Latest news with #habitation
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Solway coastline secures major restoration boost
The Solway coastline in south west Scotland has secured a major funding boost to help with its conservation, restoration and development. It is the first project to secure support through the National Lottery Heritage Fund's (NLHF) £150m Landscape Connections initiative. The Solway Coast and Marine Landscape Connections Project - Scamp for short - will receive £1.4m to shape plans which will help unlock a further £6.4m. It will work with the local community to deliver an extensive programme of habitat restoration right along the Dumfries and Galloway coast. The project is the first of about 20 across the UK which will benefit from the funding aimed at boosting nature recovery, helping rural economies and attracting more visitors. NLHF chief executive Eilish McGuinness said it was the "perfect project" to get things started. "The Solway Firth's rich natural heritage has supported communities along its length since the earliest settlement," she said. "The heritage of millennia of human habitation are reflected in the landscape and history of the people, places and communities. "This will be enhanced with National Lottery player support to deliver large-scale, long-term, meaningful change for the environment and its people, furthering our vision for heritage to be valued, cared for, and sustained for everyone, now and in the future." Dumfries and Galloway Council is leading the Scamp initiative alongside a long list of local partners. Leader Gail MacGregor said: "With a potential total investment of almost £8m from the heritage fund this commitment demonstrates the huge potential of our Solway Coast to become a leading light in coastal and marine nature restoration, playing its part in helping with the nature and climate crisis. "By allowing our coastal and marine environment to thrive we will be bringing opportunities for learning, green jobs, wellbeing and nature-related economic development to our communities." Karen Morley, Scamp programme manager, said it welcomed the funding. "It is rare for a nature restoration project to attract this level of investment over a prolonged period of time," she said. "But it is also essential for this ambitious innovative programme of work to be delivered by ourselves and our partners and ensure we can make a real restorative impact on our Solway land and seascape." The Scamp scheme will be delivered over 10 years including a two-year development phase. Five key habitats will be prioritised - seagrass meadows, native oyster reefs, saltmarsh, coastal woodland and sand dunes. It will also see 120 miles (195km) of new coastal trail created with 10 coastal "gateway" sites enhanced. Panels along the coast and trails will allow people to learn more about the Solway Firth and the surrounding area. How Solway seaweed rum came out of Covid job cuts
Axios
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Axios
5 ways the COVID-19 pandemic changed Florida
Five years ago, COVID-19 cast a shadow over the Sunshine State, and life hasn't been the same since. The lives lost: Nearly 100,000 Floridians and counting have died from COVID-19 since 2020, per the Florida Department of Health. The virus hit elderly people and those with preexisting conditions especially hard. Politics: Gov. Ron DeSantis redefined himself as a conservative warrior prepared to take on the federal government, a reinvention propped up on long-held distrust of public health measures. The pandemic is so essential to his "Florida blueprint" that it earned a chapter in his book, "The Courage to Be Free," in which he contrasted his leadership with former President Biden and President Trump's. After briefly locking down the state, he positioned Florida as a mecca of personal freedom, and his decision to reopen the state and restrict efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus built up his national media profile. And once the headlines arrived, DeSantis made sure they stayed. In his own words, a leader "shapes opinion through newsworthy actions," which is exactly what followed. Education: The debate about who should have a say in a child's education took center stage in the months after schools shut down — and paved the way for Florida to become a test kitchen for conservative policies that favored parents' rights. Conservative group Moms for Liberty, founded in Florida in 2021, garnered national attention and influence after launching a fight against masking in schools and what it claimed was critical race theory in classrooms. The uproar over CRT set the stage for GOP lawmakers to pass policies including the Parental Rights in Education Law (dubbed "Don't Say Gay" by critics) and the Stop Woke Act — at the cost of teachers' and students' autonomy, detractors say. In 2023, lawmakers passed one of the nation's most expansive school choice programs to, according to supporters, give parents more options for their children's education. It's resulted in declining enrollment and school closures in traditional public schools. Population: Whether it was the politics or the allure of working remotely from paradise, the pandemic led to a Sunshine State population boom. In 2022, the Census named Florida the fastest-growing state in the country for the first time since 1957. Our population grew 5% from April 2020 to July 2023, per Census data. Last year, it eclipsed 23 million people. The growth has had all sorts of implications for politics (Florida has only gotten redder), development (it's seemingly never-ending) and traffic (dear God, someone help us). And a few transplants found out just how metal it is to live in a swamp barely fit for human habitation. Business: The pandemic led to the largest nationwide increase in new business applications in American history, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — and Florida was no exception. Florida had about 61% more new business applications from January 2020 to 2021, per U.S. Census data. The state hit its peak in May 2021 with over 65,000 new applications. COVID lockdowns gave budding entrepreneurs the time — and extra cash, via federal stimulus funds — to pursue new business ideas. Meanwhile, existing businesses had to pivot from walk-in service to pickup or delivery operations, and many closed temporarily or permanently.
