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Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Maxwell: Florida fights efforts to save manatees. Insurance costs rise again
Today we're looking at new developments in stories featured in two previous columns. And fair warning: Both are pretty depressing. In one case, Florida has decided to fight a court ruling that ordered the state to stop allowing the water pollution that has led to record manatee deaths. (Yes, the state's environmental protection agency is fighting an order to protect the environment.) In the other, a new report shows that home insurance rates are continuing to rise in Florida, despite Tallahassee lawmakers repeatedly telling you they delivered relief. (In other words, the politicians hope you'll listen to their words and not look at your own bills.) Let's start with the manatees. A few weeks ago, I wrote about the record number of manatees starving to death due to water pollution that has killed off the seagrass they eat to survive. Stories from both the Orlando Sentinel and Tampa Bay Times described nightmarish demises of the state's official marine mammal with the docile creatures literally rotting from the inside due to empty bellies. In one case, biologists found a calf still trying to nuzzle its mother's corpse. Other sea cows were found so starved that their bones had pierced their thinned skin. Maxwell: Manatee corpses — the price of the 'freedom' to pollute in Florida The in-depth reporting by the two newspapers detailed how water pollution in the Indian River Lagoon had killed off much of seagrass, contributing to the deaths of around 1,900 manatees over the past three years. I wrote at the time: 'To stop that pollution, lawmakers would have to stand up to development interests, agribusiness and influential utility companies, something they rarely do.' Well, an animal-rights group called Bear Warriors United filed a lawsuit saying the state had a legal obligation to do just that. And a federal judge agreed, ruling that Florida had violated the federal Endangered Species Act in allowing the wastewater discharges to pollute the habitat of the threatened species. But instead of agreeing to belatedly fight to save the sea cows, Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration decided to fight the ruling — and made some eye-popping arguments in a court filing last week. In its appeal, the state's laughably named Department of Environmental Protection agreed that there is an indeed existential threat afoot. But it isn't manatees that the state is worried about. It's developers. As the News Service of Florida reported, the state argued that the judge's ruling 'threatens to impede commercial and residential development in the state.' Yeah, forget the dying sea creatures. Florida is rallying to protect the state's development interests, whom the state said 'have no ready means to challenge this moratorium.' You know who else has no ability to show up in court and file a brief? The dying manatees. Admittedly, the judge's order is severe in calling for a temporary pause on all new development with the septic systems that have created much of the pollution. But the state ignored one warning after another to do the right thing on its own. So now the state's acting like a whiny kid who was warned time and again to stop misbehaving and then complained when Mom and Dad finally laid down the law. The bottom line: You know things are bad when the state not only allowed the manatee die-off to happen, but is now fighting for the right to let the deaths continue. In the insurance arena, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's intrepid insurance reporter, Ron Hurtibise, just reported that home insurance rates are rising again in Florida. The latest quarterly report from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation showed an average premium increase of less than 1%. That's small. But it comes on the heels of increases in nine of the previous 10 quarters. All told, the average premium price in Florida is now 30% higher than it was in 2022 — when lawmakers claimed to have 'reformed' the market. In other words: you got conned. Lawmakers in Tallahassee definitely made reforms, but most of them benefited the insurance companies, not consumers. Insurance costs edge higher for Florida homeowners and condo owners Yes, there are more insurance companies now in Florida, which is good. But most homeowners aren't seeing financial benefits. The insurance companies are. So Florida's politicians and insurance officials carefully choose words like 'stabilization' to refer to the relief they delivered and hope you won't notice your costs keep going up. The reality is that Florida has a complicated and risky insurance market, thanks to frequent storms and rising floodwaters. The only way to provide meaningful relief to consumers — meaning lower rates — would be for lawmakers to either beef up the state-run Citizens Insurance program, so that more people can access it, or use tax dollars to subsidize the market even more than it already does by investing even more in underwriting of reinsurance or through direct subsidies. Because it's clear that the state's version of 'reform' — which mainly involved making it harder for homeowners to sue their insurance company, even when they're denied benefits they're owed — didn't bring down costs. The state's own numbers say as much. smaxwell@
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Florida fighting ruling on manatee protections
A new showdown is brewing over manatee protection. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is fighting back on a ruling requiring Florida to step up protections. It involves a series of steps aimed at reducing the threats manatees face in the Indian River Lagoon. The Florida manatee is already listed as a threatened species. But last month, a central Florida conservation group, Bear Warriors United, got something more. 'The Endangered Species Act allows individuals, businesses, governments, anybody who is going to engage in an activity that's going to result in death or harm to a federally listed species, to go to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and say, 'Hey, we're doing this,'' said plaintiff attorney Lesley Blackner. The state was ordered to start a health assessment program and a supplemental feeding effort to support the manatee population in the northern part of the lagoon starting this month. The state will also have to submit public quarterly reports on manatee deaths, water quality, seagrass conditions and harmful algae blooms. The court also ordered a temporary halt on new septic system permits in part of the lagoon watershed starting July 17. 'It's plaintiff's position that the court made the correct decision because what's happened in the lagoon is a catastrophe,' blackner said. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection disagrees, saying the state has invested nearly $747 million in community-led projects in the region to improve water quality and restore habitat, which is especially critical in ecosystems like Indian River Lagoon. The state is now asking a federal appeals court to halt that district judge's injunction, saying in part 'The indefinite moratorium on the construction of new septic systems further threatens to impede commercial and residential development in the state.' Bear Warriors United filed the original lawsuit in 2022 after Florida had a record 1,100 manatee deaths in 2021, with the largest number in Brevard County at 358 deaths. Many deaths were linked to starvation. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Washington Post
24-05-2025
- Washington Post
Florida approves first black bear hunt in a decade
OCALA, Fla. — Gail Zega recently stepped out to her carport on a quiet, moonless night and came face-to-face with a large black bear. There were no warning signs or noises as it scavenged through the trash it had dragged to her home in central Florida's Ocala National Forest. She unknowingly walked right up to the bear she said was 'having a picnic in my carport.' 'He was right there,' Zega said. 'I could feel his fur and smell his bad, hot breath.' The bear made a defensive move that experts call a 'bluff charge,' before they both backed away. The black bear soon left, and Zega later gave her neighbors straps they could use to lock down their garbage cans so they wouldn't attract more late-night visitors. The encounter didn't faze Zega, who works with Bear Warriors United, a nonprofit that advocates protection of Florida black bears. Now, she is protesting a state plan to hold a 'a highly regulated' black bear hunt. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on Wednesday approved a proposal that will allow the state to have its first bear hunt in a decade. (Black bears are the only wild bear species in the state.) The commission approved the plan in a 4-1 vote. It gives preliminary approval for Florida to hold a three-week hunt during which 187 black bears could be 'harvested.' The plan was approved weeks after what Florida officials said was the state's first confirmed fatal black bear attack, although the hunt proposal was made several months before the man's death. On May 5, the Collier County Sheriff's Office in southwest Florida received a call from relatives reporting Robert Markel, 89, missing from his home. There were signs on his property in rural Jerome of 'recent disturbances that could have been caused by a bear,' according to the commission. Markel's remains were found about 100 yards from his home. Officials said he and his dog had been killed by a 263-pound male black bear. Until that attack, Florida officials say there were fewer than 50 reported injuries from black bear interactions in the past five decades. Male black bears in Florida are known to typically avoid humans. But the state says reports of black bear activity are up, with 2,000 complaints last year, compared with 1,000 in 2005. The number of bears killed on Florida's highways also jumped last year, to 295 — more than double the number killed in 2005. Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said his county, home to a large portion of the Ocala National Forest, has grown so fast in the past decade that bear sightings have become almost commonplace. The forest is home to one of the largest black bear populations in the state. Woods, who supports the hunt, said bears have been seen near elementary schools and retirement communities. 'Two weeks ago, I personally came in contact with a bear in my backyard,' Woods said. 'Luckily for the bear, he decided to leave.' But opponents of the plan say bears are not to blame for human overdevelopment. They also took issue with some of the rules around the hunt, which they consider too aggressive. Most of the 168 speakers at the meeting opposed the hunt. An online survey conducted by the wildlife commission last week also found the plan to be unpopular. Of the more than 13,000 people who responded, 75 percent opposed the hunt and 23 percent supported it. Hanging over the vote was the memory of a 2015 state hunt that had to be halted after 304 bears were killed within 48 hours, including cubs and nursing females. The quota that year was 320 bears. 'One of the things that we kept hearing from the public was that it was a slaughter, this was trophy hunting at its best or whatever,' Commission Chairman Rodney Barreto said. 'How are we going to reassure the public?' With the exception of the 2015 event, Florida has not allowed bears to be hunted for more than 30 years. The Florida black bear was considered a threatened species from 1974 through 2012. The black bear population has since recovered and officials say there are about 4,050 in the wild statewide. 'We now have more bears than at any time in the last 100 years,' the wildlife commission's website says. Florida's black bear population has reached a 'sustainable' level, Morgan Richardson, director of hunting and game management for the commission, said at the meeting. 'Bears are a game species, it's a renewable resource, and there are plenty of bears to where we could harvest a certain number every year, and continue to have bears increase.' Still, speakers at the meeting objected to the plan allowing hunters' dogs to chase bears into trees and for the animals to be killed directly over bait stations. Wildlife biologists defended the methods as necessary to help hunters get close enough to the bears to tell the difference between males, which can weigh up to 350 pounds on average, and females, which usually weigh no more than 180 pounds. 'We heard from many people today that they didn't like seeing lactating bears or seeing cubs harvested,' Richardson said. 'We believe this is one way of seeing much less of that.' The plan for this year's hunt would allow people to self-report their kills — a change from the 2015 event during which hunters were required to bring the carcasses to check-in stations. Officials said hunters will be able to report the kills on their cellphones. 'That means no accountability,' said Susan Hargreaves, the founder of Animal Hero Kids, an animal rescue and education nonprofit based in Jupiter, Florida. 'People were at the check-in stations taking pictures in 2015 to show how bad it was, and now they want to hide it.' Hargreaves brought to the meeting a blown-up photo from the 2015 hunt of a dead mother bear and her cub in the back of a pickup truck. Dozens of hunters, dressed in blaze orange T-shirts, attended the meeting to support the plan. Some noted that most states allow bear hunting, including California. 'Bear is a game species. It's time for us to have some level of bear hunt,' said Travis Thompson, executive director at the All Florida conservation organization. But others argue that Floridians just need to learn to coexist with bears. Guy Marwick has lived on the border of the Ocala National Forest for a half century, and he said black bears are a frequent — and welcome — sight in his yard. 'I'll have a mother bear and cubs come up around the porch, just looking like they're playing,' Marwick said. 'We need to educate people on how to live with bears. We don't need to hunt them.'
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
State Appeals In Manatee Protection Fight
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has gone to a federal appeals court after a U.S. district judge last month ruled that the state has violated the Endangered Species Act as manatees face threats in the Indian River Lagoon. A notice of appeal, sent to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this week, does not detail arguments that department attorneys will make at the Atlanta-based court. But the agency is challenging a ruling by U.S. District Judge Carlos Mendoza, who sided with the environmental group Bear Warriors United in the case about regulation of wastewater discharges into the Indian River Lagoon. The group argued that discharges led to the demise of seagrass, a key food source for manatees, and resulted in deaths and other harm to the animals. In his April 11 ruling, the judge wrote that under the Department of Environmental Protection's regulations, it would take at least a decade for conditions in the northern part of the Indian River Lagoon to start to recover. That area is primarily in Brevard County. 'This is due to the previously and currently permitted discharge of legacy pollutants via wastewater into the north IRL (Indian River Lagoon),' Mendoza wrote. 'These legacy pollutants caused the death of seagrasses — the manatee's natural forage — and the proliferation of harmful macroalgae. Legacy pollutants, as their name suggests, persist in the environment and cause harmful effects long after they have entered the system.' In a follow-up to Mendoza's ruling, Bear Warriors United asked him to enter an injunction that would include requiring the state to seek what is known as an 'incidental take permit' from federal wildlife officials. That process would include the state developing a conservation plan, attorneys for the group wrote. Also, the group asked Mendoza to place a moratorium on new residential and commercial construction that would use septic tanks. Such a moratorium would apply in the northern Indian River Lagoon watershed pending the issuance of an incidental take permit, under the group's proposal. Septic tanks discharge nitrogen, which can cause harmful algae blooms. 'New residential and commercial construction that use (septic tanks) will only exacerbate nitrogen loading into the North IRL,' the group's attorneys wrote in seeking an injunction. 'The court has already held that continuing high levels of nitrogen loading into the North IRL has caused the collapse of seagrasses, resulting in ongoing take of manatees that occupy the North IRL.' But in a May 6 response, Department of Environmental Protection attorneys pushed back against the group's requests, saying, for example, that such a construction moratorium would 'improperly bind parties' that are not in the case. The department's attorneys wrote that Bear Warriors United is seeking an 'injunction that, on its face, prohibits anyone from undertaking residential or commercial construction using onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems. Needless to say, the independent landowners and builders whose property rights would be curtailed by such an order are not parties to this action.' Also, the state's attorneys argued that the department 'has no power under Florida law to prohibit residential or commercial development; that authority is left to local zoning boards. In fact, Florida law specifically authorizes construction using 'nutrient-reducing onsite sewage treatment and disposal systems' or similar nitrogen-reducing 'wastewater treatment systems.' Certainly, a federal court can enjoin a state official to cease conduct that violates federal law. But it cannot require a state official to affirmatively take actions they have no power to take under state law.' Mendoza had not ruled on the injunction request as of Friday morning. The notice of appeal involves the underlying judgment he issued last month. Bear Warriors United filed the lawsuit in 2022, after Florida had a record 1,100 manatee deaths in 2021, with the largest number, 358, in Brevard County. Many deaths were linked to starvation. The state had 800 manatee deaths in 2022, before the number dropped to 555 in 2023 and 565 in 2024, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data. As of May 9, 363 manatees deaths had been reported this year, including 75 in Brevard County. Manatees are classified by the federal government as a threatened species. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Florida wildlife agency considers bringing back barbaric steel traps
There are three three-legged bears in Seminole County, according to Bear Warriors United President Katrina Shaix. All three lost their legs to traps. (Photo via Shaix) I'm probably in the minority here, but I love being asked to fill out surveys. When big corporations or ginormous government agencies want my opinion, I'm happy to give it to them. Y'all want to hear from little ol' me? How flattering! I got a request just the other day from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to offer my thoughts on revising their rules about using steel traps to catch wild animals. 'The FWC is seeking feedback from the public on proposed changes to wildlife trapping regulations in Florida,' said the agency's email, dated May 9. Well, gosh, I was happy to oblige them! I am generally in favor of steel traps when it comes to minds. As for actual steel traps? Put me down as a NO. For the past 53 years, steel-jaw foothold and leg traps and body-gripping traps to capture wild animals have been banned for use in Florida unless you were one of the few people who qualified for a special use permit. But now the wildlife commission is considering changes to its trapping rules. A spokesperson for the agency, Ryan Sheets, said this effort to 'modernize' the rules does say that 'requirements currently associated with the Special Use Permit process be incorporated into rule.' However, Sheets told me, 'nearly everyone would be required to obtain a permit prior to trapping wildlife in Florida.' The problem is that the permittees would no longer be the small, select professional group that now qualify. Instead, the general public could get one. 'The key component to the rule changes to steel-jaw foothold traps and steel-jaw body-gripping traps is that they will remove the existing 'Special Use Permit' requirement to use these traps … which, for all intents and purposes, effectively reverses the state's ban on steel-jaw traps,' Robert Ruderman of Humane Wildlife Consulting of South Florida said. The wildlife commission's talk about 'modernizing' the trapping rules is 'just a shameless attempt to gaslight the public,' Ruderman told me this week. I guess you could say that the wildlife commissioners feel trapped — or at least tightly confined — by the existing rules. Now, like any trapped animal, they want to loosen things up. This loosening of the regulations hasn't gotten a lot of attention yet, because everyone's so upset about the FWC's misguided and unscientific push for another bear hunt. But advocates of humane treatment of animals are paying close attention, indeed. 'We're glad they're considering an update to the trapping rules,' said Kate McFall, Florida director of the Humane Society of the United States. But her organization is opposed to any attempt to make it easier for people to use steel foot and leg traps, which she called 'barbaric.' 'We do not want to put these antiquated traps in the hands of the general public,' she told me. In case you're wondering (I sure was!), the use of these traps date to the days when men wore hats made of animal fur instead of ballcaps touting overpriced sports teams or brainless political slogans. Trapping was the preferred way to catch beavers, wolves, and other wildlife used by hatters, mad or otherwise. A lot of folks these days sneer at fashion news: 'Who cares who wore what at the Met Gala!' But the economics of fur fashion drove a lot of the early American (and Canadian) exploration and economy. Some of the earliest steel traps were made by a guy named Sewell Newhouse, who lived in the upstate New York town of Oneida. Newhouse's father was a blacksmith, so at age 17 he made his first steel trap using his dad's scrap metal. In 1849, Newhouse the trap maker joined a religious commune in Oneida run by an unusual fellow by the name of John Humphrey Noyes. The fur trade was in full swing then, and a history of Newhouse traps says that by 1855, 'the demand for Newhouse steel traps had grown to such an extent that the Oneida Community leaders decided to begin manufacturing on a much larger scale, and it became a major part of the business dealings of the community.' The main thing the Oneida community is remembered for these days is not its trap factory but what happened when they got behind closed doors. Noyes believed he was God's prophet on Earth, and his version of the gospel called for the commune members to all have sex with multiple partners. In fact, Noyes has been credited with coining the term 'free love.' 'They were swingers basically before swinging was ever invented,' explained the author of a recent book on the Oneida community. Isn't history fun? It's impossible to miss the irony of the commune-ist Newhouse's life. Here was a man who made a living making traps for animals, but he didn't want to be trapped into a conventional marriage. He was in favor of free love and captured wildlife. Eventually the commune got out of the steel trap business. Instead, they became known for making a different metal product: forks, knives, and spoons. Their popular Oneida Flatware is still a big deal today. I guess you could say they stuck a fork in their trapping business. Outside of Davy Crockett cosplay, nobody's wearing fur hats anymore. Instead, the steel traps are now mostly used to protect commercially valuable animals from predators or to catch unwanted intruders. There are about 200 licensed professional trappers in Florida, according to the Florida Trappers Association. One of the most active is Mark Neely, a Navy retiree who's been in the trapping field since 2005. He specializes in catching coyotes on cattle ranches because 'there's nothing like trying to outsmart a coyote.' Neely sat on the technical advisory group that the wildlife commission formed to consider how to change its rules. He attended every meeting but told me he didn't understand where the staff was coming from on some of its proposals. 'Sometimes I wondered, 'Have any of these people set a trap before in their lives?'' he told me. 'Sometimes I wondered if this person knew what they were talking about.' Neely was not a big fan of the animal welfare folks on the committee, either, whom he also did not consider well-informed. 'They talk with their hearts, God bless 'em,' he said. Neely contended the wildlife commission would never get rid of the need for permits for using steel traps. Nevertheless, he said, he's inclined to favor the existing rules over any new ones. 'If I could do it over,' he said, 'I wouldn't make any changes.' I don't know why Florida clamped down (so to speak) on the use of steel leg and foot traps in 1972. This was the era when Congress passed our foundational environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act (1972) and the Endangered Species Act (1973), all of which resulted from the first Earth Day protest in 1970. Perhaps it was driven by that same circumstance. I bet it had something to do with the traps' propensity for grabbing the wrong thing — dogs, cats, eagles, panthers, even children. Ten years ago, for instance, a 12-year-old boy in North Carolina got his hand caught in a trap and it took six emergency room doctors to get the thing off of him. Even when a steel trap grabs hold of the right wild animal's leg, the animal may be so desperate to escape that it winds up ripping off that limb. Sometimes trappers put out so many traps that they can't come back to check on what they've caught until it's too late to stop that from happening. 'The length of the suffering is significant,' McFall told me. The state's permitting system has limited the number who can use these instruments to about 100 people. But they are still in use and still taking a toll. Katrina Shadix of Bear Warriors United told me that she's seen not one, not two but THREE three-legged bears in Seminole County, all of them nicknamed 'Tripod.' How did they get that way? The answer, in the words of Admiral Ackbar from 'Return of the Jedi': 'It's a trap!' The 1972 state law that bans steel leg and foot traps doesn't allow for any exceptions, Shadix told me. But the wildlife commission has allowed their use to continue as long as the trapper applies for a free permit first. In other words, she said, the wildlife commission has been breaking the law. That's why, in 2019, Shadix threatened to sue the FWC over its trapping rules. Shadix is not shy about taking state agencies to court. She recently won a big case in which she'd accused the state of breaking the Endangered Species Act by failing to protect manatees from a major die-off. Shadix told me that her threatened lawsuit prompted the wildlife commission staff to promise that if she held off suing, they would update the rules to make sure they are more humane. The update has hobbled along about as fast as one of those three-legged bears. In 2023, Shadix and more than two dozen other people concerned about the humane treatment of wildlife showed up at a commission meeting where the staff presented a report on how they were progressing. 'The objectives for updating the wildlife trapping rules include allowing for all current uses of traps without the need for a permit,' said a memo from one senior wildlife commission staffer. Shadix and the other the people who showed up for the meeting urged the commissioners to keep the permitting requirement and start charging a fee for it, too. And they suggested anyone using a trap should get mandatory training and licensing as well. 'Let's definitely do require licensing and training,' said Katherine McGill, who runs 411 Wildlife Solutions in Brooksville, according to 'I do not understand why there would not be a fee with this permit, just like every hunter and angler and so forth pays.' After listening to the parade of speakers, FWC Chairman Rodney Barreto said he was on their side. 'I think as we are modernizing our trapping policies and procedures, I think the public's correct,' Barreto said. 'We want to [have] best practices, we want to check all the boxes, we want to be humane.' If the FWC now makes it easier, not harder, to use these cruel traps, perhaps that should count as another falsehood told by Barreto, who recently denied before a state Senate committee plans to build on submerged land in Palm Beach County even though the Palm Beach Post reported he'd tried to do exactly that. 'Everything they're proposing is making things worse, not better,' Shadix told me this week. The good news here is that there's still time for the wildlife commission to reconsider. Sheets, the FWC spokesman, told me the staff hopes to bring its recommendations to their bosses in August so they can vote on them. That's the same meeting where they're expected to vote on holding another bear hunt, too. If the commissioners do vote to let anyone who wants to use a steel leg or foot trap, I have a suggestion. Perhaps everyone who finds this to be disturbing should run right out and obtain one of these traps. Then, they should bring these traps to the very next FWC meeting. They should set them up all around the table where the commissioners are meeting. These traps would be clearly marked and checked regularly, which is better than what the animals get these days. Maybe if they experience what being snagged is like, then the commissioners will do a better job of figuring out what's humane and what's not. You don't have to have a mind like a steel trap to see that. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
