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A Florida environmental fight that has been going on since President Richard Nixon was in office got new life Monday.  As Matt Galka tells us, a Florida dam is the target of environmentalists who are hoping legal action settles the dispute.

Environmentalists are hoping legal action settles a decades long fight over the Rodman Dam.  The northeast Florida dam has since been named the Kilpatrick Dam, and was originally supposed to be part of a canal connecting the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean – but the canal was stopped by President Richard Nixon in 1971 – and the battle has been on ever since to get the dam destroyed.

And former Governor Buddy MacKay is joining the fray, he’s been calling for the removal of the dam since he was a congressman in the ‘80’s.

“I think when you look at it, it’s an absolute outrage with everything that’s been done and we still have this dam. There’s no reason whatsoever to do this. In fact, it’s a bizarre situation,” said the former Governor Buddy MacKay.

Environmentalists say the dam is hurting the flow of the Ocklawaha River and St. Johns as well as damaging surrounding springs and forests.  But supporters say that removing the dam would damage the bass fishing economy created around it.

“Fundamentally the science that they are espousing is simply not backed up,” said attorney Jane West.

Going the legal route comes after decades of political frustration.

“We’ve been sissies. we really haven’t gone after them they way we should. we tried to take,what people thought were reasonable approaches,” said attorney Bruce Kaster.

The dam costs around $1 million dollars a year to maintain.

Nuisance bears can be a scary sight, and as Matt Galka tells us, state officials want to make sure you’re prepared.

Let’s say you find yourself face to face with a Florida Black Bear – would you know what to do?

David Telesco with the state’s Fish and Wildlife Bear Management program wants to help.

“All of our state agencies want people to know how to exist with bears, what to avoid, how to avoid conflicts, and so we’re all getting behind this idea of Bear Wise,” he said.

Ramping up education efforts and getting people “bear wise” is a priority for FWC.  They’ve taken 4,630 bear related calls just this year.

“It means that I know who to call, and I know when there’s an issue, I know how to interact with a bear. I know that we can scare them away and we should keep our trash and other things secure,” he said.

Earlier this year FWC cancelled the second year of a planned bear hunt.

The hunt – designed to manage bear population – was scrapped after controversy surrounded the 2015 hunt.

A bear season will be considered again next year. But in the meantime, people need to know how to handle a potential bear-human conflict.

“So we know it’s intensifying, and we have to get that word out that you can coexist with bears, as long as you know what to do,” said Telesco.

FWC is in the process of doling out more than $800,000 of grant money to cities and counties for bear conflict solution programs.

Immigration was a hot topic during the presidential election, and could be a hot topic here in the Florida state legislature. As Matt Galka tells us, there could be a fight brewing over how much undocumented students pay for college.

Undocumented students from across the state took to the capitol in 2014.

Week after week they rallied in support of a bill that granted in-state tuition to some undocumented children looking to go to college.

The historic bill was signed by the Governor after it was passed with bipartisan support.

“We have the funding now to be able to pay for education,” said Governor Rick Scott in June of 2014.

Daniela Donoso was a student at Florida State when the bill was being debated and supported its passage.  She came to Florida from Ecuador when she was six months old.

“We have students at Florida State that benefit for this out of state tuition waiver,” she said. Donoso now works with the school’s Human Rights Center

Now a repeal bill of that law has been filed putting the in-state tuition benefits in jeopardy for some undocumented students.

“Why “punish” those students who have done everything right, have gone through education, have applied and have been admitted to a university to further their education?” said Donoso.

Both the new House Speaker and new Senate President voted against the 2014 bill.

Senator Greg Steube, who proposed the repeal because he says it’s an important issue to his constituents, also voted against the original 2014 bill when he was a member of the Florida House.