The Everglades is larger than the renown national park bearing its name. At 18,000 square miles, the Everglades is twice the size of New Jersey and home to rivers, lakes, wooded uplands, cypress swamps, brackish estuaries, coral reefs, and the sawgrass prairies known as the River of Grass. It is also home to dense urban centers, vast suburbs, Tribal lands, and working farms. With that scale in mind, it isn't hard to believe that the Everglades provides drinking water to more than 9 million people. Historically, water flowed slowly from the Kissimmee River to Florida Bay across the ecosystem's extremely flat landscape forming what became known as the "River of Grass." This natural functioning system began to be altered over a century ago in the late 1800s to "reclaim" the Everglades for agricultural, residential, and commercial development. Wetlands were drained or filled, and canals, roads, and buildings began to displace native habitats and disrupt historical water flows. Restoring the Everglades and protecting South Florida's natural resources is a monumental undertaking that cannot be achieved by any single organization but depends upon a strategically coordinated set of federal, state, local and tribal initiatives, funding, and partnerships. These restoration programs and projects require a long-term process for addressing key technical, management, and policy issues. So what progress has been made towards restoring the Everglades?
Purpose: Learn about the progress of the Everglades restoration project
Facilitator: Tom Bayles (Guest Presenter - WGCU Public Media) |
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