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Judge Carnes Keeps His Eye On The Sparrow

Boy did we screw up the Everglades.

"Progress" and all that.

In a well-written and thoughtful opinion released yesterday, Judge Carnes lays out the history of man's intervention in the region in two succinct paragraphs:

For centuries, a broad, shallow sheet of fresh water that covered most of
South Florida flowed south from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. This
phenomenon was the ?river of grass? or Everglades, which supported unique and
fragile flora and fauna. As so often happens with natural treasures, people sought
to control and manipulate the Everglades for their own ends. After the State of
Florida?s efforts to tame the Everglades failed, in 1948 the Army Corps of
Engineers got involved.

The Corps undertook the Central & Southern Florida Flood Project, which it
hoped would control flooding, divert water away from developing areas, provide a
source for irrigating crops, facilitate recreation, and ?enhance? wildlife. See
Miccosukee Tribe of Indians v. United States, 980 F. Supp. 448, 454 (S.D. Fla.
1997). In order to bend the water to its will, the Corps created thousands of miles
of canals and levees supported by scores of pumps, gates, and dams. This massive
plumbing project drained the northern portion of the original Everglades for
agricultural use and diverted water into distinct, deeper Water Conservation Areas
for controlled release into the southern part of the original area, which became
Everglades National Park. There followed what the government artfully calls
?unplanned environmental consequences.? This case involves one of those
consequences, which pits a sparrow against a hawk.

This opinion was a pleasure to read, even though the 11th waded into the always-tricky area of "legislative intent" to buttress its conclusions.

Back to the drawing board on this one, it seems.

(Dexter, your job is secure.)

Full post as published by South Florida Lawyers on May 06, 2009 (boomark / email).