Army Corps make plan to save endangered sparrow official

MIAMI - The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has signed off on a plan to protect the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow. <br> <br> The plan, signed by the Corps&#39; top officer Wednesday in Atlanta, will raise the water level several inches in a major canal separating the Everglades marshes from the suburbs and farms of southwestern Miami-Dade. <br> <br> Scientists say about 2,704 of the olive, yellow and white songbirds exist in the Everglades. The sparrow is called a Goldilocks bird because it needs water depths ``just right&#39;&#39; to lay eggs. <br> <br> The Miccosukee Indian Tribe said the plan will flood 88,000 acres of tribal land and threaten another endangered bird, the snail kite. <br> <br> Environmentalists, who have endorsed parts of the plan, said the rerouting of water could bring polluted farm runoff into the Everglades. <br> <br> Local farmers said the higher water levels will increase the risk of field flooding. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s not the best of any of the worlds we deal with,&#39;&#39; said Richard Bonner, deputy district engineer of the Corps&#39; Jacksonville office. ``It&#39;s a sort of compromise that still preserves all the rights of the individuals.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The plan will serve until long-delayed water projects are completed. It was endorsed by Miami-Dade County and the Wildlife Service after more than a year of debate. <br> <br> Environmentalists fear the Cape Sable sparrow remains at risk to perish like its cousin, the dusky seaside sparrow. Some 1,900 duskies were alive in 1968, but a dozen years later the last wild dusky had perished.