Research Professor, University of Florida. WASHINGTON, DC, November 5, 2003 (ENS) - The final blueprint for the massive $8 billion, 30 year Everglades restoration effort was released Tuesday by … By J.R. Pegg. It covers 16 counties over an 18,000-square-mile (47,000 km 2 ) area and centers on an update of the Central & Southern Florida (C&SF) Project also known as the Restudy. Global climate change raises other uncertainties. Ecologist Peter Frederick explains why this massive effort is worth its multi-billion-dollar cost. Removing a 300-year supply of phosphorus from Lake Okeechobee waters will require many acres of land to store and treat water by filtering it through beds of aquatic plants and algal mats. The Everglades ecosystem is a habitat to many species of plants and animals, including wading birds like those seen here. Recognized worldwide as a unique and treasured landscape, the Everglades is a one-of-a-kind network of natural resources that makes up the largest wilderness east of the Mississippi River, and the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. Adding so much phosphorus to the system can cause massive shifts from sawgrass plains to dense, oxygen-poor cattail monocultures, which outcompete sawgrass under higher nutrient conditions. Completing an integrated natural and human water system for south Florida will have a payoff comparable to a moon shot. Current levels range between 100 and 300 ppb. Engineers rerouted a huge portion of the water that flowed south into the Everglades from Lake Okeechobee, diverting it to Florida’s east and west coasts. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, The Large Hadron Collider and the Hidden Universe Historic water flow pattern through the Everglades (click for larger image). The idea is that, if restoration efforts allocate ore water back to the Everglades, cities like West Palm Beach will need to use their share of water more efficiently and promote increased storage for dry times. At least 100 miles of it is made up of the wide-open grasslands called the Everglades. Fish and bird populations are not recovering, alligators are getting skinnier, invasive pythons are ranging unchecked and algal blooms repeatedly devastate Florida Bay. northern WCA-2A This should lead to the restoration of the wood stork population, in part through the increase in the availability of nesting trees due to restoring the _____ relationship between alligators and storks. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Phosphorus Water Quality Standards for the Everglades, has helped shape the natural heritage, culture, and economy of Florida and the Nation, is a unique mosaic of sawgrass marshes, freshwater ponds, prairies and forested uplands that support rich plant and wildlife communities, is renowned for its wading birds and wildlife. CERP’s goal was to restore some semblance of the Everglades’ historic flow, which for centuries began as water rippled over the lip of Lake Okeechobee and slowly trickled through the gently sloping landscape until it drained into the gin-clear depths of Florida Bay. Learn more about pollution from phosphorus and other nutrients. As I complete my 30th year as an ecologist studying and trying to restore this great place, it is increasingly clear that restoration can work and will benefit both wild spaces and people. Going the final miles will be cheap compared to the alternative, and future generations will thank us for it. Everglades, and what is being done to stop and reverse the damage. The water flow pattern of the Greater Everglades system was drastically altered from 1850-1950 to provide for development, flood protection, water supply, and agriculture. The Conversation UK receives funding from these organisations. It is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Florida Sea Grant, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the South Florida Water Management District, and the U.S. Geological Survey. — The goal of the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) is to deliver a finalized plan, known as a Project Implementation Report (PIR), for a suite of restoration projects in the central Everglades to prepare for congressional authorization, as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan … This $1 billion effort to treat large volumes of water down to the very low phosphorus level (10 parts per billion) that is needed to protect all of the Everglades is an unprecedented restoration effort. An official website of the United States government. The park and the wider Everglades ecosystem have suffered immense ecological damage from years of overdrainage to prevent flooding and promote development. The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to construct an airport in the Big Cypress Swamp. km. Still, progress is possible. The 30-year framework was designed with the ultimate goal of restoring historic water-flows to a "dying ecosystem." The ultimate goal is to restore more natural hydrologic conditions in the Everglades National Park, which is a fifth of its historic water volume. 45. Ecologist Peter Frederick explains why this massive effort is worth its multi-billion-dollar cost. The Everglades landscape is flatter than a billiard table, and water tends to pool on it. Friends initial goal was to stop the construction of a major airport near Everglades National Park. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is the largest ecological restoration ever undertaken in the United States. Exploring the psychology of veganism vs. non-veganism: Implications for climate change and the human-animal Relationship the STAs have permits required under the Clean Water Act that limit how much phosphorus can be discharged. In 1948 Congress authorized the Central & Southern Florida Project, which would become the largest water works project in the world, with more than 2,000 miles of canals and dikes, 71 pump stations, over 600 water control structures and 625 culverts. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) provides a framework and guide to restore, protect and preserve the water resources of central and southern Florida, including the Everglades. Plants in South Florida evolved in soils that were naturally low in phosphorus, so the Everglades is hypersensitive to it. The Everglades once covered almost 11,000 square miles of South Florida. The hope is to recover that water and redistribute it to the land most in need for environmental restoration, as well as filter some into underground storage for crops. In seeking to restore what is arguably a river, CERP's most commonly stated goal is to "get the water right." The plan is making progress – but the closer it gets to its goal, the more the details matter, and some of those details have become roadblocks. loss of the natural communities of algae that are defining characteristics of the Everglades, loss of water dissolved oxygen that fish need. The Everglades loses about 1.7 million gallons of water to drainage per year, and the rest flows unused into the ocean. (a) The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is a framework for modifications and operational changes to the Central and Southern Florida Project.The overarching objective of the Plan is the restoration, preservation, and protection of the South Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region, including water supply and flood protection. This infrastructure, which spans 16 counties, is operated today by the South Florida Water Management District. — RESTORING AMERICA’S EVERGLADES WWW.EVERGLADESPLAN.ORG Working Group Sponsored Public and Stakeholder Workshop November 30, 2011 Corps’ National Pilot Program for Planning Process • Goal – understanding of purpose and goals, and application to Central Everglades Planning Project Current Everglades water flow (click for larger image). But unlike a space mission, we have already mostly paid for this venture. Friends of the Everglades was founded by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in 1969. We succeeded. It also destroyed the St. Lucie and Fort Meyers estuaries by flooding them with unnatural pulses of fresh, and often polluted, water. Peter Frederick currently receives funding from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for documentation of annual wading bird nesting responses to water management in the Everglades, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for work on American Oystercatcher habitat restoration. Rehydrating the Florida Everglades is the largest ecological restoration project in the world. Like everything in Everglades restoration, which aims to re-establish the natural flow of water through the unique ecosystem after decades of draining and canal-cutting, BBSEER has lofty goals. changes in the native plant communities that result in a loss of the open water areas where wading birds feed. Consequently, the restoration's goal of increasing surface-water flow while preserving water quality and the integrity of the Everglades landscape could more difficult than anticipated. In 1947, author and activist Marjory Stoneman Douglas published her classic book “The Everglades: River of Grass,” which warned that “The Everglades were dying,” and their loss would doom the entire region. Florida has huge swings in annual rainfall, which can vary by as much as 82 percent from average levels year to year, and water evaporates very rapidly during dry seasons. Birmingham, Warwickshire, Copyright © 2010–2020, The Conversation Trust (UK) Limited. Rehydrating the Florida Everglades is the largest ecological restoration project in the world. In a 2015 report, the University of Florida’s Water Institute concluded that nearly all uncertainties and problems associated with Everglades restoration could be markedly improved by building more ponds and impoundments to store water. Restoration thus is effectively at a standstill. Perhaps more than any other U.S. national park, ENP’s treasures are hard to defend. 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