By Andy Reid
December 5, 2016
Sun Sentinel
Credit: Steve Brooks
State leaders’ push to evict the federal government from running the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge threatens to weaken protections for the Everglades, environmentalists warned Monday.
Environmental groups and community leaders are voicing concerns about the state proposal to oust the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from overseeing the refuge in Palm Beach County, which includes 144,000 acres of the northern reaches of the Everglades.
But environmental advocates, who held a community meeting near West Palm Beach on Monday night, counter that losing federal oversight could result in the state easing Everglades water pollution cleanup requirements, which could benefit the sugar industry.
Opponents to the change have also raised concerns about potentially losing public access to the wildlife refuge, for everyone from tourists to students on field trips.
“A small group of men who are out of step … have made a decision to cancel the lease,” former water district board member and long-time Everglades advocate Nathaniel Reed said. “If it goes under state control, there’s no guarantee that (water pollution standards) will be maintained.”
The South Florida Water Management District board in August called for taking control of the state-owned refuge away from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in order to give the state more control over combating exotic plants such as melaleuca trees and Old World Climbing Fern.
That was the first step in what could stretch into a nine-month-long process for the state to end its operating agreement with the federal agency overseeing the refuge.
Last month, the South Florida Water Management District released a “statement of principles” aimed at easing concerns about the state potentially severing its agreement with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for operation of the refuge.
That statement lists the district’s intent to combat the spread of invading plants, keep the land open to the public and to “protect the refuge’s ecosystem for plants, wildlife and public use and enjoyment.”
Also, the district maintains that the federal government could continue refuge operations on more than 1,000 acres of federally owned land, even if the state lease for the majority of the refuge ends. That federal land includes a visitor center and nature trails.
But losing the state lease could mean federal budget and staffing cuts at the Loxahatchee refuge, which could lead to ceasing operations that cater to the public, Kathy Burchett of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday.
“We are going to have to analyze all options,” Burchett said.
The Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, west of State Road 7, extends north from Palm Beach County’s southern boundary to Wellington. It separates suburban areas west of Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Boynton Beach from the sea of sugar cane in western Palm Beach County.
The refuge includes a mix of sawgrass, tree islands and marshes that serve as both as wildlife habitat and a water conservation area – holding water to avoid flooding and to restock community drinking water as well as other portions of the Everglades.
A deal that started in 1951 allows the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to use the district’s land as a wildlife refuge. Part of the federal responsibility is to control the spread of exotic plants such as Melaleuca trees and Old World Climbing Fern, or lygodium.
Those plants, once planted throughout the region to help dry up soggy South Florida, can grow out of control because they have no natural enemies here.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service last year acknowledged that its efforts to spray herbicides and yank out the fast-spreading plants by hand won’t be enough to meet a 2017 deadline to control their advance.
The South Florida Water Management District estimates it will cost $25 million over five years to control the spread of invading plants in the refuge, followed by another $4 million a year to keep them in check.
A state takeover of refuge operations could leave Florida taxpayers shouldering that cost, instead of spreading the expense among federal taxpayers.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-wildlife-refuge-control-concerns-20161205-story.html