Our longtime board member Alan Farago summed it up earlier today: “We’re in a fight to protect and preserve what we have and not to just let the goal posts change whenever it’s politically convenient.”
During today’s Clean Water Conversation, we tackled development pressure in Homestead — an area that is uniquely situated between Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park and includes some of the last remaining expanses of green space in Miami-Dade County.
This pressure is not new. Two decades ago, Friends of the Everglades strongly opposed expanded aviation at the Homestead Air Reserve Base, leading to an eventual rejection of commercial aviation by the Air Force. Now, we’re working to combat new plans for more air traffic and development in Homestead.
As our featured guests spoke about today, the latest development proposals revive the threat of added pollution and major ecological problems to extremely fragile and significant environments. Now is the time to hold the line to preserve what we’ve got.
As Florida continues trying to meet the ever-increasing needs of growing communities, it’s important to remember that we must be, first and foremost, stewards of the environment. The seagrass losses, massive fish kills and general degradation of northern Biscayne Bay are a stark reminder of the worst consequences of poor land management decisions. Let us not make the same mistakes that could similarly doom the southern reaches of Biscayne Bay.
We could not be more grateful to environmental land-use attorney Richard Grosso, Friends of the Everglades board member Alan Farago, Miami Waterkeeper environmental specialist Audrey Siu, and Monroe County Commissioner Michelle Coldiron for sharing their unique perspectives and insights today.
If you missed the event today, you can find the full recording by clicking here or on the button below.
If you missed the event today, you can find the full recording below.
