BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. – Fire crews with the National Park Service have been igniting controlled fires in the Florida Everglades to control an invasive vine that’s been wreaking havoc on the native ecosystem.
The plant, called Lygodium Microphyllum - and also known as Old World Climbing Fern - is a stealthy and invasive plant that was likely introduced as decorative vegetation that made its way into the Everglades in 1999.
https://www.floridatrend.com/article/30888/thursdays-daily-pulse#more
The nation’s largest homebuilders are buying up undeveloped land at a frantic pace. With Americans clamoring for new single-family homes to purchase and rent, the short-term outlook for homebuilding has rarely been better.
But analysts are worried that as interest rates and mortgage rates rise, all those land purchases could create an economic pinch for homebuilders that overextended themselves.
When Yazmin Almaraz and Nadia Mourad saw COVID coming just months after they opened their own plant business, they didn’t know what would happen. Now they’re regular vendors at local markets and will open their first permanent greenhouse nursery in March.
As the pandemic shut some small businesses’ doors, it kept many plant nurseries not just open, but thriving. The industry’s typical slow winter season never came and sales continued to climb.
https://www.wuft.org/news/2021/03/08/plant-nurseries-grow-in-stifling-pandemic/
A bill moving through the Senate would limit who can file cases for property damage to those living within a half mile of a farm. It would also raise the standard for people to prove farmers are flouting established rules or best practices.
A state senator says environmentalists are misreading his bill. They say he’s responding to a recent lawsuit.
