by Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

The Film, Recording & Entertainment Council (link) is one of South Florida’s most important economic development organizations serving the Entertainment Industry and over the weekend FREC held its 11th Annual Star Gala recognition ceremony at the Magic City Casino.

The Star Gala (link) recognizes industry professionals and organizations whose careers and bodies of work establish South Florida as a significant region for developing a career in this commercial sector.  There is a thriving community of people here in South Florida and it is important to note just who they are and what they have done.

The nature of entertainment necessarily highlights those on stage, or in front of the camera, or in the spotlight, and so the unique work of the Star Gala is to highlight the talent and expertise of those behind-the-scenes.  The types of categories that this event notes include the work of choreographers, lawyers, recording executives, producers, directors, make-up artists, casting directors, recording studios, up-and-coming talent, and so many more.

Love The Everglades Movement, like FREC, is a member-driven organization.  Our work is concerned with offering opportunities for people to connect with the Everglades and thereby inspiring positive change in the broader society so that we can achieve goals such as improved water quality in the Florida Everglades.  Many of us are artists, and so the methods that we’ve been using reflect our skills.  We understand how our artistic projects communicate complex messages across multiple dimensions, so we’ve been eager to invite influential people to participate in our excursions and events.  Our understanding of the influential embraces people such as teachers, event planners, spiritual leaders, political organizers, etc.

We also strive to cultivate a community of people concerned with Everglades matters using an approach that is respectful of local mores – which we are discovering is not an easy task.  This work has required us to learn new languages, to go outside of our comfort zones, and to confront obstacles of all types.

LTEM began with a vision that Jean Sarmiento (link) was blessed with as a result of his dedication to his spiritual and ceremonial work.  Since the fall of 2012, our work has evolved:  from Everglades excursions, to art exhibitions, inter-faith prayer rituals, benefit concerts, short films, interviews with print/radio/television/internet media, and an eclectic symposium.

Our Summer Symposium 2014 (link) was the culmination of all of the projects and community networking that we’ve been involved in since our efforts began.  Our program and attendance reflected that.  It was also an event that was free to attend so that there would be no barriers preventing people from getting engaged in Everglades advocacy – FREC took note.

At the Star Gala, event hosts such as Trina Robinson of NBC 6 and world-renowned artist Laurence Gartel took time to highlight my achievements in film, television and art, as well as my community work with the Love The Everglades Movement as a prime reason for the honor.

So, I would like to share this honor with everyone who has been involved with LTEM in one way or another since our work began, including all those who’ve been on our Everglades excursions, everyone who has prayed for the water, all the friends we’ve made in all the different communities that we’ve visited, our benefactors and sponsors, and all the members of the Coordination Circle (link).  Nuff Respect!

Another honoree that was noted for Best Film Festival was Filmgate Interactive (link).  Filmgate is an event that showcases and develops transmedia projects – projects that are expressed across multiple media platforms.  Diliana Alexander, Executive Director for Filmgate, invited LTEM to collaborate on their filmmaking workshop.  Diliana wanted to use her resources to express an environmental and humanitarian concern for the Everglades and the Miccosukee community while providing artists from around the world with an opportunity to hone their skills using cutting-edge technologies.  You can see the result of this collaboration by clicking THIS LINK.

The Star Gala was a blast!  Some of us from the Coordination Circle who attended had an opportunity to rub shoulders with the professionals of the South Florida entertainment industry.  And I had a great time, with Dudley Alexis of Epyllion Films (link), in putting together the tribute video honoring Irene Marie of modeling agency fame for her Lifetime Achievement Award.  Love The Everglades Movement was in great company.

by Dr. Dennis Wiedman & Houston R. Cypress

by Geovanny Perez & Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

Hello everyone.  I'd like to thank THE RIVERS COALITION, THE RIVER WARRIORS, AND C4CW for inviting me to speak today; I truly feel honored to do so.  I'm also excited to be able to connect with all of you, even if under such dire circumstances.

As for the matter that brings us here, I have found it necessary to participate in the effort to restore the Everglades because it's where my home (including my clan and Tribe) and heart resides.  In my lifetime I've seen many destructive changes to our lands, such as the disintegration of tree islands, the disappearance of game animals, the increase of pollution in water, and the erosion of the Everglades.  Because our culture is tied to the land (our ceremonies, our medicines, and many other spiritual practices), we are witnessing the gradual disappearance of our culture.   We are losing our roots.

But we know there is hope; we can certainly steer this thing in the right direction, but it will take incredible coordination and resolve to manifest our dreams.

This is where our spirituality comes in.

Personally, I don't believe spirituality to be superstition or hollow, self-promoting, self-serving, self-comforting cliches.

Instead, it is about wisdom, insight, strength, patience, trust, and compassion, and in the face of great uncertainty and potential doom, this is exactly what we need.  There are many great sages that have explored the struggles of the human condition in such a mysterious universe, peering deeply into our very being and place in the universe.  There is much to learn for the sake of our global as well as local ecosystems.

With Love the Everglades Movement, LOVE is central to our cause because we do not want to be ruled by fear or anger.  In fact, we know we cannot afford to be mindlessly distracted given what's at stake and the amount of time we have to make things right.  We know that anger and fear, especially in a crisis situation, may galvanize some, but it can also blind us, divide us, perpetuate the delusion that we are factions bent on defeating one another, and thus undermine these important efforts. 

In getting to know some of you, I've heard from you about other groups involved in this issue, and those comments have been disparaging.  We are supposed to be the SOLUTION to this problem, otherwise our divisions are poison in the water.  We do not have the luxury to bicker, but we can overcome this, in fact, we MUST overcome this.  As someone with an outside perspective, this entrenched rift is off-putting, but it is also all too familiar, so I sympathize with you even as I am critical (our Tribe has been witness to entrenched bickering slowing the Everglades restoration effort to a glacial pace).

So how are we to overcome this bickering? -- this factionalism?  Love & Respect is a good place to start.  We have youngsters here among us and we must set a good example for them.  Let's show them how to have a civil and civilized dialogue with one another.

Let's also continue to have forums for discussion, so we can increase understanding of our concerns and priorities and proposals for action.

Let's also ask for help from our friends, people such as you.

And let's not be afraid to disagree.  Let's welcome disagreements and critiques as opportunities to learn where our proposals can be strengthened and improved.

Let me offer an example of constructive critique within a context of civilized discussion.  Plan 6 and the Southern Flow way -- a very important proposal with definite room for improvement.  The Holey lands are an area designated as O.F.W. -- Outstanding Federal Waters.  From what I've read on Plan 6, there is not enough discussion or information about this important area:  the Holey Lands, an area with very stringent regulations.  Plan 6 would bring MORE WATER at a REDUCED QUALITY than is currently allowed and protected for.  So the question that Plan 6 must answer to move forward with broader support is:  How do you propose to degrade Outstanding Federal Waters with water from Lake Okeechobee?

I also have a request for my friends:  I need your help to address the L-28 Interceptor Canal.  The failure of CEPP to move forward was very disappointing to all of us.  But CEPP didn't do enough because it failed to address the L-28 Interceptor Canal.  CEPP was concerned with bringing New Water into the system, but the L-28 Interceptor Canal is currently bringing 40% of the waters coming into the area, and it's bringing water in with a disgustingly high concentration of Phosphorus.  By the time the waters pass through the Water Conservation Area 3A, the waters have been naturally filtered out and nearly meet the desired goal of 10 PPB of Phosphorus.  So what this means is that Miccosukee territory becomes a De Facto Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) and that is not right.  So I'm asking for your help to raise awareness and push for action regarding the on-going problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal.

As for the factionalism within our environmental movements, well those of us from Love The Everglades Movement pledge to work from a place of Love & Respect with each and everyone of you.  WE WILL NOT TAKE SIDES.  We will continue to express our Love and Respect for these waters.

We continue to pray for the purity of the waters flowing from the Kissimmee River Valley, through Lake Okeechobee, over the River of Grass, and out beyond Florida Bay.

We continue to pray that compassion flourishes in the hearts and minds of the decision-makers and stakeholders involved with Everglades Restoration.

We continue to pray for the growth of the community concerned with Everglades Matters -- because the Everglades matters.

And we will continue to stand with you in prayer for the integrity and vitality of the Circle of Life.

These are the challenges we are called to meet -- with hope, grace, and diplomacy.

by Matt Schwartz,
Executive Director, South Florida Wildlands Association (Link).

Dr. Carl Sagan (and many others) said - “You have to know the past to understand the present.”  If you want to understand what's ailing the Everglades - and why every rainy season polluted fresh water gets sent into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries west and east of Lake Okeechobee - these two images are a great place to start.

Photo on the left is not real - it's a simulation of the historic "pre-drainage" Everglades.  What a satellite would have seen in the 19th century before the first major drainage canals were dug - if a satellite had existed.  The Everglades is one massive interconnected system - slowly flowing - both above ground and below - from just south of Orlando to Lake Okeechobee and then south over the soggy shoreline of the lake to the River of Grass and Florida Bay.  Photo on the right is what we actually see today.  Drainage canals have allowed about 6 million of us - and many more tourists - to settle on Florida's lower east coast - while millions of acres of natural wetlands surrounding Lake Okeechobee in all directions have been drained for agriculture (sugar, citrus, and other crops) and cattle ranching.  The water is laden with cattle waste, fertilizers, pesticides, urban runoff, and septic discharges.

A restored Everglades will be a system that looks - as much as now possible - like the photo on left.  The more natural wetlands we bring back - the less load we will be putting on the system and the more mother nature can do what she's always done in South Florida.  Want to really stop (or at least significantly diminish) the polluted discharges coming from Lake Okeechobee?  Clean up the water before it gets to the Lake and bring back the wetlands that can receive that water like they did before.  More to come.

by Dr. Mary Jo Aagerstoun,
Founder, EcoArt South Florida (Link).

Still WAY UP THERE after a hugely encouraging two days at the Love the Everglades Movement's First Annual Summer Symposium 2014 where I was so honored to present this discussion of EcoArt as slow activism and the need for aesthetically powerful and tactically deft Activist Art for our ecologies.

Please feel free to use any of this if you find it useful.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3vv0rlhomkddqb5/EcoArtActivismnotes.pdf

and for larger images of the slides:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oacdllii34v1ynx/EcoArtActivismEcoArt.pdf

For more information on EcoArt South Florida, please visit their website:  http://ecoartsofla.org/.

Video recordings provided by John W. Scott,
Clean Water Initiative of Florida (Link).

By Jean Sarmiento,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement.

It was much nicer than I had envisioned, even more meaningful to me than I thought it would be.
        Last year in April we borrowed a few gallons of Water from a sacred island in the Everglades the area is known as "Water Conservation Area 3A" Homeland of the Miccosukee people.  One of big issues we face as Floridians is the unnatural water levels in the Glades and its detrimental effects on the land, where we now see too much Water in the North and not enough Water in the South reaching Florida Bay.
        Our intent is to pray with these waters, caring for them, they have been to many prayer circles, many sweat lodges, many ceremonies, have touched the hands of many different beautiful men, woman and children who each has bestowed their love and gratitude unto these Waters, these very same Waters each and everyone of us depend on everyday to survive.  These very same Waters that will determine our continuation here on Earth.
        So we set out to Florida Bay with love, gratitude, appreciation in our hearts and gently released the Waters in a symbolic gesture of "Water reaching the bay" to connect with the land and offer our love our forgiveness, to hear our pleas and assist us in dissolving the boundaries that hinder humanity's progress, maybe, just maybe, we won't have to learn this lesson the Hard way.
        Let's give this Water the Respect it deserves!  I don't care if you think you're cute or you're a Diva or a tough guy gangster, el guapo, Rick Ross or you work for the government, if you're an Army Corps guy, if you have Money or if you're black, blue, pink.  It doesn't matter:  Appreciate this Water while you have it in such abundance because I guarantee you -- not maybe, or If -- I Guarantee you'll be crying for this water if it wasn't around.
        Thank you to all the men and women and children, past and present, who labor to bring light unto this world. 

Thanks to our friend Karen Dwyer of the Stonecrab Alliance for this timeline of events related to Fracking in the Everglades.

BREAKING NEWS and JUNE EVENTS
—June 19, DEP Press Release: DEP TO IMPLEMENT COLLIER COUNTY REQUESTS; DEP still pressuring Commissioners for private settlement rather than public hearing; they did not grant the #1 request of Commissioners to revoke the Dan A. Hughes Collier-Hogan permit.
—June 18, DEP Press Release: LETTER FROM DEP SECRETARY HERSCHEL T. VINYARD JR.TO DAN A. HUGHES CO. AND COLLIER RESOURCES CO. calling for three public meetings.
—June 16, “Herschel Vinyard, the head of the state Department of Environmental Protection traveled Monday night to Collier County promising greater transparency and an open dialogue to address local concerns about issues at an oil well near Immokalee. But despite promises, Vinyard met with Tom Henning, chairman of the Collier County Board of Commissioners in a late meeting that was not open to the public. Henning who said last week that meeting DEP officials in private “goes against everything all of us on the Board of County Commissioners stand for” and called for “an open public dialogue to learn what needs to be learned and take action where it needs to be taken,” declined multiple requests for comment."
—June 13, Attended U.S. Senator Bill Nelson's press conference on the Lake Okeechobee overflow crisis; thanked him for the federal investigation of Dan A. Hughes; says he's keeping an eye on the illegal fracking and acknowledged that it is counterproductive to the Everglades Restoration Project; passed on the invite to visit the drill site. Time will tell.
—June 12, Commissioners petition challenging the DEP Consent Order submitted; not as strong as we'd like; but does meet the deadline and they can amend; additionally the Conservancy can intervene.
—Grateful, June 10, Commissioners stay the course and challenge the Consent Order as they originally voted to do April 22 and May 13, despite accusations from the DEP that they are "thwarting their efforts." The Commissioners were right to reject a secret, closed door session with the DEP and insist on a public meeting. We need government transparency and full disclosure, especially because the DEP kept secret the illegal fracking and criminal noncompliance of Dan A. Hughes for months through all the key state and federal hearings. Just as the U.S. Senator Bill Nelson ordered a federal investigation of Dan A. Hughes, so too, the time has come for the Commissioners to stay the course and challenge the Consent Order as promised. Kudos to the Commissioners.
—Outraged, June 3, TODAY, JUDGE RECOMMENDED DEP ISSUE GOLDEN GATE EXPLORATORY WELL PERMIT; he refused to accept into evidence the Cease and Desist and Consent Order regarding Hughes' illegal fracking of the Collier Hogan well. Considering options.

On May 2, state calls for Dan A. Hughes to "cease all new operations in Florida."

On May 1, Senator Bill Nelson calls for a federal review of the Dan A. Hughes Company since they illegally fracked our watershed next to Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary: “We cannot tolerate expanded industrial drilling activities that pose a threat to the drinking and surface water so close to the Florida Everglades,” Nelson wrote Thursday in a letter to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “The recent discovery of a fracking-like incident there raises serious concerns about whether outside wildcatters would soil one of the world’s great environmental treasures.”

On April 22 and May 13, the Collier County Commissioners voted unanimously to challenge the DEP's Consent Order on the Collier-Hogan well that was illegally fracked near Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. For the first time ever, Collier County is challenging the DEP on oil drilling. They're calling for a revocation of the Dan A. Hughes permit, because no amount of regulation will make it safe if the company won't obey the regulations. They accused Hughes of misrepresentation and lying and registered alarm and anger that the DEP failed to disclose the criminal wrongdoing at the recent public hearings. Failing revocation, they're calling for permit conditions that include stronger 1) oversight, 2) monitoring, 3) direct communication with the DEP as well as a list of 10 staff recommendations submitted by Dan Summers, Director of Emergency Management earlier in the year. They also intend to seek the Legislative Delegations help. We need transparency and full disclosure, which means an administrative hearing, not the private settlement DEP and Hughes were pushing for.

April, 8, DEP issues a Consent Order with Dan A. Hughes including fine of $25,000 for unauthorized, fracking like procedure at the Collier-Hogan well. The fracking like incident was not a mistake or oversight, but intentional. The DEP instructed Hughes not to do a procedure that had never been done before in Florida; Hughes ignored the state and went ahead with what sounds like the type of extreme acid fracking California has legislated against; when ordered to Cease and Desist, Hughes continued, in direct defiance. The fracking like incident occurred over New Years but was not revealed during the EPA hearing, Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee meeting, Collier County Commissioners meetings or Administrative Judge's hearing; indeed the Judge refuses to admit it as evidence of the company's criminal wrongdoing because it was withheld from the Judge by the DEP until after the cut-off date for evidence. The workover notice from Hughes, proposed injecting the well with a dissolving solution at sufficient pressure to create openings in the oil-bearing rock formation that would be propped open with sand; this is the textbook definition of "fracking." The Collier-Hogan well has not been shutdown, despite pending water monitoring tests.

On March 31, the DEP Big Cypress Swamp Advisory Committee reconvened for the first time in decades and recommended that the Judge and DEP deny the Golden Gate permit.

—Waiting for DEP to issue final order on Hughes Golden Gate exploratory well. 
—Waiting for EPA final order on Hughes Golden Gate injection well. 
—Waiting for DEP hearing on the Tocala seismic testing permit (using dynamite) on the 115,000 acres next to the Big Cypress National Preserve. 
—Waiting for DEP pubic meeting on the proposed Burnett seismic testing (using trucks and vibrations to fracture and fissure to 13,000') on 235,510 acres in the Big Cypress National Preserve, an area of "critical state concern." 
—Waiting for Collier County Commissioners to submit petition to challenge DEP Consent Order on Collier-Hogan well.

EVENTS
August 3, 10am, Phipps Park Campground, Stuart, Florida, Save the Indian River Lagoon and Caloosahatchee Agaisnt Lake O Discharges, Annual Event https://www.facebook.com/events/626663280736316/

ACTIONS
Add a comment, and send: 
http://act.progressflorida.org/sign/illegal_fracking/?source=facebook
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/no-fracking-in-florida-1.fb49?source=s.fb&r_by=203631
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/commissioners-ban-fracking (this needs to be edited to include all fracking like activities and extreme extraction, not just hydraulic fracturing)

Just sign: 
https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=1305&s_src=taf_addthis&s_subsrc=gen0#.U2UM-2Yz0Rg.facebook

Thanks to our friend Nyla Pipes for the update.

Signed by the President today:

WRDA – Florida Projects:

· Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Caloosahatchee River (C-43) West Basin Storage Project, FL: Authorizes $626.6 million for a project to reduce harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee Estuary by capturing a portion of high flow releases from Lake Okeechobee and basin runoff from the lower West Caloosahatchee River Basin during the wet season.

· Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Caloosahatchee River C-111 Spreader Canal Western Project, FL: Authorizes $174.56 million for a project to modify the existing C-111 Canal to change the flow of ground and surface water as a first step in the restoration of the southeastern portion of the Everglades ecosystem.

· Central and Southern FL Project, Broward County Water Preserve Area, FL: Authorizes $896.14 million for a project to address loss of ecosystem function within the Everglades and also addresses insufficient quantities of water available during dry periods.

· Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Biscayne Bay Coast Wetlands Phase I Project, Miami-Dade County, FL: Authorizes $197.02 million for a project to redistribute freshwater runoff from the watershed away from the existing canal discharges and into the coastal wetlands adjoining Biscayne Bay.

· Jacksonville Harbor – Milepoint, FL: Authorizes $37.16 million for a project to reduce the ebb tide crosscurrents at the confluence of the St. Johns River with the IWW.

· Canaveral Harbor, FL: Authorizes $41.07 million for a project for harbor deepening at Canaveral Harbor.

· Walton County, FL: Authorizes $132.3 million for a project for Hurricane and Storm Damage reduction.

· Lake Worth Inlet, FL: Authorizes $88.53 million for a project for navigation at Lake Worth Inlet.

· Jacksonville Harbor, FL: Authorizes $600.9 million for a project for deepening at Jacksonville Harbor.

· Florida Keys Water Quality Improvements: Modifies an existing authorization for water quality improvements in the Florida Keys to allow assistance to unincorporated communities.

· Non-Federal Pilot Programs: Directs the Secretary to establish and implement a pilot program to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and project delivery efficiency of allowing non-Federal interests to carry out flood risk management, hurricane and storm damage reduction, and coastal harbor and channel and inland harbor navigation projects.

· Assumption of O&M: Authorizes the Secretary to assume operation and maintenance of a navigation channel that is deepened by a non-Federal interest prior to December 31, 2014 if the Secretary determines certain criteria are met.

· Central and Southern Florida Canal: Makes a technical correction necessary for the project to proceed. The provision allows credit for lands acquired by the non-federal sponsor to fulfill the Department of the Interior’s obligation to provide land for the project.

· HMTF: Makes a number of reforms to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (HMTF) to increase use of the Fund for Operation and Maintenance (O&M) for navigation channels and to provide equity for ports nationwide.

Open Invitation from:  Houston Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement

SAVE THE DATE
Sunday, 22 June 2014
11am - 3pm (or whenever people leave)

Location:  TO BE DETERMINED

Facebook Event Page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/738776026185935/

One Year since the inception of the Love The Everglades Movement deserves a rollicking potluck picnic party of some sort. 

We need your input for a LOCATION, activities, etc. 
Some suggested locations include:
- hugh taylor birch state park
- virginia key beach park
- flamingo campground in everglades national park
- etc.

Use the Facebook page to let us know what dish your bringing, what activities you propose, if you're bringing a frisbee, etc.  If you're not on Facebook, please send in your updates via e-mail:  LoveTheEverglades@gmail.com

For more info on the Movement:
www.LoveTheEverglades.org

Or call Houston Cypress at 786-897-4582,
Or email: LoveTheEverglades@gmail.com