Sierra Club Appoints New Steering Committee for Florida
The Steering Committee has been given the following directive: Rebuild and manage statewide Sierra Club functions in Florida, and rebuild trust among volunteer leaders and with the Board and staff. Prepare for a transition to a well-functioning member-elected Florida Chapter leadership as soon as possible.
In addition to handling basic statewide functions, consider and assess how statewide functions might be handled differently and propose how Sierra Club Florida might be structured differently from the traditional Chapter model, if appropriate, coming out of suspension. Take advantage of the opportunity to reinvent the Chapter.
The details of this charge can be found on the Steering Committee Page.
The SC Board Executive Committee approved the appointment to the Steering Committee of the following:
- Linda Bremer, Jacksonville
- Craig Diamond, Tallahassee
- Alan Donn, Tampa
- Betsy Grass, Miami
- Tom Larson, Jacksonville Beach
- Marian Ryan, Winter Haven
- Rudy Scheffer, Safety Harbor
Florida Sierra Club Processes and Procedures will be posted as available on the Steering Committee Page.
In The News
Sugar deal won't let water flow
State planners say the U.S. Sugar property will more likely be used to store water rather than re-create a flow from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades.
.S. polluting the Gulf of Mexico
Oil drilling isn't the only concern Floridians should harbor about the Gulf of Mexico.
Crist signs bill extending conservation gem
A massive program for buying conservation lands that started two decades ago has been extended for another 10 years.
Could wind power work in Florida?
Clean and abundant wind power in vast stretches of America is not only far cheaper than solar, but as oil prices soar, it's proving to be less expensive than natural gas, a prime source of the nation's power.
Environmentalists want a more-natural Everglades restoration plan
Environmentalists want fewer pumps and dikes.State, federal officials say engineering still needed.Resolution likely to be a money-saving compromise.
Plan to restore flow from Lake O to Florida Bay revives arguments from '93
A century ago, water flowed in a solid sheet from the south shore of Lake Okeechobee through Florida's peninsula and into Florida Bay.
Plans to build 3 solar-power plants underscore Crist's call for 'green boom'
Evoking John F. Kennedy's call to put a man on the moon, Gov. Charlie Crist exhorted Floridians Wednesday to "launch America into the coming green technology business boom" by developing alternative and renewable energy sources and ending the state's addiction to foreign oil.
Blockbuster land deal faces many obstacles
The price tag to buy 187,000 acres from U.S. Sugar Corp. jumped roughly half a billion dollars Wednesday, just a day after Gov. Charlie Crist announced a historic $1.75 billion deal to reclaim a big swath of the northern Everglades.
A Chance for the Everglades
The languishing effort to revive and restore the Everglades — one of the most ambitious environmental initiatives on the planet — received an unexpected and potentially spectacular boost on Tuesday when Gov. Charlie Crist announced that Florida had agreed in principle to buy 187,000 acres of farmland from the United States Sugar Corporation, the state’s (and the nation’s) largest sugar-cane producer.
New Collier panther protection plan cheered
Key wildlife agency leaders lined up Monday to praise a plan to protect more land for endangered Florida panthers in eastern Collier County.
U.S. Sugar purchase hailed as fix for Everglades
Gov. Charlie Crist and other state leaders signed off this morning on a $1.75 billion deal that will give United States Sugar Corp. six years to end its operations while handing taxpayers control over 187,000 acres in the Everglades' historic headwaters.
Messing with the Ocklawaha
Erika Ritter has spent her life on the banks of the Ocklawaha River near Eureka, where her family first settled in the 1800s. She knows the river like few others.
How Crist's big energy goal quietly died
Gov. Charlie Crist will take a big step toward overhauling Florida's energy policy this week by signing a bill with progressive policies on solar power, ethanol and home energy efficiency.
What Crist will probably not mention at his Climate Change Summit in Miami, however, is that members of his own party quietly sabotaged one of the top three proposals in the Republican governor's energy plan during the final minutes of legislative debate because of pressure from the auto industry.
Where offshore drilling goes, beaches suffer
Stephen Leatherman has seen every kind of beach in America, and he really likes the ones in Florida. The man known as Dr. Beach usually ranks them among the prettiest in America. This year he picked Pinellas County's own Caladesi Island as No. 1. If oil companies start drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, that's likely to change. “We've got some of the finest, whitest sand in the world,” said Leatherman, a professor at Florida International University in Miami. “Oil doesn't seem to go with that. … This could lower the value of our beaches.”
Editorial: The future of Florida's coasts too important to become a political pawn in national election
Proposals to end offshore drilling ban mask absence of national energy plan
Our position: Florida's governor seems to be putting politics ahead of environment
Vice presidential candidate Charlie Crist, formerly Florida's environmental governor, showed on Tuesday what drives him.
