U.S. Sugar preparing to sell Everglades land to the State of Florida

[seafan]

Although there are few additional details as of now, this sounds like it may be very good news for preserving these historic wildlands in Florida. Trade relations with Cuba might also be under consideration in the near future, most especially under new American leadership.


http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2008/06/us-sugar-prepar.html">U.S. Sugar preparing to sell Everglades land



DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD | Times

By Alex Leary
June 23, 2008

In a development environmentalists describe as "breathtaking," U.S. Sugar and the state of Florida have reached a tentative deal over the sale of 187,000 acres in the Everglades.

If it goes through, U.S. Sugar would be out of business in about five years.

Gov. Charlie Crist will travel to the Everglades tomorrow and announce the accord, in which the state, through the South Florida Water Management District, would pay roughly $1.75-billion for the land.

U.S. Sugar would effectively liquidate its land holdings in the state, but would continue to operate for some time under a lease back provision, according to an outline obtained by the Buzz. The deal might also anticipate trading some of the infrastructure for land held by Florida Crystals.

Crist's office refused to release details, not even to lawmakers it invited to the news conference tomorrow. "They said it's a big surprise," said Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach.

"If this deal proves to be true, it would be breathtaking in its significance and priceless in value," said Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation. "If the plan comes to fruition, it would be a once in a generation opportunity that would move Everglades restoration beyond all expectations."

[otherlander]

1. Yay!

:)

[Peregrine]

2. They've been trying to get legislative approval to sell to developers

Jeb tried his best to accommodate them, but failed.

I've actually been afraid with increase ethanol interest from sources other than corn, the cain industry was going to press for increased land in the everglades and the legislature would have approved it.

But this is great news (with some reservation, thinking Jeb is in the shadows someplace).

[seafan]

3. Environmentalists: "It is such a turnaround that everybody is just amazed."

U.S. Sugar Corp. agrees to sell the state 185,000 acres in the Everglades



Sugar cane is harvested by U.S. Sugar employees at Clewiston near Lake Okeechobee in 2005. (Sun-Sentinel/ U.S. Sugar, file / March 29, 2005)


By Linda Kleindienst and Andy Reid
South Florida Sun-Sentinel


June 23, 2008

Gov. Charlie Crist on Tuesday is expected to announce a blockbuster land deal that could be a boon for Everglades restoration and the end of a sugar cane giant.
U.S. Sugar Corp. has agreed to sell the state all of its about 185,000 acres in the Everglades Agricultural Area for $1.7 billion, according to two sources close to the deal. The land could be used as part of the multi-billion-dollar effort to construct pollution-filtering treatment marshes and reservoirs to restore flows of water to the Everglades.

Crist's office and U.S. Sugar declined comment on Monday.

The governor is scheduled to give a "major Everglades announcement" in western Palm Beach County Tuesday morning.

The land deal revives a push by environmentalists to turn sugar cane fields into a "flow way" that could carry water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades, a move U.S. Sugar had long opposed and state water management officials called unfeasible.

"This is a major part of what was once the River of Grass," said John Marshall, president of the environmental advocacy group Arthur R. Marshall Foundation. "It is such a turnaround that everybody is just amazed."

Two sources close to the negotiations confirmed that U.S. Sugar plans to go out of business, phasing out over 5 years.

.....

On Tuesday, Crist and Sugar execs will announce a $1.7 billion deal for the state to purchase the corporation's assets - including the sugar mill, rock mining operation, railroad and about 185,000 acres of land.

"In 5 years, they'll run out the business," said one source, adding it will probably be the most significant step in helping to restore the natural flow to the Everglades. "It will allow for a free flow-way from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades."
Talks began about 7 months ago, after the state Department of Environmental Protection started cracking down on back pumping being done by the sugar giant. One source said it was Crist who suggested the idea of selling out.

.....

This is sounding better and better. Major announcement by Crist tomorrow.

[seafan]

4. Deal should close in September or October.

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080624/GREEN/806240387/1002/NEWS01

.....

The state and the sugar company, which employs more than 1,800 workers, will negotiate through the summer and possibly close the deal in September.

Bob Buker, U.S. Sugar’s president and chief executive officer, said there will be a six-year transition period that allows Hendry County and the county to figure out how to replace the sugar company’s impact on the economy. And hourly employees will get a year’s severance package, while salary employees will get two years, he said.

.....

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=5a7ac6f4ef954e89af555631b0a3fc79&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3a5a7ac6f4ef954e89af555631b0a3fc79Post%3af5710222-5dd6-42c8-b65a-5f0a1e7a568d&sid=sitelife.tallahassee.com

“This is a watershed event in national conservation history, and a paradigm shift for the Everglades and the environment in Florida, one that would have been inconceivable in years past,” said Robert Buker, president and CEO of the U.S. Sugar Corp.

.....

US Sugar Press Release

PRESS STATEMENT
Released: June 24, 2008

Contact: Judy Sanchez
561-261-3167

Clewiston, FL — June 24, 2008 — The proposal announced by Governor Crist is the right thing for the State of Florida and appears to be at a fair price for our shareholders. It will preserve 187,000 acres of land (292 square miles or three times the size of the city of Orlando) located in environmentally strategic areas that will help resolve restoration issues for Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and the Everglades. Sufficient land also will be available for critical water storage and treatment. This acquisition should allow remaining Everglades Agricultural Area farmers and the Everglades to be sustainable.

Even as the Governor has announced the District's planned acquisition of the assets of U.S. Sugar, we remain proud of our farming history in South Florida. The majority of our stockholders have held this investment for many decades and many of our employees' families have worked on our farms and in our sugar factories for generations.

Although many of the details of the proposal need to be worked out, we expect to operate our businesses for at least a six-year transition period. This will enable us to fulfill our long-term existing business obligations. During this transition period, BMO Capital Markets Corporation will act as financial advisor to US Sugar. This transition will also allow our employees and the communities around the lake to move in a new direction with new economic and lifestyle opportunities. In addition, it will give the government agencies time to plan the use of this land.

This is a bittersweet moment for a company that has been farming this land for more than four generations. However, we believe the cause is good and U.S. Sugar is proud to be part of this historic opportunity with Governor Crist to make extraordinary progress in Everglades restoration and restore much of the natural footprint of South Florida.

B-roll and high-resolution photographs available at:
www.ussugar.com/press_room/press_gallery.html

Download full media kit:
www.ussugar.com/press_room/press kits/MediaKit.pdf

Distributed by:
Wragg & Casas Public Relations - 305-372-1234
Jeanmarie Ferrara - 305-458-3778

[seafan]

5. Here is the pdf file summary of the Big Sugar/State of Florida deal.

http://www.ussugar.com/press_room/press%20kits/MediaKit.pdf

[seafan]

6. A tribute to Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 'Mother of the Everglades'

'Mother of the Everglades', Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998)



Marjory Stoneman Douglas shown at her 102nd birthday in 1992, died in Miami on May 14, 1998, at the age of 108. She was the leader in trying to preserve "The River of Grass" in its' natural state for all to enjoy. In 1947, she helped lead the successful push to have nearly 1.6 million acres designated as Everglades National Park. She was considered the authority on the delicate ecosystem, which is home to plants and animals found nowhere else. (AP Photo/ Lynne Sladky)

And in 1993, at the age of 103, she was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom . Its citation said, "An extraordinary woman who has devoted her long life to protecting the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, and to the cause of equal rights for all Americans, Marjory Stoneman Douglas personifies passionate commitment. Her crusade to preserve and restore the Everglades has enhanced our Nation's respect for our precious environment, reminding all of us of nature's delicate balance. Grateful Americans honor the "Grandmother of the Glades" by following her splendid example in safeguarding America's beauty and splendor for generations to come." Mrs. Douglas donated her Medal of Freedom to Wellesley College.

Author Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 83, poses with one of her books, "The Everglades - River of Grass," April 19, 1973. (AP / August 8, 2002)


&imgrefurl=http://www.sun-sentinel.com/travel/sfl-gladesmstonemand,1,951143.story%3Fpage%3D1&h=140&w=140&sz=6&hl=en&start=24&tbnid=lb_uPOGwOpuhqM:&tbnh=93&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmarjorie%2Bstoneman%2Bdouglas%26start%3D20%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN">Marjory Stoneman Douglas, "Voice of the River", May 18, 1998

Asked once how she would like to be remembered, Marjory Stoneman Douglas replied with a favorite quotation in the original Latin: "If you want to see his monument, look around you.''

Look around, indeed.

From the vast, subtle "river of grass'' her prose helped preserve, to the crystal tropical light her ceaseless activism kept clear, to the very way in which generations of Floridians look upon their land, the monument to Mrs. Douglas is all around us.

A woman whose life spanned a century as a pioneering feminist, journalist, playwright, environmental crusader and even soldier, Mrs. Douglas died quietly in her Coconut Grove home on May 4, 1998. She was 108.

.....

Passages from "The Everglades: River of Grass":



# "There is a balance in man also, one which has set against his greed and his inertia and his foolishness.... Perhaps even in this last hour, in a new relation of usefulness and beauty, the vast magnificent, subtle and unique region of the Everglades may not be utterly lost."

# "The clear burning light of the sun pours daylong into the saw grass and is lost there, soaked up, never given back. Only the water flashes and glints. The grass yields nothing."

# "If the saw grass and the peat was burned away there would be exposed to the sun glare the weirdest country in the world. Under the sun glare or the moonlight it would look stranger than a blasted volcano crater, or a landscape of the dead and eroded moon."

# "The lake water, which for so many centuries had flowed southward in the great arc of the saw grass river, was now impounded. Only the rains could flood the Everglades now."

source: The Associated Press

http://www.cnn.com/EARTH/9805/14/obit.douglas/

"It's not too late or we wouldn't be working. We simply cannot let everything be destroyed. We can't do that, not if we want water. We've got to take care of what we have."

-- Marjory Stoneman Douglas, 1990

[seafan]

7. Well, well. US Sugar executive on water district board resigned today, 1 day after deal announced.

So a board member of the state entity that will be orchestrating the purchase of US Sugar's land and assets is resigning today, and he is.... a Big Sugar executive!

Surprise, surprise. And he's a Jeb Bush appointee. Nothing like sitting on the same governing board that is deciding to buy your company.



U.S. Sugar exec quits water district board

By ELIOT KLEINBERG and JENNIFER SORENTRUE
June 25, 2008

WEST PALM BEACH — U.S. Sugar Corp. executive Malcolm "Bubba" Wade Jr. resigned today from the South Florida Water Management District's governing board, just a day after the state announced a historic deal to buy his company.

.....

In a letter to Gov. Charlie Crist dated Tuesday, Wade, a U.S. Sugar senior vice president, called the deal "a historic Everglades restoration effort."

But, he said, "My service on the board may give the appearance of a conflict."

Wade, who has abstained from board votes involving his company's interests, would have personally profited from the sale. He also would have been in an awkward position should the deal entangle the board or U.S. Sugar in lawsuits.

Wade, a Clewiston resident, was appointed by then-Gov. Jeb Bush in March 2005. Once he's replaced, eight of the board's nine members will be Crist appointees - all but Bush appointee Michael Collins of Islamorada.

Wonder what else will shake out in this deal...

[intheflow]

8. Sweeet!

Sorry, I couldn't resist. :hide: