In recent years, lawmakers have paid closer attention to environmental issues after the passing of Pres. Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors (AGO) Initiative.
The Everglades National Wildlife Refuge, a project of AGO created in order to protect lands spanning from Orlando down to Lake Okeechobee, has recently seen new life after ten acres were donated by an environmental organization. Federal officials are planning on purchasing 140-thousand more acres to be added to the refuge in an attempt to salvage one of the only remaining long leaf pine savannas in North America.
Additionally, another product of the focus on maintaining the Everglades stems from Gov. Rick Scott’s water clean-up plan. After many delays, the project is now underway as a tax increase on local sugar farmers will go towards removing the waste the farms release into the Everglades.
Ms. Callye Foster, a local environmental activist and president of the UCF student organization known as IDEAS (Intellectual Decisions on Environmental Awareness Solutions), described the projects as incredibly beneficial to the environment stating, “the Everglades […] are such a vital part of Florida’s ecosystem [that] it would be very detrimental if we did not do all we could to protect the area.”
Indeed, with such issues as pollution and global warming coming to the forefront of today’s agenda, both projects have great potential to lead the world towards a more sustainable existence.