U.S. to Protect Florida Coral Reefs

WASHINGTON (AP)--Vast coral reefs, sea grass meadows and mangrove forests in ocean waters off the Florida Keys are being designated as especially sensitive by the U.S. government.

The United States' first Particularly Sensitive Sea Area--just the fifth such domain worldwide to gain special protection in accordance with the International Maritime Organization--is being created in the Florida Straits, where U.S. officials say more than 40 percent of the world's commerce passes each year.

Bush administration officials announced Wednesday the creation of the new protective zone in the Florida Keys, which is part of the world's third largest barrier reef ecosystem and attracts $1.2 billion in tourism dollars annually. Designation of the protected area with international cooperation is intended to reduce damage to the marine environment from large oceangoing ships' anchors, groundings, collisions and pollution.

Starting Dec. 1, captains of ships longer than 164 feet will have to avoid certain areas and cannot drop anchor in three places, Commerce Department officials said. Nautical charts produced worldwide will start showing the zone and its requirements, and ships will be required to carry those updates.

``We want maximum protection for the Florida Keys' corals without disruptions for the flow of commerce,'' said Sam Bodman, deputy U.S. commerce secretary.

Bodman said obtaining this rare form of international protection required close cooperation between federal resource managers and industry. He said it would make international shippers coming to U.S. waters more aware of the coral reefs but wouldn't crimp trade.

The other four ``particularly sensitive'' areas are Australia's Great Barrier Reef; Cuba's Sabana-Camaguey Archipelago; Colombia's Malpelo Island; and the Wadden Sea area in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany.

Waters extending for more than 2,600 square miles will be part of the new zone, an area that stretches from Biscayne National Park to the Tortugas. The zone includes the 2,500-square-mile Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary that Congress and the first President Bush created a dozen years ago, shortly after three large ships in the fall of 1989 ran aground and damaged coral reefs there.

``Our coral reefs are in crisis,'' Bodman said. ``Around the world, nearly 27 percent of our reefs are already gone. And if this alarming trend persists, another two-thirds will be lost within the next 30 years. Simply dropping an anchor with its cables, chains and other attendant equipment can cause severe and permanent damage.''

Since 1984, there have been 10 large ship groundings in the area, according to the Commerce Department. Damage to corals has occurred 17 times since 1997 because of what U.S. officials describe as rogue anchoring by large ships or freighters, officials said.

Commerce officials said U.S. shipping interests backed the zone's creation and already were complying with similar protective measures. Billy Causey, superintendent of the Florida Keys' sanctuary, said U.S. law already provides for penalties of up to $100,000 per day per incident for shipping damage to the marine environment, and further damages can be assessed for loss of natural resources.

He said there were three known incidents of large foreign-flagged ships inadvertently dropping anchors in the Tortugas area, destroying coral reefs. The ships' anchors typically weigh 10 to 12 tons and the long chains they are attached to also apart the ocean floor by being dragged back and forth, he said.

Joe Cox, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America, representing 21 U.S.-based shipping companies, said more international cooperation is needed to protect Florida corals.

``If we can see it, we can miss it, because we're not fond of running into things,'' Cox said.

"Hey, we still visit national parks, and many hunt there!"

Yeah, I still go in the Everglades and Biscayne National Parks in my boats and fish there, as do many from this area.

Most of us think the Park Rangers have an "attitude." These rangers act like the parks are just for themselves, and that the general public is in there merely at the government's discretion and pleasure. No matter how polite I am when I get pulled over by a ranger (and they pull you over alot, no matter who you are), they always make me feel like they think I am a peasant, trespassing in the "King's Forest."

Though I've long appreciated that the parks have saved these beautiful areas from development, I'm starting to have serious mixed feelings.

And the park administrators do occasionally talk of closing large areas to fishing, though I believe they do this under pressure from "environmentalists."

You are correct!

Just look at this story about forest management from yahoo, you'd think the Bush Admin. has dirty old men in smoky back rooms rubbing their hands together in anticipation of felling every tree in America.

Conservation Groups Fear Republican Congress

Here's the Administrations proposal:

Fact Sheet: The Healthy Forests Initiative

Today's Presidential Action

President Bush traveled to Oregon today to announce his new Healthy Forests Initiative. The Bush Administration will:

Significantly step up efforts to prevent the damage caused by catastrophic wildfires by reducing unnecessary regulatory obstacles that hinder active forest management;

Work with Congress to pass legislation that addresses the unhealthy forest crisis by expediting procedures for forest thinning and restoration projects; and

Fulfill the promise of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan to ensure the sustainable forest management and appropriate timber production.

Background on Today's Presidential Action

The 2002 fire season is already one of the worst in modern history. More than 5.9 million acres have burned this year -- an area the size of New Hampshire and twice the annual average. This year's fires have driven tens of thousands of people from their homes, destroyed more than 2,000 homes and structures, and caused the deaths of 20 firefighters. These fires have also killed hundreds of millions of trees, devastated habitat, and severely damaged forest soils and watersheds for decades to come.

America's public lands have undergone radical changes during the last century due to the suppression of fires and a lack of active forest and rangeland management. In healthy forests, low-intensity fires help rejuvenate habitat by clearing out underbrush and small trees, leaving an open forest with strong, fire-resistant, mature trees. Today, the forests and rangelands of the West have become unnaturally dense, and ecosystems have suffered.

When coupled with seasonal droughts, these unhealthy forests are vulnerable to unnaturally severe wildfires. They are overloaded with the fuels for fires -- underbrush and small trees. A large, catastrophic fire can release the energy equivalent of an atomic bomb and destroy, rather than renew, our forests.

Currently, 190 million acres of public land and surrounding communities are at increased risk of extreme fires. In May, the federal government reached agreement with 17 western governors, tribal, and local officials on a comprehensive 10-year Fire Plan implementation strategy to reduce the threat of severe fires and promote healthy forests. This strategy calls for active forest management, through thinning and prescribed burns, to reduce the unnatural buildup of fuels.

Current firefighting techniques are often successful, but land managers must do more to prevent these catastrophic fires. The federal government has provided record levels of support for firefighting, but efforts to tackle the root cause of these fires through active forest management are too often hindered by unnecessary procedural delays and litigation.

For example, in Oregon, federal officials identified the Squires Peak area as a high fire risk in 1996, and began planning a project to thin crowded trees and dense underbrush on 24,000 acres. After six years of analysis and documentation, administrative appeals and two lawsuits, work was allowed to begin on 430 acres of the original 24,000-acre project. When lightning ignited the Squires Peak fire on July 13, 2002, with only a fraction of the area thinned, the fire quickly spread to 2,800 acres. The thinned area was unharmed by the fire. In unthinned areas, the fire killed most trees, sterilized soils and destroyed the habitat of threatened spotted owls. The fire cost $2 million to suppress, and $1 million will be needed to rehabilitate the devastated area.

The 1994 Northwest Forest Plan, which was designed to produce a healthy and sustainable forest economy while providing needed habitat protection, has failed to live up to its promise due to costly delays and unnecessary litigation. The Bush Administration will work with all interested parties, including Congress, to resolve the legal and procedural problems that have undermined the promise of the Northwest Forest Plan.

For more information on the President's initiatives, please visit www.whitehouse.gov

AGYG, have you seen any stories claiming that republicans want to kill all the coral reefs they can?

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