Environment

The group wants the federal government to know its outrage with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Gainesville Compost is setting a national standard for compost businesses catering to local markets. Chris Cano, founder of Gainesville Compost, believes local composting is a common sense effort.

Alliance Dairies farm in Trenton, Florida, is recycling cow manure into energy with the use of an anaerobic manure digester. This program began in 2011 and is estimated to save $1 million per year in electricity, while also eliminating odor.

UF researcher Treavor Boyer has devised a system that could cut up to 20 percent of UF's water usage. The system involves reducing the amount of water needed to fertilize Florida Field — by swapping nitrogen fertilizer for human urine.

Tourism in Hernando County has significantly increased in the last year, in large part to its outdoor recreation opportunities and mermaid shows. Hernando County has rebranded itself as Florida's "Adventure Coast."

JTC Farm Chicken Houses has started construction of a facility that will house up to 270,000 chickens. Legally, no wastewater permit is required for the operation. But local residents who live close to where the chicken farm is being built as well as the Ichetucknee Alliance have raised concerns about the possible increase on nitrate levels in the Floridan aquifer due to runoff from the chicken farm.

The Alachua County Planning Commission recommended Thursday night the adoption of an amendment to the Envision Alachua Sector Plan/Comprehensive Plan.

Claims of illegal baiting during Florida's 2015 Black Bear hunting season stir controversy. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission plans to issue an in-depth analysis of the hunt in a few weeks.

Red tide algal blooms have been discovered on the coasts of Florida. This organism has toxins that are harmful to marine life's central nervous systems and humans respiratory systems.