Birders in Florida, Pay Special Attention

There are hundreds of thousands of voting age bird watchers in the state of Florida. A very large percentage of them are Republicans. If in the 2000 presidential election only 270 of these Republican voters - dismayed about the Bush brothers' protection of the Florida sugar industry's long-standing pollution of the Everglades - had switched their votes, President Bush would have been defeated.

In collaboration with brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, George W. Bush has consistently permitted Florida's sugar industry to sabotage efforts to stop the destructive pollution of the Everglades, America's most important wetlands and habitat of millions of wading birds.

Report Chronicles Florida's Vanishing Wetlands

Reporters Craig Pittman and Matthew Waite of The St. Petersburg Times have produced an incredibly informative special online report entitled "Vanishing Wetlands." The special report chronicles how developers have been able to proceed without a great deal of regulatory oversight. The study finds that over the past 15 years more than 84,000 acres of wetlands, important habitats for birds in Florida, have been lost.

The online report includes several articles which have appeared in The St. Petersburg Times in 2005 as well as photo galleries and multimedia presentations. Here is a link to this important journalistic effort:

 

 

"Almost 95 percent of the wading bird population in the Everglades is gone."
- Florida Department of Environmental Protection

Florida's Endangered Birds

Florida has more threatened or endangered bird species than any other state: Piping Plover, Snowy Plover, American Oystercatcher, Brown Pelican, Black Skimmer, Least Tern, Roseate Tern, Limpkin, Reddish Egret, Snowy Egret, Little Blue Heron, Tricolored Heron, White Ibis, Florida Sandhill Crane, Whooping Crane, Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, Burrowing Owl, Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Snail Kite, Florida Scrub Jay, Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, White-Crowned Pigeon, Kirtland's Warbler, Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, Marian's Marsh Wren

And George W. Bush is supporting the sugar industry as it destroys birds' habitats.

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