On November 20, Orange Audubon Society, Ocklawaha Valley Audubon Society, and Audubon Florida’s Director of Advocacy Charles Lee encouraged the Lake County Commission to put up a roadblock to the expansion of a small airstrip near the Lake Apopka North Shore Restoration. After a lengthy discussion, the Lake County Commission voted unanimously to restrict the airport site that West Orange Airport Authority wants to turn into a regional jet airport to small propeller planes and its existing small runway. County staff had recommended restrictions against expansion, but commissioners ended up adding additional clauses to an ordinance that all but extinguish the airport’s proposed expansion. Please click here for an article from the Orlando Sentinel about this news.

Newly elected Commissioner Tim Sullivan, a retired Brigadier General, encouraged commissioners to support the existing commercial airport in Leesburg, some ten miles away rather than allowing a duplicate competing facility near the restoration area.

Audubon has campaigned at the county level since early 2012 to prevent airport expansion due to the potential to harm or stop the ongoing restoration project for Lake Apopka marshes which has already cost taxpayers over $150 million.

Should the small airport north of the Lake Apopka marsh restoration project be converted to a regional jet airport, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations governing the relationship between airports and “hazardous wildlife” would reach out at least 10,000 feet from the airport covering most of the marshes under restoration. FAA and US Department of Agriculture wildlife control actions could then require the marshes to be drained, or bird populations suppressed in the area including by lethal means to reduce the risk of collisions between birds and aircraft.

Audubon is encouraging landowners who had backed the airport as an economic development project to switch their development plans to provide lodging and related facilities for ecotourism to serve many thousands of people annually who arrive at the Apopka marshes to engage in birdwatching activities.

To learn more about what the FAA might do at the Lake Apopka North Shore Restoration Project if the airport expands, please click here.