Paul Tudor Jones Rallies at Palm Beach Party to Rescue the Swamp
Paul Tudor Jones Rallies at Palm Beach Party to Rescue the Swamp
(Bloomberg) -- Paul Tudor Jones is fighting to save the swamp -- not the Washington swamp President Donald Trump vowed to drain, but the Florida Everglades, full of alligators, mosquitoes, snakes, mangroves, roseate spoonbills and snook.
“We’re going to make the Everglades great again,” Jones said in an interview at the Everglades Foundation’s annual benefit Saturday night in Palm Beach.
Hedge-fund manager Paul Tudor Jones and Courtney Sexton, Miss Florida.
The party, for more than 10 years, has been combining the billionaire hedge fund manager’s conservation activism with comedians and rockers. This time, Tom Papa brought the laughs, and Roger Daltrey performed The Who’s greatest hits, with an assist from Jimmy Buffett. CBS’s Norah O’Donnell emceed. Investors and bankers attending at the Breakers resort included Andy Hall, Mario Gabelli, Peter Solomon, Glenn Dubin and Jeff Greene.
Roger Daltrey sings "Who Are You?"
Perhaps the most striking part of the evening was the presentation by photographer Mac Stone, who’s gotten close to gators, snail kites and owls with help from pilot and head of Chilton Trust Co. Garrison duP. Lickle. Stone brought the beauty of this mysterious habitat right into the ballroom on big screens.
A remote camera trap captures an endangered Everglades snail kite feeding on apple snails.
There also was an update on the fight to save the Everglades. The foundation’s hashtag, #NowOrNeverglades, suggested the news has been bleak. Toxic algae blooms prompted a state of emergency for more than 240 days last year in Martin and St. Lucie counties, to name one consequence of redirecting water east and west instead of south.
An American alligator defends its mud hole during the dry season in Big Cypress National Preserve.
A $2.4 billion proposal seeks to fix that by filling the swamp -- that is, by directing water south from Lake Okeechobee toward Florida Bay. The idea has been around for a while, but only now is there the political will and funding to get it done, according to Jones and colleagues at the foundation. Bills were introduced in Florida’s legislature this year to buy mostly sugar land south of the lake, and then build a reservoir there to clean water before it’s sent south. The sugar industry has said it will cut into the region’s farmland, eliminate jobs and might not work.
Jones, who last year became a Florida resident, focused on that fight when he took the stage. He praised state legislators who’ve backed the reservoir, including Senators Joe Negron and Jack Latvala, before asking 800 guests to work on Governor Rick Scott and House Speaker Richard Corcoran.
“They need to hear from you -- a lot,” Jones said. “It’s about our influence, our bodies, our votes. There’s so much power in this room, so many of us have relationships with these guys, that if we actually came together and told them, ‘You know what? Enough is enough. We’ve got to stop it.’ ”
Jones was presumably referring to the sugar industry’s resistance.
“Contact the governor and speaker and say, ‘No more, you’re not ever going to be in office again, unless you do the right thing,’” Jones said.
Trump, who promised to save the Everglades during his campaign last year after flying over the area, wasn’t mentioned on stage. But Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, said in an interview that building a reservoir should appeal to him.
“The president’s talking about infrastructure projects around the country,” Eikenberg said. “This is water infrastructure, to ensure we have the proper water supply for south Florida. Based on his pledge for infrastructure improvements, we hope he sees this as an opportunity.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Amanda Gordon in New York at agordon01@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alan Goldstein at agoldstein5@bloomberg.net, David Scheer