Around the state

By Times staff and wire reports

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 21, 2000

Two rare whooping cranes are found shot to death

ST. AUGUSTINE -- Florida game officers were investigating the shooting deaths of two whooping cranes, one of the rarest birds in the world.

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission experts examined the bodies of the birds shot Sunday in a cornfield about 7 miles west of St. Augustine. The Audubon Society put up a $500 reward for information on who killed the birds, said Roger Van Ghent, president of the group's St. Johns County chapter.

"These cranes have been in the county since the end of October. They wander around and were in Georgia for a while during the drought. At night, they fly off to a pond," Van Ghent said.

Just 25 mating pairs of whooping cranes are known to live in Florida and only about 200 pairs across the country, he said.

Federal criminal penalties for shooting an endangered whooping crane include fines as high as $50,000 and up to one year in prison. Civil penalties include a $25,000 fine for each offense.

Birdwatchers saw the pair of snowy-white, 5-foot-tall cranes looking for food Sunday in the recently plowed cornfield.

"This was the first recorded incidence of whooping cranes being in St. Johns County for at least a century," said Bert Charest, a biologist at Guana River State Park. "I saw them (Sunday) morning, and they were fine."

The birds were found dead at 3 p.m. "So they had just been shot," Van Ghent said. "They were only 10 to 30 yards off the road. It could have been kids, or hunters. But it's not a hunting area, and hunters know better than to shoot these birds. . . . Whoever it is, this is a terrible, terrible thing."

Bush names two to panel that regulates utilities

TALLAHASSEE -- Lila A. Jaber and Michael A. Palecki were appointed Monday by Gov. Jeb Bush to fill two vacancies on the five-member Public Service Commission, which regulates the state's utilities.

Jaber was first appointed to the PSC last February to fill the vacancy created by former Commissioner Julia Johnson. Her new term will expire Jan. 1, 2005.

Palecki, an attorney for a natural gas utility, has worked as a senior attorney for the PSC and was chief of the commission's bureau of electric and gas from 1990 to 1995. His term will expire Jan. 1, 2003.

Drop in Lake Okeechobee forcing water restrictions

With Lake Okeechobee nearly 4 feet below its average depth, South Florida's water managers intend to tighten the spigot to farms, groves and towns around the lake today.

It would be the first of a series of restrictions that could extend to communities from Palm Beach County to the Florida Keys, perhaps as early as next month.

Despite the disastrous flooding in Miami-Dade County last month, much of the rest of the region remains parched from the driest wet season since 1966. Starting Nov. 29, communities and farms near the lake will have their allocations cut about 25 percent, said Ann Overton, spokeswoman for the South Florida Water Management District.

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