of Florida, called the Corps decision a major victory for the environment. "Denial of this permit protects the ecological integrity of the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary," says Anderson. "If allowed to proceed, the Mirasol project would have led to a major reduction in habitat for endangered Wood Storks and would have harmed the largest breeding colony of these increasingly imperiled birds."

Brad Cornell, Big Cypress policy associate for Audubon of Florida and Collier County Audubon Society, stated that, "The Wood Stork habitat is declining rapidly in Southwest Florida and the okay from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for such an enormous loss of habitat from one area was unconscionable. The decision by the Corps vindicates the concerns documented by all of our groups." For more information about Audubon of Florida, go to http://www.audubonofflorida.org/.