You'll learn this month whether you can turn on your sprinklers an extra day each week. In the meantime, while you're watching the grass grow browner and waiting for water managers to make their decision June 24, consider this: You've got it tougher than anyone else in Florida. ...more

June 6, 2008

A massive Everglades restoration project will be put on hold pending the outcome of a lawsuit by environmentalists, a move that could end up costing the state nearly $14 million just for the delays. ...more

May 18, 2008

A prolonged and widespread water shortage can hardly be described as a lucky break. The impacts of below-average rainfall that began in 2006 have been at times severe on South Florida's residents, businesses and local municipalities — not to mention our lawns. ...more

May 8, 2008

SEBRING — In Lake Placid, a hiring freeze. In Sebring, no money for the Boys and Girls Clubs. At the South Florida Water Management District, web casts instead of off-site meetings. In recessionary times, with constitutional budget cuts and reduced sales tax revenues, governments are saving money any way they can. Highlands County Last year, Vicki Pontius, Highlands County's parks and recreation director, closed the R.K. Butler Campground on Route 721. "It's a nice facility," Pontius said. "People can still use the boat launch and the basketball court, and there's a picnic table." ...more

February 15, 2008

Low water levels in Lake Okeechobee are forcing the closure of a key navigation lock that allows boaters to cross between the lake and the Kissimmee River. ...more

February 4, 2008

SEBRING — The drawdown request on Lake Istokpoga was approved earlier this month by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, allowing for the lake to potentially sink down to an elevation of 36 feet if its water is needed for irrigation to the south. Neither Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford nor Trails End Fishing Resort owner Gary Albin has noticed any withdrawals from the lake since the approval. Ford said, however, that the water permit holders to the lake have been allowed to use their permits again on two different days of the week. ...more

January 28, 2008

A severe drought, forecast for 2008, could further damage the fragile Everglades ecosystem at a time when officials are scrambling to save the state's River of Grass. ...more

December 18, 2007

SEBRING — As Florida goes into its second winter of a drought that is expected to persist as far as official projections can go, growers are complaining that ongoing water restrictions are leaving their plants parched. Highlands County Lakes Manager Clell Ford told Highlands Today that Joe Collins, an engineer with Lykes Bros., complained that Lykes could use any water they could get from Lake Istokpoga for some of the crops it was growing. The South Florida Water Management District had shut off the water permits using the lake's canals since October. ...more

December 14, 2007

WEST PALM BEACH — The South Florida Water Management District issued a once-a-week watering restriction for the first time in the district's history, according to a press release the district issued. ...more

December 13, 2007

South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is in charge of how "our" water from this area is to be taken and used in the areas south of us. When there were not as many users of "our" water, supplying them was not the problem as it is today, everyone should realize that the low levels of the lakes in Highlands County is testimony that we can no longer supply the South Florida area with the water they need to exist, and it is now time for them to explore other avenues to get the water they need elsewhere. Nature is not cooperating, and supplying the amounts of water necessary to be able to share with our neighbors to the south without doing major damage to our own ecosystem is no longer possible. SFWMD wants to be able to lower the level of Lake Istokpoga to a level that could easily destroy the lake as we know it today, it's just that simple. We need to forget the politically correct rubbish and just look at it as it is, an impending disaster. ...more

December 8, 2007