Crist Taps Activist for Board: Gov. Charlie Crist Names a Veteran Environmentalist From Broward to Influential Water Management Board

By Curtis Morgan, The Miami Herald

May 1–An environmentalist with a decade of experience in the trenches of Everglades restoration battles has been named to the board of the South Florida Water Management District by Gov. Charlie Crist.

Shannon Estenoz, 39, a Plantation resident and regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, will join the governor-appointed board overseeing the agency that manages the water supply for 16 counties and directs Everglades restoration and cleanup.

“Her background in civil engineering and her experience with water and environmental resource management and policy makes her uniquely qualified to serve the people of South Florida in this position,” Crist said.

The appointment, which must be confirmed by the Florida Senate, gives the environmental community its strongest influence in a decade on the powerful, often controversial agency.

“I think that by appointing me, Gov. Crist has has it clear that he understands the mission of the water management district,” Estenoz said. “There is an environmental component and water resources protection component to the job.”

Estenoz, a native of Key West, credited the district with pushing forward on Everglades restoration.

But critics have complained the district has stressed the public demand over the needs of nature. Estenoz said her goal was “to make sure that in addition to setting fast policy, we’re also setting good policy.”

Estenoz formerly worked for the World Wildlife Fund as the Everglades program director and served on the Governor’s Commission for the Everglades and on the Water Resources Advisory Commission. She holds bachelor’s degrees in civil engineering and international affairs from Florida State University. She is married to Richard Grosso, executive director of the Environmental and Land Use Law Center in Davie.

Estenoz will succeed Miya Burt-Stewart as a Broward County board member. Her term runs until March 1, 2010.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Miami Herald

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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