Florida and the Federal Government Support Huge Projects to Clean Up the Everglades
2025-01-08
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1Some experts say damage to the Everglades ecosystem began when a highway connecting the cities of Tampa and Miami in Florida was built in 1928.
2The Everglades are a huge wetland at the southern end of the state of Florida.
3The highway cut through an area made up of grasses, marshes, freshwater ponds and forested lands.
4But now, efforts to return Everglades National Park to a wilder state have taken shape after years of work and billions of dollars.
5A huge state-federal project aims to undo damage to the wetlands.
6Eve Samples is executive director of Friends of the Everglades, a nonprofit group based in Florida.
7She said, "This is the biggest, most complicated and most expensive ecosystem restoration project in the world. It's really important that we get it right."
8The project has continued for over 20 years.
9Observers say wildlife is returning to some areas, there are fewer invasive trees, and people have good feelings about the changes.
10The Everglades supports threatened species, protects against storm damage, and provides drinking water for millions of people in South Florida.
11Development and agriculture have drained water that once flowed freely through the Everglades.
12Invasive plants and animals have changed the land.
13Too much phosphorus, mainly from agriculture, has harmed water quality.
14The cost of efforts to repair the Everglades is more than $23 billion.
15Those efforts could take 50 years to complete.
16Today, water quality has improved, but there are still problems.
17Since 2019, the South Florida Water Management District has worked on about 70 projects.
18In 2024, lawmakers approved $1.3 billion in spending over the next 12 months for restoration efforts.
19That is the largest amount approved so far.
20One project is to the northwest of Miami. Workers are replacing sugarcane fields.
21The goal is to supply clean freshwater to the Everglades.
22When the $3.9 billion Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Project is complete, a reservoir and wetland will store and clean polluted water from Lake Okeechobee in central Florida before it goes into the southern Everglades.
23Jennifer Reynolds is the director of ecosystem restoration and capital projects for the water district.
24"It's about getting the water right for the natural habitats and also to sustain the population of people who live and recreate here."
25Data show the water quality of the area around Lake Okeechobee is very good although phosphorous levels are rising a little with increased water flow.
26In the recent past, phosphorous pollution threatened water quality in the Everglades.
27But measurements downstream tell a different story.
28Salinity levels, or how much salt is in the water, have gone up.
29This suggests to some people that a rise in sea level and saltwater intrusion are increasing.
30South Florida is in danger from storms and sea level rise.
31Some people estimate that the sea level in the area will rise as much as 1.2 meters by 2100.
32In western Florida, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians says they see a change.
33Betty Osceola is an environmental activist and tribe member.
34The tribe says its ancestral tree islands have been flooded by water mismanagement.
35That hurts the plants and animals they use.
36Other areas are drier and face polluted water and wildfires.
37"Restoration efforts are mainly to benefit Everglades National Park," said Osceola.
38"So maybe the national park sees benefits, but at the sacrifice to the tribe."
39The tribe supports the Western Everglades Restoration Project.
40The tribe recently signed an agreement with the National Park Service that gives it more control over the area.
41Work started last summer on the project's first major feature.
42Michael Kennedy-Yoon is from New York state.
43Recently, he was in the Everglades looking for wildlife.
44He saw a soft shell turtle, two alligators, a bird, called the anhinga, a night heron and a swallow-tailed kite.
45"I think that preserving and conserving wildlife and wildlife areas is some of the best and most useful uses of our taxpayer money," Kennedy-Yoon said.
46Restoring and protecting the Everglades for recreation and its wildlife is a very important issue to many people.
47Samples from Friends of the Everglades said there is a need to build climate resiliency in Florida.
48She noted the words of writer and conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas: "The Everglades is a test. If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet."
49I'm Jill Robbins.