For Immediate Release: July 13, 2012

Contact: Charles Lee, Director of Advocacy, clee@audubon.org, 407-620-5178

Another “Home Run” For Obama Administration in Greater Everglades  

Audubon Florida’s Director of Advocacy Charles Lee Responds

Kissimmee, FL - Audubon Florida’s Director of Advocacy, Charles Lee attended today’s announcement by Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture; Nancy Sutley, Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality; Rachel Jacobson, Assistant Secretary US Department of the Interior; and Jo-Ellen Darcy, Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) at the Disney Wilderness Preserve near Kissimmee, Florida.

Statement from Audubon Florida Director of Advocacy Charles Lee:

“President Obama’s administration has hit another ‘home run’ for the Everglades. With today’s announcement of $80 million dollars for 23,000-acres in new conservation easements under the Wetlands Reserve Program, a critical step to protect vital wildlife habitat and provide important water management lands in the Everglades Headwaters has been achieved. Maintaining the cattle ranching economy in the Everglades Headwaters is a vital component of the strategy to restore the ecosystem. The purchase of easements on 13 ranch properties in the Everglades Headwaters within the northern Kissimmee basin assures that ranchers will stay on the land rather than sell it to real estate developers.Water will continue to reside on the natural landscape and opportunities will be created to hold more water in the wet prairies north of Lake Okeechobee. Wildlife species also benefit from this purchase. The conservation of these lands helps assure we will continue to have Bald Eagles, Sandhill Cranes, Crested Caracara and the Endangered Florida Grasshopper Sparrow as vital components of the Everglades Headwaters Ecosystem.”

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