Over the last year, we have had a few programs where our speakers have talked about some of the unusual fish species in the St. Sebastian River, and continuing research on their habitat and behavior.  This month our speaker will be Dr. Richard Paperno of the Florida Marine Research Institute's Regional Office in Melbourne, a division of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC).
    Dr. Paperno will be presenting a program on his research and monitoring of the fish in the Indian River Lagoon and the St. Sebastian River.  He will tell us about the FWC's program to monitor the fish in, and therefore the health of the lagoon and its tributaries.  He will also describe how they conduct this research.
    The program will be on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 PM at the North Indian River County Library in Sebastian.  All are welcome and refreshments will be served following the program.
    **NOTE** - please note the change from our usual meeting date of the forth Tuesday of the month!!  Our March meeting is postponed by one week due to the conflict of Election Day on March 25. Get out and vote!

    "Shouting 'fire' in a crowded theater pales next to shouting 'building moratorium' in a crowded water management district."
    The Tampa area is in danger of being fined by the Southwest Florida Water Management District if it exceeds the limits established for pumping from its well fields.  A fracas nearly ensued when one of the local county commissioners suggested that the possibility of restricting consumption would amount to a building moratorium.
    "Collectively, the growth management process - involving everything from zoning decisions by county commissioners, to water use permit discussions by water management districts, to state Cabinet actions on developments of regional impact - now seems almost hopelessly fragmented and disconnected from its presumptive goal of helping us define and create communities we can be proud to live in."
    "… in Naples, the myriad regulatory mechanisms seem completely impotent in stopping the march of development that so clearly is unwise.  Even as the state and federal governments pony up billions to reverse the effects of development on the eastern fringe of the Everglades, the blight of gated subdivisions proceeds unabated into the western fringe."
    "… growth management will be pointless until its various pieces - considerations of transportation, schools, water and land use - are integrated into one decision, rather than playing out piece by piece."
    "Whether any kind of meaningful change can happen before we create another multibillion-dollar problem in the western Glades, and before Orlando-Lakeland-Tampa Bay becomes another Los Angeles, will be the question."

source:  Mark Howard, Executive Editor, "Florida Trend", September 2002