State: Around the state

Around the state

By Times staff and wire reports

Old Spanish fort will close for renovations

ST. AUGUSTINE -- The 305-year-old Castillo de San Marcos is being closed for a year for $3-million in renovations.

Stormed by 700,000 tourists each year, the fort needs to have its concrete gun deck replaced, cracks in the coquina bastion walls repaired and its electrical system upgraded.

A closing date has not been set. The Castillo is the oldest masonry fort and the best preserved example of a Spanish colonial fortification in the continental United States. The Spanish began constructing the coquina fort in 1672, more than 100 years before the United States was born. It was completed in 1695.

Manatee death toll is highest in four years

ST. PETERSBURG -- Manatee deaths last year totaled 273, the highest number since a Red Tide outbreak four years ago pushed the death rate above 400, according to figures released Friday by the Florida Marine Research Institute.

Although that is up from the 268 that died in 1999, the number of deaths from watercraft collisions declined slightly, dropping from 82 in 1999 to 78 in 2000.

FMRI researchers credited stepped-up enforcement of boating speed zones, after a surge in boat-related deaths in the spring spurred the state to action.

Gift will provide place for butterflies to flutter

GAINESVILLE -- Hundreds of butterflies will have a new place to flutter their wings thanks to a $4.2-million donation to the University of Florida, officials announced Friday.

The money will go toward construction of a building to house the university's collection of butterflies and other exhibits, and an insect conservation center.

The collection, one of the largest in the world, includes about 1,000 live butterflies and more than 3-million preserved butterflies, including extinct species.

The gift comes from William and Nadine McGuire of Wayzata, Minn., longtime enthusiasts of butterflies and other insects. They have donated more than 30,000 butterflies to UF in the past.

The Florida Museum of Natural History and UF's departments of zoology and entomology have been looking for a new home for the insects. The butterfly collection is now housed at UF's Allyn Museum of Entomology in Sarasota, which reached capacity several years ago.

The William W. and Nadine M. McGuire Center for Lepidoptera Research will house a live butterfly exhibit, research facilities and the main collection. The donation will also pay for the construction of the McGuire Center for Insect Conservation.

Butterflies and moths are used to study evolutionary change and genetic and developmental problems in humans, said Tom Emmel, zoology professor and director of UF's Division of Lepidoptera Research.

The gift is eligible for a matching donation from the state of Florida Alec Courtelis Facilities Enhancement Challenge Grant Program. This would bring the total amount of the donation to $8.4-million.