In a feathery twist of fate, protecting a bird threatens to get in the way of saving the Everglades.
Migrating birds called black-necked stilts are taking advantage of drought-strained South Florida conditions and nesting by the dozens in dry portions of stormwater treatment areas.
Those stormwater treatment areas are manmade filter marshes intended to clean pollutants from water that drains off farmland before heading to the Everglades. The treatment areas stretch across more than 50,000 acres of former agricultural fields, mostly in western Palm Beach County.
The timing of the black-necked stilts nesting during the lingering drought threatens to create federally...