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TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 2002

Secretary of Interior Gale Norton celebrated Earth Day on Monday in Florida.

She broke ground on a $6.2 million invasive plant research center at the University of Florida's Research and Education Center in Davie. The Department of Interior is paying for the center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is building it.

She also helped release into the Everglades a small sap-sucking bug called the melaleuca psyllid. The bug attacks and kills melaleuca saplings and seedlings, which are invasive weeds.

There were some protesters at Norton's event. But don't count The Miami Herald among them. In an editorial, the paper praises Norton for the "great photo-op" and says her visit was " good press for an administration whose environmental credentials still elicit skepticism."

Get the Story:
Interior secretary says Everglades a priority for Bush Administration (The South Florida Sun-Sentinel 4/23)
Melaleuca-eating insects turned loose in Everglades (The Miami Herald 4/23)
Editorial: Interior comes a-calling (The Miami Herald 4/23)