The Florida Legislature did residents, present and future, a great disserve last spring by rejecting Gov. Charlie Crist's proposal to increase by $100 million funding for one of the state's most important initiatives - the Florida Forever land preservation and conservation program. ...more

November 24, 2007

The tools were children's playthings, but the job couldn't have been more grown-up: Mapping out how Pasco County can absorb more than 400,000 new residents between now and midcentury. ...more

November 2, 2007

SEBRING –– Highlands County went "green" when it launched a recycling program back in 1990. In about a month, the county will be greener, as it begins accepting office paper for recycling. Residents and businesses have frequently been asking Highlands County Recycling if it can add office paper to the items it accepts, said Christy Reed, recycling program manager. For the first time in four years, Reed now can answer that it soon will, by late November or early December. "We plan very soon to add office paper recycling and junk mail recycling to our newspaper recycling program," Reed said Monday. Those items will be accepted as soon as the 22 drop-off recycling bins can be re-labeled, she said. ...more

October 30, 2007

For many years I have enjoyed the column on wild birds authored by Hank and Ruth Kowalski. I have missed it in recent weeks and now I understand that it is being discontinued. I urge the editor to reconsider this decision. We are blessed to live in an area of unsurpassed natural beauty and biological diversity. Unfortunately, I think this fact often is under-appreciated as our county steams forward toward further development. Ultimately, the voices that will be heard urging protection for these natural resources will come from those that have learned about and grown to value these treasures. Learning requires education and that is exactly the service provided by Hank and Ruth's column. Neither Hank nor Ruth are biologists, but they are ardent naturalists and even more enthusiastic researchers. They spent vast hours learning about the subjects of their columns, ensuring that their facts were correct. They demonstrated how the natural history of birds was relevant to their conservation. ...more

October 27, 2007