Pivotal environmental battles often center on a single, cherished place. For us, that place is the Everglades — and today, one of our country’s bedrock environmental laws is being put to the test in its very heart.
Last Sunday’s New York Times featured a must-read story that illustrates why Friends of the Everglades and our allies filed a federal lawsuit over “Alligator Alcatraz,” the massive migrant detention center in the heart of Big Cypress National Preserve.
In 1969, Marjory Stoneman Douglas founded Friends of the Everglades to stop a massive airport from being built on this very land. That victory helped usher in one of the nation’s cornerstone environmental laws: the National Environmental Policy Act.
NEPA was a turning point. It gave communities a seat at the table, requiring the government to look before it leaps — to study the environmental consequences of major projects and invite public participation. It’s a promise that our natural world will not be sacrificed in the dark of night.
That promise is being broken. The Everglades detention center has advanced without environmental review, without public input, without consent of the Miccosukee Tribe and without regard for the threatened and endangered species — including the Florida panther — that call this place home. The 20 acres of new pavement poured at the site are a bleak reminder of the harm already inflicted.
Last Thursday, the judge in our case granted a 14-day temporary restraining order, halting new construction that poses additional harm. We’re back in court today, August 12, as our hearing on a preliminary injunction continues. We have incredible partners in the Center for Biological Diversity, the Miccosukee Tribe and Earthjustice.
We also have reason for hope — and much work ahead of us.
We’re here for it.
