FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 5, 2021
Contact: Eve Samples, eve.samples@everglades.org, 772-485-8164
**PRESS RELEASE**
DEAR PRESIDENT BIDEN:
Stop the Expansion of Homestead Air Reserve Base
MIAMI—Today seven national and regional organizations delivered a letter to President Joe Biden requesting his intervention to halt any actions by the US Air Force that could lead to the installation of commercial and private cargo operations at the Homestead Air Reserve Base in Southern Florida at the edge of America’s most threatened national parks.
Everglades Restoration is the most ambitious program to restore a dying ecosystem in the world.
Environmentalists have long opposed local government’s intent to convert the air base in Florida for industrial, private commerce, despite a decades long controversy that involved dozens of state, local, and national environmental groups to protect the simultaneous investment of billions of taxpayer dollars for the Everglades.
The groups oppose the County’s current plan: to pry open the air base with a “small private fixed-base operator” that environmentalists claim is a precursor to significant cargo operations. Both FedEx and Amazon have logistics operations within a mile and a half of the air base.
In recent months, environmentalists flagged this brewing controversy with a series of letters to the Air Force. The letter to the Biden White House represents an escalation of concern and specifically requests that the administration halt a Joint Uses Agreement process triggered by Miami-Dade. Signatories of the letter include:
Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club
Scott Kovarovic, Executive Director, Izaak Walton League of America
Brad Sewell, Director, Oceans Division, Nature Program, Natural Resources Defense Council
Melissa E. Abdo, Ph.D., Regional Director, Sun Coast, National Parks Conservation Association
Jaclyn Lopez, Florida Director, Center for Biological Diversity
Eve Samples, Executive Director, Friends of the Everglades
Dominique Burkhardt, Staff Attorney, Earthjustice
CLICK HERE to read the full letter to President Biden.
Background
February 19, 2021: Letter to Robert E. Moriarty, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Installations: https://www.everglades.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Homestead-Air-Reserve-Base-coalition-letter-2-19-21.docx.pdf
March 10, 2021: Miami Herald article, “With Amazon nearby, activists remain wary of county plans for Homestead Air Base”: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article248517965.html
October 8, 2021: Miami Herald article, “Homestead airport plan gets OK. Despite amendment to prohibit cargo flights, activists skeptical”: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article246255350.html
April 14, 2021: Miami Herald OPED, “Do not expand the Urban Development Boundary in South Dade. It’s needless and destructive.”: https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article250674314.html
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