Florida and the Federal Government Support Huge Projects to Clean Up the Everglades

2025-01-08

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1
  • Some experts say damage to the Everglades ecosystem began when a highway connecting the cities of Tampa and Miami in Florida was built in 1928.
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  • The Everglades are a huge wetland at the southern end of the state of Florida.
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  • The highway cut through an area made up of grasses, marshes, freshwater ponds and forested lands.
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  • But now, efforts to return Everglades National Park to a wilder state have taken shape after years of work and billions of dollars.
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  • A huge state-federal project aims to undo damage to the wetlands.
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  • Eve Samples is executive director of Friends of the Everglades, a nonprofit group based in Florida.
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  • She 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."
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  • The project has continued for over 20 years.
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  • Observers say wildlife is returning to some areas, there are fewer invasive trees, and people have good feelings about the changes.
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  • The Everglades supports threatened species, protects against storm damage, and provides drinking water for millions of people in South Florida.
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  • Development and agriculture have drained water that once flowed freely through the Everglades.
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  • Invasive plants and animals have changed the land.
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  • Too much phosphorus, mainly from agriculture, has harmed water quality.
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  • The cost of efforts to repair the Everglades is more than $23 billion.
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  • Those efforts could take 50 years to complete.
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  • Today, water quality has improved, but there are still problems.
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  • Since 2019, the South Florida Water Management District has worked on about 70 projects.
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  • In 2024, lawmakers approved $1.3 billion in spending over the next 12 months for restoration efforts.
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  • That is the largest amount approved so far.
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  • One project is to the northwest of Miami. Workers are replacing sugarcane fields.
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  • The goal is to supply clean freshwater to the Everglades.
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  • When 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.
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  • Jennifer Reynolds is the director of ecosystem restoration and capital projects for the water district.
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  • "It's about getting the water right for the natural habitats and also to sustain the population of people who live and recreate here."
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  • Data show the water quality of the area around Lake Okeechobee is very good although phosphorous levels are rising a little with increased water flow.
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  • In the recent past, phosphorous pollution threatened water quality in the Everglades.
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  • But measurements downstream tell a different story.
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  • Salinity levels, or how much salt is in the water, have gone up.
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  • This suggests to some people that a rise in sea level and saltwater intrusion are increasing.
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  • South Florida is in danger from storms and sea level rise.
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  • Some people estimate that the sea level in the area will rise as much as 1.2 meters by 2100.
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  • In western Florida, the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians says they see a change.
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  • Betty Osceola is an environmental activist and tribe member.
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  • The tribe says its ancestral tree islands have been flooded by water mismanagement.
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  • That hurts the plants and animals they use.
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  • Other areas are drier and face polluted water and wildfires.
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  • "Restoration efforts are mainly to benefit Everglades National Park," said Osceola.
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  • "So maybe the national park sees benefits, but at the sacrifice to the tribe."
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  • The tribe supports the Western Everglades Restoration Project.
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  • The tribe recently signed an agreement with the National Park Service that gives it more control over the area.
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  • Work started last summer on the project's first major feature.
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  • Michael Kennedy-Yoon is from New York state.
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  • Recently, he was in the Everglades looking for wildlife.
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  • He saw a soft shell turtle, two alligators, a bird, called the anhinga, a night heron and a swallow-tailed kite.
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  • "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.
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  • Restoring and protecting the Everglades for recreation and its wildlife is a very important issue to many people.
  • 47
  • Samples from Friends of the Everglades said there is a need to build climate resiliency in Florida.
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  • She 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."
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  • I'm Jill Robbins.