Welcome to the latest installment of the Wednesday Wake-Up Call, a roundup of the most pressing conservation issues important to anglers. Working with our friends at Trout Unlimited, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, The Everglades Foundation, Captains for Clean Water, VoteWater.org, Bonefish & Tarpon Trust, and Conservation Hawks (among others), we’ll make sure you’ve got the information you need to understand the issues and form solid opinions.
1. Big Sugar Lawsuit Threatens Everglades Restoration
Big Sugar is suing over a critical restoration project, the EAA Reservoir, in a move that threatens Everglades restoration and the future of Florida’s waters. The lawsuit could establish the EAA Reservoir as a personal, taxpayer-funded water supply for the sugar industry, instead of its intended use: to restore the natural Everglades flow by storing, cleaning, and sending more beneficial water south.
The EAA Reservoir is the single most impactful restoration project designed to provide large-scale relief to all of south Florida’s waterways. If Big Sugar wins the lawsuit, it could upend years of restoration progress and increases the risk of:
- More toxic coastal discharges
- More harmful algal blooms and massive fish kills
- Billions of dollars of economic impact
- Tens of thousands of jobs lost
- The fate of a National Treasure
Our partners at Captains for Clean Water are urging the United States Sugar Corporation, Okeelanta Corporation (Florida Crystals), and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida to WITHDRAW their lawsuit over the EAA Reservoir, and we need your voice!
Click here to make your voice heard!
Related Stories:
- Big Sugar’s lawsuit for control over Lake Okeechobee water, on winknews.com
- Big Sugar Lays Claim to Water from Lake Okeechobee Reservoir, on bocamag.com
2. Alaska Representative Seeks to Codify Bristol Bay Protections
May 1 marked another important step forward in strengthening safeguards for Bristol Bay, as U.S. Representative Mary Peltola introduced the Bristol Bay Protection Act to protect the rivers, lakes and wetlands around the Pebble Deposit. This legislation would ensure that Alaska’s salmon, wildlife, and communities are free from the threat of Pebble Mine.
Related Stories:
- Peltola reverts to pro-fish stance with a new anti-Pebble Mine bill and a surprise vote on Alaska drilling, on alaskapublic.org
