On Feb 27, from 1:00pm to 2:30pm, Congressman Thomas Rooney will be Riverwatch special guest for its leadership cruise at the Swamp Cabbage Festival. He will chat and answer questions one-on-one. Riverwatch thanks him for his participation.

Curious about the Caloosahatchee, its history, oxbows and wildlife? Get your tickets early & come take a ride on the Swamp Cabbage Festival guided cruise on Sat, Feb 27 at 2:30pm at the new LaBelle Docks behind Barron Park Pavillion. Tickets are $20.

Want to win a canoe? Come to the Riverwatch exhibit at the Swamp Cabbage Festival on Saturday or Sunday (Feb 27-28) and sign up to win a Mad River Adventure 14 Canoe. $2 for one chance ticket. 3 for $5. [email for tickets] [Canoe Poster]

Featured speakers on the Riverwatch Leadership Cruise at 1pm on Feb 27 will include SFWMD Executive Director Carol Wehle. Others, including SFWMD Governing Member Joe Collins, have also been invited to speak.

Featured speakers on the CRCA educational river cruise at 2:30pm on Saturday, Feb 27 will be historian Joe Thomas, master naturalist Margaret England, and SCCF public policy director Rae Ann Wessell. Cruise tickets are $20. Call 863-674-0695.

EPA released proposed numeric nutrient water quality criteria for lakes & flowing waters, including canals. For the Caloosahatchee, EPA's limits of 1.205 mg/L total nitrogen and 0.107 mg/L total phosphorus are 30% and 8% less than DEP limits. [EPA Report] [Numerical Limits] [Lakes] [Canals] [Comnpare Limits] [EPA Web Site]

The Army Corps of Engineers on Jan 12 began an 11-day round of lake releases, scheduled to drain an average of 650 cfs to the Caloosahatchee River. This decision doesn't meet South Florida farms interests but helps the estuary. [Sun Sentinel]

Cold fronts have brought a high number of manatees to the Orange River and other portions of Lee and Collier counties. Patrols'll be using radar guns to make sure everyone is obeying the law. Violators will get at least a $50 ticket. [ABC7]

Second place in the canoe contest is a guided kayak tour for 4 people on Estero Bay valued at $140, courtesy of Estero River Outfitters. The Outfitters also provided a $230 discount on the price of the first place prize canoe from $780 to $550. [Web Site]

Up-and-down water levels has all but wiped out the Lake Okeechobee's apple snail population - the primary source of food for the snail kite whose population dropped from about 3000 birds to 700 during the past 15 years. [Sun Sentinel]

Once again the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc. has made a generous donation to Riverwatch covering costs to buy a Mad River Adventure 14 Canoe from Estero River Outfitters. Special thanks to Tribe member Joe Frank for arranging the donation.

Riverwatch organized a session at the Everglades Coalition Conference (Jan 7-9, 2010) focusing on ideas to maintain agriculture in the EAA while also achieving Everglades restoration and estuary protection goals.
[Session Poster] [Concept Poster] [CRCA Poster] [Session Presentations]

Randy Brown is chairman of the Southeast Florida Utility Council that is asking the FL Legislature to reverse the SFWMD year-round lawn watering rules. Utility income depends on people wasting water, so utilities oppose SFWMD conservation rules.
[TC Palm] [SE FL Utility Council]

Rebuilding of the Ceitus Boat Lift will not be of significant environmental benefit; however, it is better than a sham agreement so watered down as to be of even less environmental value than the Barrier. So says activist attorney Phil Buchanan. [Final Document Assessment] [Dec 09 Report]

The 7th annual RRR goes into the record books with the largest number of registered runners despite the cold! 308 took part at the relay and and another 120 for the Fun Run. Runners came from 22 states, Canada and Bavaria. [Details] [Photos]

The importance of South Florida's estuaries was highlighted at the 25th Annual Everglades Coalition Conference on Jan 9. Estuaries are very important for the ecosystem and need to be figured into every phase of Everglades restoration. [News Press]

According to Rick Roberts, executive director of the Snook Foundation, the freeze of January is going to go down in history; reports are coming in from all areas of the state of thousands of fish of all varieties dead or dying. [CNN iReport] [News Press]

Under a $5 million demonstration project led by the World Wildlife Fund, eight landowners are using their land to store and clean water that flows into Lake Okeechobee from the north. The idea is to trap water before it gets down to lake O. [Palm Beach Post]