Today, on the birthday of our founder Marjory Stoneman Douglas, we had a long-awaited day in court. Before a three-judge panel in downtown Miami, our legal team argued to restore the preliminary injunction we won last summer that halted harmful activity at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
Our lead counsel, Paul Schwiep of Coffey Burlington, made a compelling case for requiring the government to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act — a bedrock environmental law that requires the government to do three things: study the environmental impacts of its actions; take public input; and consider alternatives.
None of those three things happened when “Alligator Alcatraz” was built last summer, on public lands encircled by Big Cypress National Preserve. Since then, at least 20 acres of pavement have been laid at the site and an estimated 2,000 acres of habitat for the endangered Florida Panther have been removed.
The three judges from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals asked tough questions of our attorney and the state and federal defendants — and now we wait for the court to rule. In the meantime, we will be hard at work preparing our broader case for trial. We have more claims to bring under the Endangered Species Act and other environmental laws that are being violated at “Alligator Alcatraz.”
“For nine months, ‘Alligator Alcatraz’ has inflicted harm on the Everglades in violation of federal environmental law, on public lands encircled by our country’s first national preserve. Today’s hearing got us one step closer to resuming our trial in the district court, where we will fight until government is held accountable and Big Cypress is protected.”
— Eve Samples, Executive Director, Friends of the Everglades
Though “Alligator Alcatraz” has been open for nine months, we are only at the beginning of our case. We have a long road ahead of us, and we are honored to defend the Everglades in a moment when so much is at stake.
Thank you for standing with us, for the Everglades. Marjory would be proud.
