Dear Friend,, In 2019, thousands of you answered a call to action: Fed-up Floridians stood up for our waterways and public health during the initial scoping meetings for the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM). Bullsugar supporters packed auditoriums and flooded the email inboxes of state and federal water managers to tell personal stories of environmental collapse, economic disaster, and health concerns for families and pets who lived and worked along shorelines frequently plagued by toxic Lake Okeechobee discharges. LOSOM has been a long road. But Floridians have refused to back down. In the years since those first meetings, Friends of the Everglades has buoyed the advocacy work started by bullsugar to call for a radically different water management policy that protects people and ecosystems over the corporate profits of Florida’s sugarcane industry. We have amplified the stamina of stakeholders like you to harness a once-in-a-decade opportunity to demand a better Lake O plan. It’s because of you that the status quo is changing. Last week, the Army Corps of Engineers delivered a verdict on their choice for LOSOM. The new plan, on average, is expected to send 37% less water to the St. Lucie Estuary than the existing schedule. It will increase optimal flows and decrease damaging discharges to the Caloosahatchee, and it will triple the amount of water sent south to the Everglades. But the final plan lacked true “balance” that was promised to all of us who have suffered under massive toxic bloom and lethal disparities of freshwater needs. What we got was better, but it wasn’t enough. So the fight must continue. With your help, it will. As a bullsugar supporter, we invite you to make the meaningful donation of $22 today in honor of the upcoming year, 2022, that will be our next battleground for clean water. It’s a tribute to a lesson that bullsugar supporters have taught us — that the power of individual contributions can combine to make groundswells of change. Floridians should be proud of their participation in the LOSOM process. We’re grateful for all of you that will help us keep up the good fight. — Your friends at Friends of the Everglades | 
