The Everglades Restoration is picking up speed, completing projects, and the state and federal agencies involved are working together well.
At the same time, accountability is lacking, the agencies need a way to prove what’s working, and it’s time for emergency steps to protect the endangered Cape Sable seaside sparrow because one water plan after another has failed the bird.
That the gist of the latest biannual evaluation of the Everglades Restoration by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The three think tanks have partnered to assess one of the largest environmental restorations in history since Congress passed the law that launched it in 2000, which contains a provision for the periodic independent scientific review of progress.
Each assessment measures how much of the available Everglades has been restored, flags science and engineering problems that could slow the work, and checks how agencies measure their results.
The current heady pace requires continued spending on the effort by the state and federal governments, which have directed billions of taxpayer dollars, each, to the effort in recent years. The recent heady pace of progress depends on that money, as well as keeping enough staff on board staff to handle permits and the reviews the Endangered Species Act requires.
The committee wants to know what the plans are if that extra money given to the restoration doesn’t continue and the agencies involved will have to make do with less.
They pointed out rules limiting nutrient pollution are not being met. And there is a lot still to be done.
The National Academies include some of the brightest minds in science, engineering, and medicine. It’s an invitation-only club, and current members elect new ones. About 200 members of the science academy alone have won Nobel prizes.
Each of the 15 members of the committee that produced the newest assessment have doctoral degrees. Their fields are ecology and conservation biology, wetland and coastal science, hydrology and water engineering, environmental chemistry, statistics, economics, and bird and wildlife biology.
The committee said the Everglades of the past isn’t coming back.
Once spanning coast-to-coast across South Florida, half of the Everglades was lost to the creation of cities like Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, and Naples - along with the millions of inland houses and apartments that provide homes for people there to live in – as well as huge areas turned into farming and ranchland. What’s left is an Everglades about the size of New Jersey.
The report also wants to see the main agencies involved in the effort – the Army Corps, the State of Florida, and the South Florida Water Management District – to recognize that.
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