The Ixia Chapter Conservation Newsletter is written by Chadd Scott, an art, culture & travel writer, talk radio personality, and podcast producer and coach as well as the Ixia Chapter Conservation Chair.  To receive his weekly Conservation Newsletter directly to your email, complete the Subscribe form at the bottom of this page.  Past issues are listed below the latest newsletter

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August 1, 2021

Let’s start this week’s newsletter with good news.

Twenty-two years after it began, efforts to restore the Kissimmee River – the headwaters for the Everglades – wrapped up last week. During the 1970s, the Kissimmee River was straightened by the Army Corps of Engineers, creating a superhighway for polluted stormwater runoff from the Orlando area to race to Lake Okeechobee without the natural filtration that winding rivers with native vegetation and surrounding wetlands provide.

LINK: https://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/2021/07/29/army-corps-kissimmee-river-restoration-project-complete-22-years-lake-okeechobee-releases-discharges/5399944001/

The North Florida Land Trust has acquired another small island in the Intracoastal Waterway near J. Turner Butler Boulevard.

LINK: https://www.nflt.org/2021/07/29/north-florida-land-trust-has-acquired-a-portion-of-the-small-islands-in-the-intracoastal-waterway/

Bayer announced it plans to remove the toxic, cancer causing pesticide glyphosate from the U.S. residential lawn and garden marketplace, effective as early as January 2023. Municipalities and agriculture will continue to be able to spread millions of gallons of the poison for which Bayer currently is litigating 30,000 claims that the use of this poison, better known as Roundup, has caused cancer.

You can meet Jacksonville’s newly hired Chief Resiliency Officer via Zoom on Wednesday, August 11^th.

Included in the state budget providing more funding for the Florida Wildlife Corridor is a measure making it easier for developers to destroy wetlands. Included in this story is an explanation of the state’s “Wetland Mitigation Bank,” an off-set program that allows developers to destroy wetlands here, as long as they “protect” wetlands some place else. Not surprisingly, that “Bank” is largely an unregulated sham designed to fast track development.

New York Times best-selling “weird fiction” author and Tallahassee resident Jeff VanderMeer is an outspoken advocate for the movement to re-naturalize lawns by removing turf grass and bringing in native plants. Take a look at his “Summer Yard Hacks.”

Another podcast worth checking out is Cathy Salustri’s “Florida Spectacular.” This week’s guest talks all about Florida-friendly landscaping.

LINK: https://www.stitcher.com/show/florida-spectacular/episode/episode-28-florida-friendly-landscaping-85680389

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Conservation Newsletter, August 1, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, July 25, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, July 18, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, July 11, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, July 4, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, June 27, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, June 20, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, June 13, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, June 6, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, May 30, 2021

Conversation Newsletter, May 23, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, May 16, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, May 9, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, May 2, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, April 25, 2021

Conservation Newletter, April 18, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, April 11, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, April 4, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, March 29, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, March 21, 2021

Conservation Newsletter, March 14, 2021