Friends of the Everglades
Encyclopedia
Friends of the Everglades is a conservationist and activist organization in the United States whose mission is to "preserve, protect, and restore the only Everglades
in the world." The book Biosphere 2000: Protecting Our Global Environment refers to Friends of the Everglades as an organization that has fought to preserve North America's only subtropical wetland
.
The organization was created in 1969-1970 by journalist, author, and environmental activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas
who wrote the book The Everglades: River of Grass
in 1947, about the Florida Everglades. When the organization was first founded, it soon had 500 members, eventually reaching 6,000 members. Douglas was 87 when she founded the organization. Current membership is approximately 5,000.
It outlines its goals as being to:
The organization 1000 Friends of Florida describes Friends of the Everglades as a "non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Everglades." It "strives to protect and restore the Greater Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Everglades Ecosystem." The "primary tools" of Friends of the Everglades are legal advocacy and education.
and Browder's office manager Judy Wilson, were influential in persuading Marjory Stoneman Douglas
to start an organization to protect the Everglades. The organization was started with a one-dollar membership contribution from Marjory Douglas as its first member. Governer Reubin Askew, who was Governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979 was supportive of Friends of the Everglades according to Douglas in her book, Voice of the River. While membership is now thirty-five dollars, Friends maintains its one-dollar contribution membership fee for the school-based Young Friends of the Everglades.
What is now Everglades National Park was created in 1947, and is recently as 1998, has been referred to as "the most endangered national park in America." Some of the environmental issues facing the Everglades are, disrupted water flow, a drastic decline in the wading bird population, invasion of exotic species and the survival challenges facing the Florida panther
, of which there are only 160 left in the wild, an increase from 20 wild Florida panthers in the 1970s. Additionally, species such as the wood stork
, the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow
and the manatee
have a uncertain future in the Everglades as a result of environmental issues. Former Secretary of Friends of the Everglades, Sharyn Richardson said that she got started with the organization, attracted by its philosophical ideals, stating, "when you see an injustice and you become aware of that injustice, you have to take responsibility for it."
Friends of the Everglades is one of dozens of organizations involved in environmental efforts in the Florida Everglades, among which are the National Audubon Society
and the National Parks Conservation Association
(NPCA).
When Marjory Stoneman Douglas first began the organization, Friends, along with the work of other individual activists, was instrumental in persuading the Richard Nixon
administration to stop the development of the Miami International Airport in the Everglades.
It has taken legal action to stop South Florida Water Management District
from back-pumping agricultural chemicals from Big Sugar’s plantations into Lake Okeechobee
and to require proper treatment of agricultural chemicals discharged to the Everglades from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). Friends also has protested government plans to build 63 square miles of stormwater treatment area (STAs) or filtering marshes to absorb excess nutrients resulting from the agricultural pollution of Big Sugar plantations. Then-president of Friends of the Everglades, Joette Lorion (1998) stated, "Why should taxpayers be made to pay a billion dollars to clean up after big sugar, just because the government agencies don't have the will to enforce the Clean Water Act
and make the polluters pay?" Friends continues to fight against this issue in the courts (2011).
Legal actions by Friends of the Everglades have gone to the Supreme Court of the United States
on two occasions. In 2003 Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee
Indian Tribe argued the so-called "S-9" lawsuit over the protection of the Everglades. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the District Court to be reargued in the fall of 2004. Current Florida Governor Rick Scott has stated that he favors "restoration, not litigation," which provides a hopeful rallying cry for environmentalists. However, state funding for what is required to prevent and clean chemical pollution in the Everglades is not adequate to address the needs of the ecosystem. Enforcement of "better management practices" in big sugar farming cuts off the pollution at its source. The state seems willing to negotiate the two sides of the contentious debate, that of big sugar and conservationists, but environmentalists are not convinced that it will be enough to adequately address the needs of the Everglades.
Friends of the Everglades has strongly criticized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
, stating that it does not adequately address many critical needs. However, it does support the broader goals of this Federal plan, which dates from 1948, to protect the Everglades.
In 2004, the Miccosukee tribe along with Friends of the Everglades initiated a lawsuit which accused the Environmental Protection Agency and DEP
of failing to enforce the federal Clean Water Act
.
In 2009, a court victory for Friends of the Everglades was overturned by an appeals court, where the federal appellate court
based its opinion on the "unitary waters" theory, which is an interpretation of the Clean Water Act
which treats all bodies of water in the United States as a single body. The implication of this was that transferring polluted water from one body of water to another, even if polluted water was being transferred to pristine water, is considered to be legal. The focus of the ongoing legal debate has been on the definition of the word "addition" in the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act mandates that the addition of pollutants to clean water requires a federal permit. If polluted water is being transferred one body of water to another, some courts have interpreted this as meaning no permit is needed, whereas other courts have maintained that the wording of the Clean Water Act was not intended to allow transference of polluted water from, for example, a polluted stream to a pristine lake.
The Columbia Journal of Environmental Law states that environmentalists are opposed to the "unitary waters" theory because it exempts polluters from obtaining federal permits which are usually required for polluting bodies of water, so long as the transferer does not add additional pollutants to the transferred water.
According to Friends, in the case of the Everglades, the Bush administration
bypassed legal efforts to protect the Everglades from harmful back-pumping through initiating the Water Transfer Rule, which allowed the transfer of polluted water into pristine waters such as in the Everglades without federal permits. Friends of the Everglades and other conservation groups continues to legally challenge the looser interpretation of the Clean Water Act
but has not been totally successful. However, recent developments seem to have resulted in some progress.
Friends of the Everglades placed hope with the inauguration of the Barack Obama
administration that it would repeal what Friends sees as a harmful way of interpreting environmental law
. The organization states that such efforts are finally yielding "significant results".
The Friends of the Everglades organization continues to oppose efforts for government intervention for US Sugar Corporation
environmental pollution, and maintains a close alliance with the Miccosukee Indian Tribe of the Everglades region in its legal efforts. One of the major issues continues to be the heavy use of chemical fertilizers by "Big Sugar" which result in excess phosphorus
in Everglades waters. According to activists, government agencies have been lax in their demands on the sugar industry.
In a September 2011 press release concerning current activity, Friends of the Everglades stated that it felt the the Florida Governor and Florida Legislature
had "acted to protect the sugar industry from paying its fair share of pollution treatment," shifting the responsibility to the taxpayers of Florida. Friends states, "This scheme has not only created one of the nation's largest environmental catastrophes, it has also perpetrated one of the largest rip-offs of taxpayers in American history to benefit billionaire industrial farmers." While Friends of the Everglades was not happy with the Bush administration's EPA, they are more hopeful with the EPA under President Obama, stating, "As a result of successful legal efforts by Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe, the EPA under President Obama changed direction and has now identified a realistic plan to clean up the Everglades."
Current Membership in Friends of the Everglades is thirty-five dollars (2010).
Young Friends of the Everglades was started in 1994 by fourth and fifth grade students at Howard Drive Elementary School in Miami, Florida, along with their teachers, Marta Whitehouse and Connie Washburn. The student organization was first formed in response to plans to build a sports and entertainment park on an area considered essential for wetlands restoration. Young Friends has educated 80,000 students in conservation. The founder of Friends of the Everglades, Marjory Douglas, stated, at 105 years old about Young Friends of the Everglades, "Take the children out to the Glades and let them learn; education will be the only way to save the Glades. Tell them the Everglades isn’t saved yet!" Membership in Young Friends of the Everglades is $1 and school classes may join for $15 (2010). Jim McMaster is Senior Educator of Young Friends of the Everglades (2011).
President; Connie Washburn, Vice-President; Albert Slap, Treasurer; Toby Davidow, Secretary.
Directors are, Cristina Dominguez, Sheila Gaby, PhD, Jim Kushlan, PhD, Dr. Paul Martin, John Purcell, PhD, Samantha Riepe, Milda Vaivada.
Friends of the Everglades v South Florida Water Management District. Case No. 07-13829. June 4, 2009
Friends of the Everglades v. So. Fla. Water Mgmt. June 8, 2009. Environmental Decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals
Everglades
The Everglades are subtropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee...
in the world." The book Biosphere 2000: Protecting Our Global Environment refers to Friends of the Everglades as an organization that has fought to preserve North America's only subtropical wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
.
The organization was created in 1969-1970 by journalist, author, and environmental activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development...
who wrote the book The Everglades: River of Grass
The Everglades: River of Grass
The Everglades: River of Grass is a non-fiction book written by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1947. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and continues to remain an influential...
in 1947, about the Florida Everglades. When the organization was first founded, it soon had 500 members, eventually reaching 6,000 members. Douglas was 87 when she founded the organization. Current membership is approximately 5,000.
It outlines its goals as being to:
- Compel government agencies to comply with existing environmental laws, and resist any efforts to weaken such laws.
- Encourage politicians to recognize the long consequences of their actions.
- Spread awareness of the importance of the Everglades to the South Florida ecosystem.
The organization 1000 Friends of Florida describes Friends of the Everglades as a "non-profit grassroots organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Everglades." It "strives to protect and restore the Greater Kissimmee-Okeechobee-Everglades Ecosystem." The "primary tools" of Friends of the Everglades are legal advocacy and education.
Development
Environmental activist Joe BrowderJoe Browder
Joe Browder is an environmental activist who spearheaded ongoing efforts to save the Florida Everglades. He is considered to be a global environmental expert. He is an advisor on energy, climate change, environmental policy to public-interest groups, foundations, auto and energy companies, other...
and Browder's office manager Judy Wilson, were influential in persuading Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Marjory Stoneman Douglas was an American journalist, writer, feminist, and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Everglades against efforts to drain it and reclaim land for development...
to start an organization to protect the Everglades. The organization was started with a one-dollar membership contribution from Marjory Douglas as its first member. Governer Reubin Askew, who was Governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979 was supportive of Friends of the Everglades according to Douglas in her book, Voice of the River. While membership is now thirty-five dollars, Friends maintains its one-dollar contribution membership fee for the school-based Young Friends of the Everglades.
What is now Everglades National Park was created in 1947, and is recently as 1998, has been referred to as "the most endangered national park in America." Some of the environmental issues facing the Everglades are, disrupted water flow, a drastic decline in the wading bird population, invasion of exotic species and the survival challenges facing the Florida panther
Florida Panther
The Florida panther is an endangered subspecies of cougar that lives in forests and swamps of southern Florida in the United States. Its current taxonomic status is unresolved, but recent genetic research alone does not alter the legal conservation status...
, of which there are only 160 left in the wild, an increase from 20 wild Florida panthers in the 1970s. Additionally, species such as the wood stork
Wood Stork
The Wood Stork is a large American wading bird in the stork family Ciconiidae. It was formerly called the "Wood Ibis", though it is not really an ibis.-Appearance:...
, the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow
Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow
The Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow is a sub-species of Seaside Sparrow endemic to southern Florida. The largest populations are found in Taylor Slough in Everglade National Park and in the Big Cypress Swamp...
and the manatee
Manatee
Manatees are large, fully aquatic, mostly herbivorous marine mammals sometimes known as sea cows...
have a uncertain future in the Everglades as a result of environmental issues. Former Secretary of Friends of the Everglades, Sharyn Richardson said that she got started with the organization, attracted by its philosophical ideals, stating, "when you see an injustice and you become aware of that injustice, you have to take responsibility for it."
Friends of the Everglades is one of dozens of organizations involved in environmental efforts in the Florida Everglades, among which are the National Audubon Society
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...
and the National Parks Conservation Association
National Parks Conservation Association
The National Parks Conservation Association is the only independent, membership organization devoted exclusively to advocacy on behalf of the National Parks System...
(NPCA).
Legal and lobbying actions
Friends of the Everglades has taken legal actions over the years to protect the Everglades from over-development and pollution.When Marjory Stoneman Douglas first began the organization, Friends, along with the work of other individual activists, was instrumental in persuading the Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
administration to stop the development of the Miami International Airport in the Everglades.
It has taken legal action to stop South Florida Water Management District
South Florida Water Management District
The South Florida Water Management District is a regional governmental agency supervised by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection , and is responsible for water quality, flood control, water supply and restoration of the environment in 16 counties in Central and Southern Florida...
from back-pumping agricultural chemicals from Big Sugar’s plantations into Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee
Lake Okeechobee , locally referred to as The Lake or The Big O, is the largest freshwater lake in the state of Florida. It is the seventh largest freshwater lake in the United States and the second largest freshwater lake contained entirely within the lower 48 states...
and to require proper treatment of agricultural chemicals discharged to the Everglades from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). Friends also has protested government plans to build 63 square miles of stormwater treatment area (STAs) or filtering marshes to absorb excess nutrients resulting from the agricultural pollution of Big Sugar plantations. Then-president of Friends of the Everglades, Joette Lorion (1998) stated, "Why should taxpayers be made to pay a billion dollars to clean up after big sugar, just because the government agencies don't have the will to enforce the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
and make the polluters pay?" Friends continues to fight against this issue in the courts (2011).
Legal actions by Friends of the Everglades have gone to the Supreme Court of the United States
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...
on two occasions. In 2003 Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee
Miccosukee
The Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida are a federally recognized Native American tribe in the U.S. state of Florida. They were part of the Seminole nation until the mid-20th century, when they organized as an independent tribe, receiving federal recognition in 1962...
Indian Tribe argued the so-called "S-9" lawsuit over the protection of the Everglades. The Supreme Court sent the case back to the District Court to be reargued in the fall of 2004. Current Florida Governor Rick Scott has stated that he favors "restoration, not litigation," which provides a hopeful rallying cry for environmentalists. However, state funding for what is required to prevent and clean chemical pollution in the Everglades is not adequate to address the needs of the ecosystem. Enforcement of "better management practices" in big sugar farming cuts off the pollution at its source. The state seems willing to negotiate the two sides of the contentious debate, that of big sugar and conservationists, but environmentalists are not convinced that it will be enough to adequately address the needs of the Everglades.
Friends of the Everglades has strongly criticized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan
The Central and Southern Florida Project, which was first authorized by Congress in 1948, is a multi-purpose project that provides flood control, water supply for municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses, prevention of saltwater intrusion, water supply for Everglades National Park, and...
, stating that it does not adequately address many critical needs. However, it does support the broader goals of this Federal plan, which dates from 1948, to protect the Everglades.
In 2004, the Miccosukee tribe along with Friends of the Everglades initiated a lawsuit which accused the Environmental Protection Agency and DEP
DEP
DEP is a three-letter acronym that can mean:* Data Execution Prevention* Delayed Entry Program* Democracy Party, pro-Kurdish political party in Turkey* Department of Environmental Protection...
of failing to enforce the federal Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
.
United States courts of appeals
The United States courts of appeals are the intermediate appellate courts of the United States federal court system...
based its opinion on the "unitary waters" theory, which is an interpretation of the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
which treats all bodies of water in the United States as a single body. The implication of this was that transferring polluted water from one body of water to another, even if polluted water was being transferred to pristine water, is considered to be legal. The focus of the ongoing legal debate has been on the definition of the word "addition" in the Clean Water Act. The Clean Water Act mandates that the addition of pollutants to clean water requires a federal permit. If polluted water is being transferred one body of water to another, some courts have interpreted this as meaning no permit is needed, whereas other courts have maintained that the wording of the Clean Water Act was not intended to allow transference of polluted water from, for example, a polluted stream to a pristine lake.
The Columbia Journal of Environmental Law states that environmentalists are opposed to the "unitary waters" theory because it exempts polluters from obtaining federal permits which are usually required for polluting bodies of water, so long as the transferer does not add additional pollutants to the transferred water.
According to Friends, in the case of the Everglades, the Bush administration
Bush administration
The term "Bush administration" is most commonly associated with one of two presidents of the United States with the name Bush:* George H. W. Bush#Presidency , the Executive Branch under the 41st president of the United States, 1989–1993...
bypassed legal efforts to protect the Everglades from harmful back-pumping through initiating the Water Transfer Rule, which allowed the transfer of polluted water into pristine waters such as in the Everglades without federal permits. Friends of the Everglades and other conservation groups continues to legally challenge the looser interpretation of the Clean Water Act
Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Commonly abbreviated as the CWA, the act established the goals of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water, eliminating additional water pollution by 1985, and ensuring that...
but has not been totally successful. However, recent developments seem to have resulted in some progress.
Friends of the Everglades placed hope with the inauguration of the Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
administration that it would repeal what Friends sees as a harmful way of interpreting environmental law
Environmental law
Environmental law is a complex and interlocking body of treaties, conventions, statutes, regulations, and common law that operates to regulate the interaction of humanity and the natural environment, toward the purpose of reducing the impacts of human activity...
. The organization states that such efforts are finally yielding "significant results".
Current activity
US Sugar Corporation
U.S. Sugar Corporation is a large privately owned agricultural business based in Clewiston, Florida.. The company farms over of land in the counties of Hendry, Glades and Palm Beach. It is the largest producer of sugarcane in the United States, producing over 700,000 tons per year...
environmental pollution, and maintains a close alliance with the Miccosukee Indian Tribe of the Everglades region in its legal efforts. One of the major issues continues to be the heavy use of chemical fertilizers by "Big Sugar" which result in excess phosphorus
Phosphorus
Phosphorus is the chemical element that has the symbol P and atomic number 15. A multivalent nonmetal of the nitrogen group, phosphorus as a mineral is almost always present in its maximally oxidized state, as inorganic phosphate rocks...
in Everglades waters. According to activists, government agencies have been lax in their demands on the sugar industry.
In a September 2011 press release concerning current activity, Friends of the Everglades stated that it felt the the Florida Governor and Florida Legislature
Florida Legislature
The Florida State Legislature is the term often used to refer to the two houses that act as the state legislature of the U.S. state of Florida. The Florida Constitution states that "The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a legislature of the State of Florida," composed of a Senate...
had "acted to protect the sugar industry from paying its fair share of pollution treatment," shifting the responsibility to the taxpayers of Florida. Friends states, "This scheme has not only created one of the nation's largest environmental catastrophes, it has also perpetrated one of the largest rip-offs of taxpayers in American history to benefit billionaire industrial farmers." While Friends of the Everglades was not happy with the Bush administration's EPA, they are more hopeful with the EPA under President Obama, stating, "As a result of successful legal efforts by Friends of the Everglades and the Miccosukee Tribe, the EPA under President Obama changed direction and has now identified a realistic plan to clean up the Everglades."
Current Membership in Friends of the Everglades is thirty-five dollars (2010).
Young Friends of the Everglades
Friends of the Everglades promotes environmental awareness among young people in the Dade County Public Schools system with the organization’s Young Friends of the Everglades program. The mission of Young Friends of the Everglades is, "To preserve and protect the Everglades, not just for us, but for future generations through education and children's awareness."Young Friends of the Everglades was started in 1994 by fourth and fifth grade students at Howard Drive Elementary School in Miami, Florida, along with their teachers, Marta Whitehouse and Connie Washburn. The student organization was first formed in response to plans to build a sports and entertainment park on an area considered essential for wetlands restoration. Young Friends has educated 80,000 students in conservation. The founder of Friends of the Everglades, Marjory Douglas, stated, at 105 years old about Young Friends of the Everglades, "Take the children out to the Glades and let them learn; education will be the only way to save the Glades. Tell them the Everglades isn’t saved yet!" Membership in Young Friends of the Everglades is $1 and school classes may join for $15 (2010). Jim McMaster is Senior Educator of Young Friends of the Everglades (2011).
Board of directors
The board of directors of Friends of the Everglades includes Alan Farago,President; Connie Washburn, Vice-President; Albert Slap, Treasurer; Toby Davidow, Secretary.
Directors are, Cristina Dominguez, Sheila Gaby, PhD, Jim Kushlan, PhD, Dr. Paul Martin, John Purcell, PhD, Samantha Riepe, Milda Vaivada.
External links
- Friends of the Everglades
- Friends of the Everglades - Facebook page
- Friends of the Everglades scrapbooks and reports, | HistoryMiami Archives & Research Center
- Federal Criminal Law Opinions
Friends of the Everglades v South Florida Water Management District. Case No. 07-13829. June 4, 2009
Friends of the Everglades v. So. Fla. Water Mgmt. June 8, 2009. Environmental Decisions of the U.S. Court of Appeals