Hard-working volunteers and partners helped Audubon restore vital Scrub-Jay habitat in Manatee County by removing sand pines. While it might seem unusual to remove trees to help birds, tall sand pines and thickets provide the perfect perches for predators of the Florida Scrub-Jay like hawks.

The Central Florida Expressway Authority (CFX) and collaborating land developers are pressing forward with a destructive plan that would route part of the new Osceola Parkway through the Split Oak Forest Wildlife and Environmental Area in Osceola County. The initial proposal cut through the heart of Split Oak Preserve and ran directly through the middle of valuable scrub habitat, home to several Scrub-Jay families.

The federally Threatened Florida Scrub-Jay is the Sunshine State’s only endemic bird species – found nowhere else in the world. Bold, curious, and living in cooperative family groups, most jays never venture more than a few miles from where they hatched.

Findings Indicate American Flamingos are Native to the Sunshine State

The Kissimmee River Restoration project is nearly complete, and water managers report that it performed well during Hurricane Irma. Before restoration, the channelized Kissimmee River would flush water quickly into Lake Okeechobee, draining the surrounding floodplain.

The Western Everglades was at the center of extreme weather impacts in 2017. Unnaturally hot wildfires, like those experienced in the region this past spring, were followed by high summer rainfall and Hurricane Irma.

Lake Okeechobee Suffers from High Water Levels Brought on by Hurricane Irma

The sandy beaches, mudflats, and interior marshes of Cape Sable provide some of the most valuable waterbird habitat in Everglades National Park. Protruding into the Gulf of Mexico off the southwest tip of the Florida mainland, the Cape is also one of the most vulnerable locations to tropical storm impacts and sea level rise.

This year’s record-breaking wet season coupled with significant rainfall from Hurricane Irma created extremely high water levels in the Central Everglades.