17 arrests in Florida Power & Light protest
By Shawn Gaynor
Jan. 14 (GNT) — Seventeen members of Everglades Earth First! were arrested on charges including trespassing and resisting arrest during a Jan. 11 protest near Florida Power & Light’s Martin County power plant.
Earth First! activists protest Florida Power and Lights closure of the Barley Barber swamp. Greennewstoday.org
Following a weeklong protest demanding FP&L reopen the Barley Barber Swamp to public use and independent scientific study, six activists entered the closed swamp and chained themselves to its massive old-growth cypress trees.
Martin County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested the six, as well as an additional 11 activists who were among those protesting from an adjacent property.
Everglades EF! expressed its concern that FP&L has not lived up to its obligation of preserving the health of the area’s old-growth cypress forests, by failing to maintain healthy water levels in the area. The environmental activists have also accused FP&L officials of breaking their promise to reopen the area to the public and scientists.
“I do not want to be arrested, but I will take the risk in order to raise
awareness about the slow death that is occurring in the Barley Barber Swamp,” said Stevie Lowe, one of the activists arrested in the closed swamp. “When FP&L took ownership of this landmark, they promised to preserve the old growth. They have not. They have expanded their power-plant facility, which has drained the swamp of its water and is causing it to die.”
In response, FP&L maintains that the claims regarding inadequate hydration of Barley Barber Swamp are completely false.
“FPL entered into an agreement in 1983 with the South Florida Water Management District under which we committed to maintain appropriate water levels in the Barley Barber Swamp,” said Jackie Anderson, a FPL spokeswoman contacted by Green News Today. “We have maintained hydration and report our monitoring results monthly to SFWMD as part of our fulfillment of the agreement.”
But some scientists, including Dr. Sydney Bacchus, a hydroecologist familiar with the area, have expressed concerns that the proximity of the area to the FPL plants massive cooling ponds, combined with poor water management, are destroying the rare old-growth forest.
The Martin County power plant. Photo courtesy of FPL.
“Monitoring water levels once a month is grossly inadequate, even by hydrologic standards and it provides absolutely no information about impacts to surrounding wetlands,” said Dr. Bacchus.
A statement by Everglades EF! noted that the activists launched the protest because “the Barley Barber Swamp is one of the few remaining old growth cypress swamps in the Southeast. Several of the bald cypress trees in Barley Barber are over a thousand years old. They are the oldest in Florida and the entire Southeast region.”
Dr. Bacchus agreed with the activists about the area’s significance.
“I believe that Barley Barber Swamp historically was one of the most significant forested wetland ecosystems in the northern Everglades,” said Dr. Bacchus. “I’m only aware of one other stand of old-growth cypress similar to this one. It’s in (Southwest) Florida and is being destroyed by surrounding mines.”
An old growth cypress tree in the Barley Barber swamp. Greennewstoday.org
Even FP&L characterized the area as “unique,” and “one of the finest remaining cypress swamps in Florida,” pointing out that it was their company that had voluntarily preserved the swamp more than 30 years ago. Up until 2001, FP&L allowed public access to the area and maintained a boardwalk through the swamp among its towering cypress trees.
The area was closed in September of 2001 as a precaution, due to its proximity to the Martin Country power plant — a massive 3,750 megawatt plant providing energy to more than half a million Florida residents.
Dr. Bacchus expressed skepticism over the closure. “I saw absolutely no support for FP&L’s claims that public access to the wetlands were prohibited for security reasons. If those claims were true, that would ensure that the public lands associated with its proposed new fossil fuel facility in the adjacent county also would be closed for security reasons.”
FP&L officials said last year that they are committed to reopening the area to the public, but have yet to announce a timetable for doing so.
In the meantime, the lonely boardwalk that once carried scientists and marveling nature lovers into this rare old-growth area remains closed. And little can be done to determine, let alone insure, the health of the area while the closure remains in place.
Source: GreenNewsToday.org
