Interior czar: 'Glades wrongly stripped from list of world's endangered sites
Pledges U.S. will start process this week at meeting in Spain to re-list Everglades
June 23, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After two years of pushing and with a change in U.S. administrations, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson has won the support of the nation’s lands czar for putting the Everglades back on a United Nation’s list of the world’s most treasured and endangered sites.
Two years ago, a top Bush administration official removed the Everglades National Park from a United Nations’ list of endangered world sites, because he felt a lot of progress had been made in its restoration. When the move was subsequently disclosed by the St. Petersburg Times, U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson blasted the Bush administration for faltering on its pledge to help save the River of Grass. And he convened a congressional hearing to investigate.
Just last month, Nelson took President Obama’s new Interior Department boss on a personal tour of the ‘Glades. And today, Nelson received a letter from Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, a former Senate colleague of his, saying the U.S. would initiate discussions about restoring the ‘Glades to the World Heritage list at a meeting in Spain that started this week.
The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Monday began a nine-day meeting, where about 30 cultural or natural sites were seeking inclusion as World Heritage landmarks. The 21-member World Heritage Committee was meeting in Seville to review the World Heritage Site list that now includes 878 sites from 145 countries.
“I agree that the park was removed from the list without adequate consultation and without appropriate measures in place to evaluate our efforts to restore the ecosystem.” Salazar wrote in his letter to Nelson, dated June 16.
Nelson’s response upon receiving the letter? “Hallelujah.”
Putting the Everglades back on the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger, Nelson said, would send a strong signal that the administration is committed to efforts to restore the badly damaged River of Grass, so called by the late famous author Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. The deletion in 2007 was at the behest of a Bush Interior official who altered a document and ignored recommendations to the contrary by U.S. scientists.
The World Heritage list had included the Everglades as endangered since 1993, when it was beset with threats from encroaching development, water pollution and damage from Hurricane Andrew.
On their recent visit to the ‘Glades, Nelson and Salazar joined Everglades National Park officials for a tour and a look at one of the captured Burmese pythons that scientists are struggling to eradicate. In his letter Salazar also agreed the behemoth snakes pose an invasive threat in the park. Salazar wrote that he would consider supporting Nelson’s legislation to ban importation of the snakes.
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