Nathaniel Reed ... by gimleteye

Nathaniel Reed, a champion of Florida's environment, passed away after an accident while fishing for salmon on a river in Canada. He was 84 and had lived a full and purpose-driven life.

I met Nathaniel in 1988 in Key West. We shared a love of fishing, and he was a mentor in advocacy for protecting Florida Bay and the Everglades. Nathaniel was an idealist whose ideals were tempered by pragmatism. He was friend and, as a result of a long career in public service -- both in state and federal government appointed positions -- a unique one.

Our fishing was in Florida Bay with a guide, poling a narrow draft skiff to catch and release bonefish, permit and tarpon; species that inhabited shallow water, seagrass flats when the tides, the current and weather were right. I last fished with him, west of Key West with his longtime guide, Gil Drake, a few years ago. It was a windy, grey late winter day in the Marquesas. We were after permit; notoriously finicky and hard to see much less catch.

It had been discouraging fishing and cold. Gil's back was aching from poling the boat sideways to wind and current. At lunch he anchored the push pole off the fishing tower, on the far side of the Marquesas in a little channel against a sand bar. The boat rested in about two and a half feet of water.

We had unwrapped our sandwiches and started to eat when Gil said, "Fish, two o'clock." Nathaniel dropped his sandwich, grabbed his fly rod and cast where Gil was pointing. We waited a second, then the line went tight and streamed off his reel. Nathaniel didn't bring that permit to the boat -- it scampered off --, but we all had a great laugh. Nathaniel's laugh, always being the loudest. The unstated joke of that moment; it's the grace of God that puts a permit on your rod when you are not even looking. That is how I will remember Nathaniel.

He caught a lot of fish in his life, way more than I ever will, but when I fished with him, it wasn't about the fishing. Our conversation was like downloading an encyclopedia on history, the environment and politics.

Nathaniel was a moderate Republican. He was from a family of wealth and privilege, and the idea of noblesse oblige rankled some powerful politicians who opposed him. They missed the point. Protecting the environment is not about deal-making, although -- yes -- there are always deals. It is about responsibility. Nathaniel could support a bad deal and grit his teeth, but he never forgot the score.

Nathaniel was from a generation of Florida leaders who didn't need to be persuaded about the value of Florida's natural heritage because they, too, had experienced it directly. In the Everglades. In the rivers and bays and streams. Democrats AND Republicans. He was outraged by what happened on his watch.

Nathaniel's brand of Republican has been burned out by the conservative right. Although he served as a political appointee under conservatives, like Richard Nixon and Gov. Reubin Askew, the ethos of protection and conservation -- of assessing the costs of toxics and pollution where they originated -- has sharply diminished.

Nathaniel was not just among the early generation of environmentalists, he was among the generation that created and implemented both big national environmental laws and state ones, like the Growth Management Act. I know of no other non-elected Floridian who had been so involved at both these levels of government.

He was unfailingly cordial and correct in a way that is also endangered. He valued knowledge. Knowledge of the natural world, knowledge of the law, knowledge of business and farming and the science of things. And he remembered just about everything. He was a terrific story-teller, in a voice filled with laughter.

For environmentalists in Florida who have faced such a steep climb, humor has its purpose. It is an antidote to the pain of listening to charlatans and demagogues rattle on about "shared adversity" when, in fact, the net result is so much loss over so many years.

Nathaniel had a mental rolodex of agency staff and scientists and engineers. He had a serious, in-depth understanding of the operations of Florida's water management system, at a level of intricate detail. He was an informal advisor to US senators, congressmen, and to governors who would listen. Answers to specific problems, for Nathaniel, were never more than a phone call, a fax, or email away. He brought these skills to the Everglades Foundation as an original board member.

Earlier Nathaniel served on the board of the South Florida Water Management District. Like many environmentalists, he was deeply disappointed by the slow, agonizing progress forward on Everglades restoration. He was diplomatic, even though his opponents -- whether sugar barons or the state's large development and water resource engineers -- scorned him. He was always up for an honest fight.

As founder of 1000 Friends of Florida, Nathaniel brought together the gamut of Florida development interests and legal minds to implement, protect and improve the state's Growth Management Act. Under his leadership, 1000 Friends became the most important state advocacy organization for the effort to tame low-density, urban sprawl and to reinforce protection for the state's treasured natural resources. It was a terrible blow to him and so many citizens when successive governors and Republican legislatures eviscerated the agency charged with promoting growth management, the Florida Department of Community Affairs.

Nathaniel's heart was in the Everglades. He never gave up hope that if the right energy could be mobilized, if the right resources and political pressure applied, if the right laws could be written and enforced, if property rights could be protected at the same time as the jobs that depend on a stable environment, that we could succeed in restoring a badly damaged ecosystem. Success was always, for Nathaniel, within grasp -- just like a permit at the end of his line. A permit he would always let go at the end. Because that is what grace and good fortune is about: accepting and releasing the bounties God has blessed us with. They are not for us to take. They are what we hold in trust for future generations.

No: we are not here to dominate the earth, but to nurture and to share its blessings. God speed, Nathaniel Reed.

Karl Wickstrom, Florida Sportsman ... by gimleteye

Karl Wickstrom lead a purpose-driven life. That is high praise for a publisher who would not shy from s fight in which he believed, even if that fight impacted advertisers in uncomfortable ways. Karl, on behalf of Florida citizens, took on the state's commercial fishing industry and won. Read the memorial in Florida Sportsman Magazine for more.

Karl became a friend and colleague in the fight to protect the Everglades. He was plain spoken about the need for environmentalists and groups to be tougher, and that agreed with me. Florida Sportsman's memorial to Karl doesn't mention Big Sugar by name, but he frequently did. He railed against the power of a single industry, that contributes far less to the state economy than sports fishing, yet gets its way in the destruction of natural resources because of its political clout. And he was smart, too, cutting through the BS. In the late 1990's he quickly figured out that the Clinton / Bush initiative to "save the Everglades" was deeply flawed and called for the purchase of Big Sugar lands and the end of sugarcane production in the Everglades Agricultural Area. He took on the gill netters and stopped them in the cozy, good ole boys club of the state legislature by summoning the will of the people in a state ballot referendum, but the fight against Big Sugar was the fight of his life.

Karl decided to move the offices of Florida Sportsman from Miami to Stuart in the early 2000's. He had raised his family on Biscayne Bay and its beauty, but he tired of Miami-Dade's corrupt politics, of its mind-numbing traffic, and the decline of fishing in the bay. In Stuart, he found a better place to fish and a more receptive audience to preservation of natural resources. That past few years, especially, tested that assurance as waterways have been assaulted by the toxic outfalls from Lake Okeechobee vomiting toxic algae down the estuaries and along both Florida coasts.

Florida politics continues to protect the polluters who primarily cause the mismanagement of water resources: Big Sugar. Those of us in that battle have Karl's memory, and of other leaders recently departed, to guide our way in Martin County and in the state.

Karl Wickstrom: Champion of Anglers’ Rights
Florida Sportsman founder and champion of angler rights passes away at 82.

The extended Florida Sportsman family mourns the passing of Karl Wickstrom on Monday, June 25.

The extended Florida Sportsman family mourns the passing of Karl Wickstrom on Monday, June 25, in Stuart, Florida, his family at his side. Karl, founder of Florida Sportsman and a life-long advocate for recreational angling, was 82. He is survived by his wife, Sheila, his four children and three grandchildren.

“Not only did he [Karl] have a good idea of what to do, but he had the skills to carry it off—the same skills, actually, that he used to become a successful publisher, those being the ability to organize working groups into a single potent force, and to keep that force struggling toward the achievement of lofty goals, such as the statewide gillnet ban of 1995.” —Vic Dunaway (far left), founding editor, writing in 2012

Born 1935 in Rock Island, Illinois, Wickstrom earned a journalism degree from the University of Florida at Gainesville and soon after started his career as a sports reporter. In 1960, he moved to Miami to work for the Miami Herald as an investigative journalist, winning state and national awards for incisive reporting on corruption in public affairs. In 1969, he founded Florida Sportsman (first titled Florida and Tropic Sportsman), engaging Vic Dunaway, at the time a well-known outdoors writer at the Herald, to lead editorial efforts at the new magazine. Florida Sportsman quickly grew to become the leading source for information on Florida’s developing boating and fishing interests and importantly, the voice of the state’s recreational anglers and hunters on issues of access, management and environmental causes. Florida Sportsman celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2019.

Karl has always stood for the rights of the average angler and challenged the status quo, which he often did in his Conservation Openers and Conservation Minute series, like this one about fish closures.

Through the decades as publisher of Florida Sportsman, Wickstrom fought and won a number of legal changes to benefit Florida marine resources and recreational angling, garnering numerous awards along the way. Wickstrom was co-founder of the Florida Conservation Association in 1984, now Coastal Conservation Association (CCA). He was a benefactor of many other marine resource organizations, including The Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart, the Rivers Coalition, The Martin County Anglers Club (which named the Wickstrom Reef after him) and a long list of others. His magazine voiced the concerns of recreational interests in countless disputes with fishery managers over allocations and access to waters, often winning decisions in the court of public opinion with his editorials in the magazine.

Wickstrom successfully ended the commercial sale of redfish in the whole state.

Wickstrom also worked to achieve gamefish status for redfish, ending commercial sale of the species in the state, and fought ceaselessly for the rights of recreational anglers subject to management policies that often favored commercial fishing interests.

“Karl was a great man and an equally great friend. He gave an incredible amount of energy to Coastal Conservation Association Florida,” said Ted Forsgren, Special Advisor to CCA.

Karl successfully ended the ‘mother of all fishing wars,’ with his Save Our Sealife campaign, which led to the ban of all gill and entanglement nets.
“We went through so many battles over the past 35 years that I can hardly list them. Some of the big issues included gamefish status for redfish, blending two agencies into one constitutional fish and wildlife commission and banning fish traps in federal waters. And of course, the constitutional amendment prohibiting the use of gill and entanglement nets, the ‘mother of all fishing wars,’ as one of the commercial fishing lobbyists called it.”

Karl can be seen here in his natural habitat, fighting for you and the waters you enjoy, with enthusasiam, wit and just the right level of bitterness for unfair practices.

That battle was one of Wickstrom’s biggest victories in the name of marine resources and recreational angling. It came in the early 1990s, when he mounted the Save Our Sealife Initiative to end the destructive use of gillnets in Florida waters. The movement came to be known as the net ban, and Wickstrom and Florida Sportsman were key leaders in the campaign to amend Florida’s constitution to ban the nets. In 1994, the constitutional amendment that the campaign put to ballot passed with 72 percent of the vote. In the years following Florida’s fisheries rebounded dramatically.

The campaign needed 429,428 validated signatures to get the amendment on the ballot; it collected 520,000.

After the net ban victory, Wickstrom turned much of his attention, and his writing in Florida Sportsman, to the fight against the environmental disaster of chronic Lake Okeechobee water releases through the St. Lucie River and the Caloosahatchee rivers. For decades he supported the Rivers Coalition and other organizations in that statewide battle for cleaner waters for Florida estuaries and the Everglades.

Karl didn’t shy away from big issues and spoke out about questionable practices, inspiring others to follow in his footsteps, becoming a beacon for change.

“In his long history as a writer, editor and conservationist,” said Mark D. Perry, Executive Director, Florida Oceanographic Society,

“Karl Wickstrom was a champion for Florida’s waters through several campaigns. Karl fought for our northern estuaries to stop the destructive discharges from Lake Okeechobee and send that water south to the Everglades and Florida Bay. He was a tenacious and effective advocate for our waters and I was honored to fight alongside this incredible champion.”

Karl surrounded by his three sons (left to right) Blair, Drew and Eric on the night of his induction into the IGFA Hall of Fame.
Wickstrom earned a long list of publishing and conservation awards. In 1995 the American Sportfishing Association named him “1995 Man of the Year” for his work on the gillnet ban. In 1999 he won The Billfish Foundation’s John Rybovich Lifetime Achievement Award. He was inducted into the International Game Fish Association’s (IGFA) Fishing Hall of Fame in 2008.

“Karl Wickstrom has always displayed a fierce will to protect Florida’s waters and its fish populations, taking on everyone from governors to bureaucrats to captains of industry anytime he saw a threat to the future of the resources,” said Frank Sargeant, editor of The Fishing Wire and a regular contributor to Florida Sportsman since 1970.
“I also remember Karl’s quick and incisive wit, and his ability to endlessly have a good time on the water. When the snook were not biting, Karl might propose a ‘who can put the lure closest to the mangroves’ casting contest. That usually resulted in one of us sticking his head in among the incredible clouds of no-see-ums to extract our lure while the other mercilessly drove the boat further into the bushes. It was always fun, even when we came back to the dock bug-bitten and empty-handed.”

“When the snook were not biting, Karl might propose a ‘who can put the lure closest to the mangroves’ casting contest.” said Frank Sargeant
In 2015, Karl won CCA Florida’s Ted Forsgren Conservation Award. At the time of that CCA award, presenter Bill Camp, past chair of CCA, said of Karl,

“The Net Ban. Water quality. Recreational angler access. Sound resource management. Common sense. Karl Wickstrom has been your voice on these concerns and issues. Our voice. It’s the voice you want on your side. Unyielding. Passionate. Witty. Smart. Totally awesome.”

Wickstrom was also respected and influential in political circles, as well.

“When I first ran for public office 16 years ago,” said Sarah Heard, Martin County Commission officer since 2002, “Karl was the first person I contacted for support.”

“No one in Florida enjoys or deserves more respect and admiration for his conservation credentials than Karl does. In a state notorious for flim flammers and greedy scammers, Karl stands out for his integrity and commitment to the natural resources of our state.”

As lauded as he was publicly for his accomplishments in conservation of wildlife resources, Karl Wickstrom was also well loved by his readers for his emphasis on the value of fishing and hunting in their lives. For nearly 50 years now, the magazine Karl started has spread both of those messages throughout Florida and across the U.S, and the interests of outdoor enthusiasts have been much stronger for his achievements.

Karls accomplishments will ring on through the ages. He will be remembered as one of the most influential and passionate conservationists in Florida history.
“People might be reminded that the chief examples of Wickstrom’s legacy are actually written into Florida law,” said Jeff Weakley, current editor of Florida Sportsman magazine. “In the state Constitution, ‘Article X, Section 16: Limiting marine net fishing,’ is practically his own. Karl also envisioned and championed passage of ‘Article IV, Section 9: Fish and wildlife conservation commission.’ Ongoing legislative work—challenging and exciting—to reclaim Florida’s natural-flowing estuaries in part reveals his handwriting.

“Karl’s work has entertained and inspired generations of readers,” Weakley said.

“His legacy continues to shape the very philosophies and systems that govern the conservation and public use of natural resources.”

Judge William Hoeveler's Passing. By Geniusofdespair

Judge Hoeveler....long time ago - 1981

A Federal Judge in Miami Dade County, Judge William Hoeveler, has passed.

I wrote about him December 3rd 2006:

Last night at a dinner party I was asked whether there was anyone I admired. I mentioned Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. I thought again about it, do I have a more current hero? One living perhaps.

I now see a new hero emerge: Federal Judge William Hoeveler. Why do I keep picking Federal Judges as my heroes? Maybe it is because they can be purer of heart. They don’t have to worry about who butters their bread and what is best for the economy. They can figure out what is wrong and right based on truth. I have been in Judge Hoeveler’s Court Room. He is a towering man. A giant among men. I wish everyone could have such a hero.

We wrote many times about Judge Hoeveler. A sample of Judge Hoeveler's writing follows:

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA
CASE NO.: 88-1886-CIV-HOEVELER

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ET AL., v. SOUTH FLORIDA WATER MANAGEMENT, ET AL.
ORDER

THIS CAUSE comes before the Court upon a hearing held on May 2, 2003 called by this Court to address state legislation concerning the Everglades restoration efforts which, as of the date of this Order, the bill in question had not yet been signed by the Governor into law. The Court now feels compelled to comment on the present situation, and take action, as described below.

During the hearing, the state parties repeatedly reassured this Court that the new state legislation, should it become law, will have no effect on the hard-won agreement reached by the parties more than a decade ago, and entered by this Court as a Consent Decree. To be clear, I wish to reiterate in the strongest possible terms that insofar as the new legislation, proves inconsistent with the Decree, the parties' obligations as yet forth in the Decree remain unaltered. The agreement embodied in that Decree remains binding upon the parties, and I intend to enforce it as it currently reads, unqualified.

This Court does not yet have cause to attempt to apply the legislation, and I sincerely hope I am never obliged to do so, for the bill is clearly defective in many respects. The loose language it employs in describing compliance with its own mandates, such as ""maximum extent practicable," robs it of meaning or binding effect. It opens the door to ten or more extra years with no showing that such a lengthy extension is necessary.

While I am deeply troubled by the content of the bill, I am dismayed by the process that led to its passage. The bill was moved quickly through the legislative process, reportedly at the behest of more then forty lobbyists for the sugar industry. There simply is no acceptable explanation for the speed by which this was accomplished, given the fact that the deadlines remain three and a half years off and given the State's assurances much of the cleanup project is proceeding on track. The important issues addressed, namely, the plan for funding and completing the restoration project, warranted serious consideration by Florida's elected representatives.

Moreover, the sponsors of the bill should have allowed time to consider input from the broad range of interests impacted. Yet the treatment of the bill seemed calculated to avoid federal participation or public scrutiny.

I am also concerned about the effect this turn of events will have on the partnership between the federal and state governments. Last tine we met, in October, the presentations her the United States and the state parties suggested a spirit of successful collaboration and shared optimism. The presentation by counsel for the United States at last week's hearing was cautious, to say the least. In a carefully worded statement, counsel for the United States described the bill as "Indeterminate" and "Puzzling." I agree.

I share the federal government's concerns that the state's commitment has been attenuated. And now, it is my understanding that the Governor intends to sign the bill. Apparently, he has been misled by persons who do not have the best interests of the Everglades at heart. It Is my fervent hope that he has the opportunity to compare the bill with the one it would replace, the Everglades Forever Act, and consider whether the derogation of its mandates and deadlines is necessary, or wise.

I and the parties have spent several years laboring over this process, during which I have heard from the best scientists on the progress of the Everglades restoration. Until now, most of the experts, with some exceptions, were satisfied that the work would be completed by December 31, 2006. While there was some caution expressed about that date, the hope was that we would make it. If not, I would think that additional time needed would not be great. Now, the proponents of the new Act talk about ten years, or more.

Because I fear the state's support has been withdrawn, I have decided to take action. Having delayed resolution of this issue some time now, I have decided to appoint a Special Master in this case, as I am convinced that further oversight over the administration of the Decree is necessary. I do not intend to entertain further discussion as to whether a Special Master is warranted, but I recognize the necessity of clearly defining the scope of the position's authority, and identifying the most appropriate candidate. When this issue arose previously, several parties requested additional time "to brief the issues raised, including authority and costs. To that end, I invite the parties to do so, and come prepared on June 10 with additional proposals for candidates.

In conclusion, as far as the federal lands are concerned, it is this Court's position that the new legislation, if passed by the Governor, will have no effect. The hearing set for June 10 will proceed as scheduled, and will address the parties' progress toward meeting the Consent Decree's interim deadlines, which are imminent. At that time, I will also hear argument on the proper role for the Special Master and the parties' positions on the most appropriate candidates.

In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "Conservation means development as much as it does protection, I recognize the right and duty of this generation to develop and use the natural resources of our land, but I do recognize the right to waste them or to rob, by wasteful use, the generations that come after us."

Dropping like flies...the music greats: Good Bye Fats Domino. By Geniusofdespair

Wiki:

Antoine Dominique Domino Jr. (February 26, 1928 - October 24, 2017) was an American pianist and singer-songwriter of Louisiana Creole descent. He had 35 records in the U.S. Billboard Top 40, and five of his pre-1955 records sold more than a million copies, being certified gold.

From 1955-60, he had eleven top 10 hits.

Richard Wilbur ... by gimleteye

Richard Wilbur was a towering, extraordinarily quiet and humble giant of 20th century poetry and literature. We met Dick during our Key West years in the late 1980s. He and Charlotte lived in a walled compound off Solares Hill they shared with life-long friends, Barbara and John Hersey. My introduction was through John and the late Frank Taylor, a wonderful friend, writer and publisher who met John on assignment in the hills of Yunan in the late 1930's, tracking Mao Tse Tung for their respective newspapers. I was recruited, a “B” team player, in the famed, weekly Key West anagram game. As I recall, the golden age included the poet James Merrill, John Hersey (Trump would do well to read Hersey's "Hiroshima"), John Malcolm Brinnin — the poet, literary critic and scholar who discovered Dylan Thomas —, and Rust Hills, the long-time fiction editor of Esquire. Dick Wilbur was formal and quiet to outside appearances, but when the “A” team played — a player advances by stealing the word of another, through re-arranging and changing the root through the addition of one new letter (played without a board with tiles from a modified Scrabble set), Dick was fierce. The "A" team played words from the Oxford English Dictionary. The discussion around "challenges" was like watching sublime disagreements between knights of the Round Table. Those afternoons, time seemed to stop as collective imaginations burned like phosphorous around the wooden tiles. Key West friendships were durable and Dick Wilbur outlasted them all, but he too is gone now at age 96.

Eye on Miami Exclusive: The Raging Bull Jake LaMotta had a heart. Guest Blog by Linda

This is an exclusive, written by my friend for Eye on Miami.

I was 22 years old when I started working as a waitress in a topless nightclub called The Mardi Gras in New York's Times Square. They served steaks to their upscale clientele. The establishment was more Vegas than Times Square in the 70's. The dancers were all gorgeous and were not allowed to talk with the customers.

The bouncer was a man named Jake and many of the men who came in would shake his hand. I didn't know he was Jake LaMotta, the famous boxer. I was innocent when it came to the world of nightclubs. He once pointed to a stunning dancer and said "do you know that she's Betty Davis's daughter"? I asked "does her mother know she works here"? She wasn't. After that, he teased me a lot. He introduced me to a good looking man and told me he just graduated from college. I asked "What school?" What Jake meant was, he just got out of prison, that was the euphemism  then for being released. I was so naive, the teasing persisted but Jake took me under his wing and protected me.

Jake, never hit on me or disrespected me in any way. Being "green" I didn't think anything of it. After working in other clubs with other bouncers, I realized he was one of the exceptions. A gentleman.

The Jake I knew looked like this.

When I read Jake LaMotta died, it brought back all the memories of my time working with him and I cried, fondly remembering our funny little friendship.

RIP Jake LaMotta! My condolences to his family and friends. - Linda

Juanita Greene ... by gimleteye

The Miami Herald noted the passing of Juanita Greene, former Herald environmental reporter and conservation chair of Friends of the Everglades. I write the following as a board member of Friends. We met while she was still a reporter, and I got to know Juanita after she had retired and we served together. I joined the board because Juanita asked and occupy the position, conservation chair, she once held.

Juanita was a personal hero. On first appearance she was soft-spoken, but her frank, open demeanor belied a tough and tenacious spirit. She was petite and fierce and efficient. I think, like so many environmentalists, disappointment was neutralized by a reservoir of dry humor; self-protective, cost-effective gear that was never far from sight. In a quick, her soft drawl and ready smile could turn terse and acerbic. Juanita never suffered fools gladly, and as she got older she suffered them less.

I hold special respect for reporters on the environment who later become advocates. We have examples in South Florida like Juanita -- who eventually became conservation chair of Friends, founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas -- and Martha Musgrove, a former editor at the Miami Herald. After retirement, they turned their expertise to excellent and good use: voices for fact and against injustices played out in South Florida.

Juanita was special for those reasons and more. She believed in her heart that Big Sugar should be held fully responsible for incalculable damage its pollution caused to Florida's Everglades.

In 2005, Juanita and John Childe, then attorney for Friends of the Everglades, invited me to lunch at Green Street Cafe in Coconut Grove where they explained the importance of federal litigation they had launched -- with able participation of Dexter Lehtinen and the Miccosuccee Tribe -- against changes to the 2000 federal state agreement advocated by Big Sugar and promoted by then Gov. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and the Florida legislature.

I was reluctant, because I had already served many years with Florida Sierra Club, but Juanita persuaded me of the vital role that Friends of the Everglades was playing as a plaintiff in important federal Clean Water Act litigation. In 2010, federal judge Alan Gold ruled in favor of Friends and the Tribe. Although Gov. Rick Scott finally acceded to the judge's ruling, claiming victory in the state commitment to an additional $890 million of taxpayer dollars to clean up Big Sugar's pollution, the state and Big Sugar continue to appeal that ruling today.

The heart of the state and Big Sugar's objection is "federal overreach"; a claim that is the worm in the heart of Republican politics, the administration of Gov. Rick Scott and President Trump. Both are willing to relegate science to the interests of corporate polluters.

Juanita Greene was steadfastly committed to the principle that federal protections offer taxpayers and the environment more safety and assurances than the states or, in particular, local legislatures beholden to special interest campaign contributors.

Juanita fought for natural resources like the Everglades like many brave souls before her. I believe she would have said this in summation of her contributions: if all we succeed in doing is illuminating the betrayal of American values embodied in the destruction of rivers, estuaries and Everglades, then so be it: future generations will need examples of leadership and clear thinking to distinguish fact from fiction in storms ahead.


The Miami Herald
Juanita Greene, pioneering environmental reporter and activist, dies at 93
BY JENNY STALETOVICH AND GLENN GARVIN
ggarvin@miamiherald.com

SEPTEMBER 03, 2017 7:57 PM

Juanita Greene, a former Miami Herald reporter who slugged it out first with male journalists who didn’t see a need for women in the newsroom and later with corporations and government officials who didn’t see a need for environmental protections, died Sunday after one last and unsuccessful bout, this time with Alzheimer’s. She was 93.

“With her passing, I feel that I not only lost a mother but that the world is missing a force of nature,” said Helena Sims, one of her daughters. “I already miss her.”

Greene was the Miami Herald’s first environmental writer, a beat she bullied the newspaper’s publishers into creating in 1969. And many of the reporters who held the job later considered her the best, churning out stories on everything from backdoor political deals to disappearing wood rats.

“For all the Herald environmental reporters who followed her — and there have been many — it was a routine experience to pull archives and clips on some issue or another and find that Juanita had written about it decades earlier,” said Curtis Morgan, a Herald assistant city editor and former environmental writer. “And written about it better.”

Born on a rice plantation near Lake Charles, Louisiana, Greene became interested in journalism while in high school. Attending Louisiana State University during World War II, she took advantage of the absence of so many of the male students — they were off in combat — to rise to editor of the student newspaper, a job that would almost certainly have gone to a man under ordinary circumstances.

After graduation, she worked at the Tampa Times and the Daytona Beach News-Journal before getting what she would later call “the most exciting phone call of my lifetime” from editors at the Herald. She joined the paper in 1956, when female reporters mostly covered tea parties and fashion for what were known as the women’s pages. Instead, Greene battled her way into covering city hall and the federal courthouse.

But it was while she was covering a Florida cabinet meeting about whether the state should buy some land amidst the sugar industry’s vast South Florida holdings that she found the real inspiration of her career: a talk by pioneering Florida environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

Soon Greene was a regular visitor to the offices of Herald publisher James Knight, lobbying for regular coverage of environmental issues, a beat that was unknown at either the Herald or most other newspapers. “She was a warrior,” said family friend Virginia Perrod, who recalls that Knight finally “sort of grudgingly admitted that Biscayne Bay, in front of [the newspaper’s old offices at 1 Herald Plaza] wasn’t the way it used to be, and more attention needed to be paid.”

Greene’s ferocious approach to the beat sometimes bordered on activism — she sometimes even wrote Herald editorials on environmental issues, unusual for a reporter — and when she retired from the paper in 1987, she was ready to stage a frontal assault on corporate and political forces she believed harmful to the environment.

She helped establish the group Friends of the Everglades and encouraged it to file lawsuits when the state began altering the terms of a plan to restore the Everglades. The legal action finally forced a settlement that resulted years later in Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to spend $880 million cleaning up the Everglades.

Plans for memorial services — perhaps in Miami where Greene lived half a century, perhaps in Tallahassee where she moved in 2007 as her health began to fail — are pending. Those interested in attending can email Greene’s daughter Helena Sims at hgs5536@gmail.com. Her survivors include Sims and another daughter, Monica Mathis, both of Tallahassee, and a granddaughter, Catherine Johnson, of Washington D.C.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to Friends of the Everglades.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/obituaries/article171147432.html#storylink=cpy

County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa's Husband Has Passed. By Geniusofdespair

I was sorry to hear about the passing of Rebeca Sosa's husband Armando.

Goodbye Miami River Activist Beau Payne...Guest Blog by Frances M. Bohnsack and Andrew Dickman

It was always my secret desire to be a tugboat captain. Tugboats are so cool. Geniusofdespair

Captain Beau Payne

(September 14, 1964 – March 6, 2017)

 Captain Beau Payne, 52, of P and L Towing, the red and white tugboat fleet that dominates the Miami River, passed away on March 6 of natural causes.

The marine community has good reason to mourn; Beau Payne literally saved their future with his strong stand on limiting the river’s condo development to Miami’s downtown development area.  Because of his efforts, with some help from friends in the river’s Durham Park neighborhood, the Miami River Marine Group and a lawyer skilled in appropriate planning, a full scale assault on marine industrial properties was stopped and marine industrial protections were put in place.  Frenzied developers seeking inexpensive waterfront properties were chastised by  media sympathetic to the river’s working class, and the Florida Court of Appeals weighed in with full recognition and appreciation for the working Miami River in “Payne vs. City of Miami.” These three separate, hard-fought cases, which now bear Beau’s name are routinely cited as case law throughout Florida.

More about that, but first it’s fitting to say something about the man himself.  Beau Payne was no ordinary citizen.  Raised in degraded apartments on a hard-scrabble section of the Miami River, Beau loved the sight of the river’s tugboats, and determined through self-teaching and apprenticeship to become a tugboat pilot.  As a young man – not much more than a boy – he indentured himself to that commitment by taking a job as a deck hand for a kindly but garrulous old-school river pilot.  He worked his way through every operation of the sometimes dangerous tug and towing business, until he eventually became the pilot who commanded by steering the large cargo ships from the aft tugboat, the most difficult position in towing on the water.  He had a natural gift for it. 

I lost my friend Rosemary Fuller. By Geniusofdespair

It was a cold day at this rally for Daniella Levine's campaign. Rosemary was a supporter.

Her beloved son, Robert (my surrogate brother) called me last night to tell me that, Former Miami Dade County Principal, Rosemary Fuller had died. I am heartbroken. She was so loving to me. I told her I missed my mother and she said she would be my mother. I called her "mom" whenever we spoke. Such a great lady. I love you Rosemary. I am so sorry little bro Robert. You were her joy.

Former Principal Rosemary Fuller with her son Robert

Janet Reno Memorial Service and President Bill Clinton ... by gimleteye

Last Sunday, Miami Dade College and the Reno family hosted a memorial service for the former Attorney General of the United States, Janet Reno. Among the speakers, President Bill Clinton.

There was not a single mention of politics, yet politics hung over the assembled like a December cloud scattering rain outside.

The crowd was filled with greying (mostly) Miami Democrats who wielded great influence across the state in an earlier generation. Senator Bob Graham. Sandy D’Alembert, a close friend of the Reno family. Richard Pettigrew. One couldn't escape the fact that Clinton and his entourage, including John Podesta, his former chief of staff and chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, belong more to the passing than the current generation inheriting our world.

All memorial services share the joy of remembrance and bittersweet assessments of the living. One passed to the spirit world. The others live just a short time more, including and especially kings, dictators, and presidents. We live to measure our accomplishments on the scale of history; personal, family and experiential.

Ms. Reno's niece, Hunter, emcee'd the service. Three ministers spoke. A rabbi from Temple Judea in Coral Gables. A pastor from Miami’s African American community. And a Catholic activist who has dedicated his life to the struggles of Miami’s immigrant communities. The current Attorney General of the United States, Loretta Lynch. Mr. D’Alembert, a contemporary of Ms. Reno. Ms. Reno’s boss in the federal government, President Bill Clinton. And concluding the service, Janet's sister -- former Martin County commissioner Maggie Hurchalla.

(see 1:54 min for start of President Bill Clinton remarks)

Clinton’s biographer ought to pay attention to his speech. It was purposefully apolitical yet so overshadowed by the recent presidential election, a sense of assessment filled his words; what did I do and what could I have done.

Clinton is a highly accomplished orator. He is extraordinarily successful at connecting with people and diverse audiences. He is also one of the brilliant political minds of his generation; a legend in the skill set of matching voters, demographics and districts. He is also a gourmand of late night small talk and a character both admirable and indescribably capable of self-inflicted wounds.

Bill Clinton appeared in Miami on Sunday with a different speech -- not much of the hopeful and uplifting -- than we are used to.

Speaking of Janet Reno and the Waco disaster, Clinton said, “If you take big responsibilities, and make lots of decisions, you will make mistakes.” In case anyone hadn’t gotten the point, he said it twice, to point the audience in the direction of his own assessment, his own path.

“She was a straight-arrow”, Clinton said in appreciation of the careful, deliberative qualities of his former attorney general. Taken together — his comment about making mistakes along the way and the sense that in so many ways he could not be the straight arrow — there was a clear implication of the burden of an election delivering the least straight-arrow ever to the White House: Donald Trump.

He didn’t mention the campaign or Trump, not once. Only a single, lonely stop: civility in public discourse. The audience shifted in its seats in assent.

The service was about a Miami-Dade original, Janet Reno, who did grow up in that home-built house on the edge of the Everglades. “Every politician wants you to believe they grew up in a one log house built by hand," Clinton joked. "Janet really did."

Bill Clinton started off as a poor boy, too, maybe not in a log cabin, but since leaving the White House he became the kind of rich that F. Scott Fitzgerald noted: the very rich are not like you and me.

No political family has ever been as closely scrutinized — and publicly reviled by opponents and brought low by organized messaging (through Fox News) — as the Clintons. Their haters were nowhere in sight, yesterday. Only a generation of Democratic leadership in Florida that lost control of the state because, one suspects, they didn’t chase the cause of money and wealth as hard the other team.

Oh, there is plenty of wealth on the Democratic side. Bob Graham’s family grew extraordinarily wealthy through development in former Everglades wetlands. Others grew wealthy though the law.

But there was always something holding the Democrats back from the callous, prosperity doctrine of their opponents. It had to do with the core values of Janet Reno: caring for those at the bottom, the less advantaged, providing a level playing field and respecting the dignity of people whether threatened by the gale force of immigration, of racial inequity, or drug abuse.

Bill Clinton stopped on these points, too, but one couldn't escape the sense of regret that the angels of our better natures are past their shelf life. In our current political climate, the Moral Majority and "values voters" -- segments of conservative voters that Bill Clinton appealed to in his strategic "triangulation" to defeat the GOP -- have magically, mysteriously vanished from the scene. Instead, Republicans are scrambling to the heel of Donald Trump, whose only proving ideology is to self-branding exercises.

The smoke and mirrors of all politics have given way at the national level to reveal something ungodly and beastly. We are not all rich as Bill and Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump: we are living in an age increasingly defined by scarcity, not prosperity.

One senses all hell will break loose before the insiders who have now come into the broad sunlight will give up their private jets, petro-wealth, and control of natural resources.

These discrepancies and illusions of modern America did not feature in the work of Janet Reno as as an attorney and public servant but they were central to her life. In opposition to them, she lived simply and practically within her means. And she was a child of the Everglades after all; a place whose mysteries and beauty do hold the angels of our better nature if only we will protect them.

Not Leon Russell, Say It Ain't So. By Geniusofdespair

First Leonard Cohen, Now Leon Russell. Leon Russell wrote one of the most beautiful songs I always cherished: A Song For You

My nephew Russell's father wanted to call him Leon. They settled on Russell. (My sister will deny this story--but I heard it). I will miss you Leon and I will miss you Leonard Cohen.  Below is "A Song For You"

Janet Reno has passed at 78. by Geniusofdespair

My favorite photo, the two sisters, Maggy Hurchalla and Janet Reno.

Janet Reno, former US attorney general under President Bill Clinton, died Monday morning following a long battle with Parkinson's disease, her sister Maggy Hurchalla said. Reno was 78.

Janet Reno, was the first female attorney general and served in the Clinton White House from 1993 to 2001.

Sydney H. Schanberg ... by gimleteye

A great journalist, Sydney Schanberg, passed last week at age 82.

It's been years since Schanberg came to mind. He is best known for his work as a correspondent in Asia for the New York Times and his book, "The Killing Fields", documenting the harrowing path of Schanberg's translator, Dith Pran, who miraculously survived the cataclysmic descent of Cambodia into horror and chaos in the early 1970s.

I only knew Schanberg from his byline. I was a college student in the early 1970s when Schanberg's reporting provided Vietnam War critics the facts of an American intervention gone badly wrong.

There are mentors one never meets, except through reading. Schanberg was one of them, to me.

Daisy Black Passed Away at a Candidates Forum. By Geniusofdespair

Daisy Black -- a very active Democrat, a former long-time president of the Democratic Black Caucus of Miami-Dade County and former Mayor of El Portal -- died at a Candidate's forum yesterday. She was running for County Commissioner against Audrey Edmonson. She was a lovely lady. This is a great loss for her family and for the community.

Patricia Derian, Walking Point ... by gimleteye

Patt Derian passed away last week. The New York Times gave her a worthy send-off, reprinted below.

As with most strong, powerful women, Patt never lead with her accomplishments. As with most great partnerships, she could be serene and quiet while her husband, Hodding Carter, commanded the stage, but turn that table in a heartbeat with a rapier wit. I met Patt Derian shortly after meeting Hodding, former president of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami.

Patt was deeply experienced and fiercely intelligent about the ways of the world. As the Carter administration's chief human rights advocate, she tangled with the worst of the worst in diplomatic settings. There, Patt stared down men who had inflicted horrific human suffering out of view. Exposure to corrosive behavior only fortified her sense of humanity and kindness.

Patt and Hodding had a wonderful partnership until Alzheimer's gradually took her away. He cared for her loyally and lovingly in North Carolina, their home after leaving Florida. She loved spending winters in Miami, but I could tell she felt Miami was not a serious place compared to others where she had put down roots. Still, Patt delighted to learn about battles to protect the environment against an entrenched status quo; Big Sugar, developers gone wild with halos of virtue around their heads, and corrupt politicians. Her beat was inequity, and she could sense it from a mile away.

Patricia Derian was formed within that generation of whites who fought great battles to defeat segregation in the American South. She was not only part of the Freedom Riders, she owned the car with Mississippi registration when others arrived from the cold north to make constitutional rights a reality; the great battle of our times and the one from which our politics is still reeling.

Miami today is a diverse city bubbling with people from somewhere else. It is hard to imagine the commitment and determination of those in the civil rights movement at its inception where that "somewhere else" always lead back to slavery. Patt and Hodding, and their closest friends -- Joanne and Ron Goldfarb, who live on Key Biscayne -- have that in their bones.

The social inequities that Patt Derian fought to illuminate haven't disappeared. They are still here and continue to ripple as an undercurrent through American society, if not rage as they do in nations where prejudice and oppression bring out the worst of human traits.

When I think of the energy it takes to fight our battles in Florida -- whether against deniers of climate change, Big Sugar billionaires wrecking Florida's water supply and quality, or Florida Power and Light -- Patt Derian is never far from my mind. She joins other great soldiers who have passed, and in my mind at least she would head that platoon, walking point.



Patricia Derian, Diplomat Who Made Human Rights a Priority, Dies at 86
New York Times
By PAUL VITELLOMAY 20, 2016


Patricia Derian, a civil rights veteran who tangled with repressive dictators as President Jimmy Carter’s chief advocate on behalf of human rights abroad, died on Friday at her home in Chapel Hill, N.C. She was 86.

Bob Levy - Longtime Judicial Campaign Manager Has Died. By Geniusofdespair

Bob Levy with Raquel Regalado, and his longtime friend Gwen Margolis

Bob Levy was a lobbyist who did pro-bono work and was a judge king-maker. He died after a long battle with cancer.  He was a nice enough guy. He was instrumental in developing Miami Dade Days.

I did write a blog about him in 2006. My usual reality blog, a bit sharp on the guy. But I was sharper on Susan Fried - His long time adversary for judge business.  I was told that if a judge didn't hire one of them faithfully, the other would put an attractive female, Hispanic named lawyer against the other judge to knock out the established and respected jurists. Many of the attractive gals had no courtroom experience but they had that golden Hispanic name. Not exactly fair play, we lost good judges with these shenanigans.

Anyway everyone will be fighting over the front pew at his funeral as they are gushing all over Facebook that he was their BFF.

But no use rehashing the bad stuff...he was an okay guy. I said hello when I saw him. He was nice to Annette Eisenberg and that is no small feat. She scared the bejesus out of me when I lost my name tag.

Marshall Cutchin on Jim Harrison, in Midcurrent ... by gimleteye

Last week the writer Jim Harrison passed away. Harrison was a treasured member of a distinguished tribe of artists in the late 1960's and early 1970's that wrote, fished, drank and loved their way through Key West and surrounding waters. The photo, above, is grabbed from a trailer of the outstanding film, "Tarpon", that captures better than any other the fly fishing experience in the Keys at the time. (http://www.amazon.com/Tarpon-Jim-Harrison/dp/B001HBT1YC)

Marshall Cutchin, a former Keys guide, eulogized Harrison, recently, on his life as a writer and legacy, for a fly fishing journal, Midcurrent.

As a writer, I came to the environment by way of a life-long passion; fly fishing in the Keys. I was too early to meet Harrison when I arrived in Key West in the late 1980's but his contrails, along with Richard Brautigan's and Tom McGuane's, were still detectable. In his eulogy Marshall suggests that we jettison the "ethos" of protecting nature -- expressed as conservation or environmentalism -- in favor of the unmediated awe expressed by artists like Harrison. My comment, below ...

A Florida hero: John Arthur Marshall ... by gimleteye

It was an honor to know John Marshall, who founded the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation in Palm Beach County with his wife, Nancy.

John, a retired career military officer, created a second career working on behalf of the Everglades named for his uncle, Art Marshall; one of the scientists who, in the 50's and 60's, pointed out the threat to the state economy and quality of life through the partition of the Everglades that served subdivisions and especially Big Sugar. As such, John provided a connection to an earlier generation of Florida environmental leaders.

The struggles that absorbed John Marshall's time and energy are front and center today: the need to buy land in sugarcane production adequate to the purpose of storing and cleansing polluted stormwater runoff from Lake Okeechobee and eventually to filter clean, fresh water at the right time of the season into the remnant Everglades. John's advocacy for "Plan 6" to fix Everglades restoration simply carries back to what leaders understood to be true back in the 1950's and 1960's: that the key to fixing Florida is restoring connectivity between Lake Okeechobee, through Big Sugar lands, to the Everglades.

I will always remember John for his commitment, dedication and perseverance in the cause of restored water flow between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. He never surrendered hope that future generations would be able to experience the Everglades as one of God’s great creations. He rejected the soft corruption of low expectations that is rampant — not only in state agencies and managers like the SFWMD governing board but also in the mainstream environmental movement.

John Marshall believed that governmental processes -- like public hearings, working groups, and the formal trappings of give-and-take -- would eventually persuade even a majority to agree that buying out Big Sugar lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area offered the only realistic chance to reform Florida's mismanagement of fresh water resources. That is the same hope so many Floridians carry today.

John Marshall's life of action for the Everglades followed a grand American tradition of non-violent protest, exemplified by other heroes, and an example to us all.

From Pete Quasius:

John Arthur Marshall Bio May 9, 1940 – March 28, 2016

Passionate, knowledgeable and proud describe John Arthur Marshall. The long-time patriot, gator fan and environmentalist was known and respected throughout the country as a trusted colleague, true friend, humanitarian, devoted husband, step-father, uncle and a nemesis to those who did not support his commitment to preserving the environment!

John Marshall founded the Florida Environmental Institute and the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation in 1998. The foundation was created to continue the work of his uncle Arthur R. Marshall, renowned environmentalist and namesake of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. Proudly, this refuge is only one of twelve refuges in the United States named after a person. John and wife Nancy, as co-founders of the organization, devoted themselves to fulfilling Arthur Marshall’s dream and were actively involved on a daily basis for 17 years as chairman and president respectively.

After his uncle passed, John Marshall knew that he would dedicate his life to the preservation and restoration of the Florida Everglades and its eco-system. He was responsible for planting thousands of trees at the refuge and other bio-sensitive areas, and delivering science-based education and public outreach programs to educate children throughout Palm Beach County to become stewards of the environment.

His commitment to the environment included chairing the Environmental Action Committee for the South Florida Water Management District; he was a member of the Everglades Coalition, a spokesman for the Florida Environmental Institute and a vice president of the Friends of the Refuge.
John was named 2001 "Conservationist of the Year" by the Audubon Society of the Everglades and the Florida Wildlife Federation. He was also the recipient of the 2003 "Conservationist of the Year Award" from the Flagler chapter of Daughters of American Revolution and in 2004, received the Environmental Education Award from the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals. Most recently, Marshall received a Commendation from the Everglades Foundation for his “Leadership and Service in Protecting America’s Everglades.”

A career military officer, John Marshall saw active duty in the United States Marine Corps from 1963-1971, serving his country in Viet Nam where he received 19 air medals for 275 air combat missions. John was recognized on numerous occasions, including a Meritorious Unit Commendation while commanding the Headquarter & Maintenance Squadron-31, and an Acquisition Reform Proposal to the Dept. of Defense was endorsed by the Secretary of the Navy. He served as a U.S. Marine Corp Reserve Officer from 1971-1993 and received a Meritorious Assignment to the Office of Secretary of Defense, Test & Evaluation in 1992 and 1993. During this time, John also received the Secretary of the Navy Marathon Man award for completing the first 17 USMC marathons. He retired as Colonel in 1993 having accomplished many significant achievements and awards. He later served as a U.S. civil servant system engineer until his retirement in 1997. Semper fidelis!

Blue and orange were John’s colors, from his sneakers to his car. He was a passionate gator fan and graduated the University of Florida with a B.S. geology in 1963. He graduated Naval Flight School in Pensacola, FL in 1966 and Radar Intercept Officer School in Brunswick GA in 1967. He continued his studies at the Navy Top Gun Fighter Weapons School in Miramar CA, 1970 and was a NASA Fellow in Biological Applications in Remote Sensing from 1970-1972. He received a M.S. in system engineering from the University of West Florida in 1972.

John Marshall’s community involvement included serving on the board of trustees of the Commandery of The Palm Beaches and the Sovereign Order of St. John of Jerusalem and Knights Hospitaller.

Born in Miami, Florida, he is survived by his beloved wife Nancy George Marshall, West Palm Beach; sister, Jeanne Anne Moore, Dana Point, CA and step brothers Randall Marshall, Orange City, FL and William Marshall, Dregs, Idaho.

A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, April 2, at 10:00 a.m. at Memorial Presbyterian Church, 1300 South Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to the John & Nancy Marshall Everglades Education Fund, established at the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

Pete Harlem ... by gimleteye

The following commemoration of Pete Harlem was released, this week, by FIU where he had been a long-time professor.

Peter Harlem's research using LIDAR imagery on the relative height of South Florida land mass to sea level, under various conditions of sea level rise, helped to significantly broadened public interest in the impacts of climate change. The maps he built, showing the flood footprint of Miami-Dade County, became sources of controversy when they were withheld by Miami-Dade decision makers at the county commission. Eventually, those maps became widely available through a variety of outlets and sharpened public awareness that climate change impacts are here and now in South Florida; a region with the most to lose by way of sea level rise.

By nature of work, personal temperament, and standards of conduct, scientists tend to keep their work at arm's length from the tumult of public policy. Pete Harlem, thankfully, was among a first generation of scientists in Florida who recognized that the climate change requires a more robust response by scientists as a matter of historic necessity.

It is with profound grief that we regretfully announce the passing away of our beloved colleague and friend, Peter “Pete” Harlem. Pete began his career at FIU in February 2000 and worked in various capacities within our Division of Research & Economic Development and the Southeast Environmental Research Center (SERC) within the College of Arts, Sciences & Education. Most recently, he served as an invaluable and resourceful coordinator for the Geographic Information Services (GIS) Center at our Green Library.

As shared by his supervisor, Jennifer Fu, Pete was a beloved mentor to thousands of students, faculty, and staff who came through the GIS Center; he was patient, kind, and generously resourceful. A trained geologist with expertise on sea level rise, coastal geomorphology, historical ecology, and everything in between, Pete was a source of knowledge unlike any other at FIU.

Pete earned his Master of Science degree in Marine Geology from the University of Miami, where he conducted historical and aerial photograph analysis of the sedimentological and environmental changes in Biscayne Bay. His knowledge about Biscayne Bay was highly valuable to our university. As a lead author, he generated one of the most complete environmental assessments on the status of Biscayne Bay for a project funded by the National Park Service. He was also among the first South Florida scientists to use LiDAR data to understand the impacts of sea level rise. In addition to these achievements, his sea level inundation maps and the Seal Level Rise web app have appeared in local, national and international news and media outlets including Rolling Stones, Miami Herald, as well as the U.S. congressional record.

As a veteran of the Vietnam War, Peter collected tens of thousands of Vietnam War photographs and documentations in formats of war journals. Prior to his passing, he expressed strong interest in making this collection digitally accessible to the public. The FIU Library’s Digital Collection Center established a preliminary website for this photograph collection and is exploring ways of digitizing this valuable collection of our history in his memory.

The university deeply mourns the passing of our esteemed colleague, and our thoughts and prayers are with the family and his coworkers during this difficult time of bereavement. Pete is survived by his brother, nephew, extended family and friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested donations be made to the SERC-GIS Annual Climate Change Lecture Series or the Peter Harlem Vietnam Photograph Collection to honor his legacy. For more information, you may contact the development office at 305-348-4349 or givetocase@fiu.edu.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at 305-348-0101.