by Webb Smith, The Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida

Homestead, Florida -- Everglades restoration history was made on Jan. 10, 1997 at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' groundbreaking ceremony when some 250 people gathered to witness the first step of restoring natural water flows to the fabled River of Grass. With the first shovel of dirt, the Corps began construction on a pump station that will redirect water from the C-111 canal into its historic path, Taylor Slough, providing more fresh water to the eastern part of Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.

Included in this gathering were many of the individuals, agencies, and organizations that once held conflicting goals for and visions of Everglades restoration. Today, they have joined the Corps to form a "partnership" for the successful restoration of the Everglades. Col. Terry Rice, District Engineer for the Corps, shared the stage with other notable presenters including Carol Browner, Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Chief Billy Cypress of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, former U.S. Rep. Dante Fascell, Joette Lorion, President, Friends of the Everglades, and Dade County Commissioner Katy Sorenson. Starting in 1948 under Congressional authorization, the Corps built the Central & Southern Florida (CS&F) Project for flood control, drainage and water supply. This massive artificial water management system has since seriously undermined the health and vitality of the Everglades by altering the natural distribution, quality, timing and volume of fresh water entering the ecosystem.

The completion of the "replumbing" of the CS&F is expected to take at least 20 years and will hinge on the continued support of this newly founded partnership by all the affected interests. With such a consensus, Carol Browner said, we will be able to "put the 'ever' back into the 'Everglades.'"

Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

by Maud Dillingham

Surrounded by a grid of agriculture in a deceptively tranquil corner of Palm Beach County, Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge is ground zero of the Everglades restoration debate. In 1988, Dexter Lehtinen, then South Florida's U.S. Attorney General, sued the South Florida Water Management District because the water it drained off farmlands into the refuge (serving a dual function as Water Conservation Area 1) had excessive levels of phosphorus.

In 1997, my husband Cesar Becerra and I joined Wildlife Biologist Marian Bailey on an airboat to observe her collecting samples of both rain water and dry deposition from the air -- some farmers say the phosphorous comes from the air and not their agricultural runoff, so the refuge is covering all bases. "We are trying to determine how much phosphorus enters the refuge from the air," she explained. Scientists have made a connection between phosphorus and the thick stands of wildlife-discouraging cattails that proliferate in the 221-square-mile refuge. Florida International University also maintains a dosing station to determine the phosphorus level at which changes in the aquatic ecosystem occur. The answer will determine how much clean-up farmers will be responsible for.

Amid the picturesque waterworld of sawgrass prairies dotted with tree islands, problems abound. Canoeists, visitors to the cypress forest boardwalk and hikers on the Marsh Trail don't see the impenetrable stands of exotic pest tree Melaleuca that have taken over major parts of the refuge. The levee encircling the 221-square-mile area has created an artificial lake where the "river of grass" used to flow -- a dumping ground for excess water in floods and a reservoir prone to "dry-downs" during droughts. It's an uneasy balancing act between the needs of alligators, fish and over 250 species of birds -- and South Florida's burgeoning human population. Senior Biologist Su Jewell urges people to "come to Loxahatchee and see what we're trying to protect, and then write to your senators and congressmen, because those people really listen."

The Big Cypress

by Maud Dillingham

With all the focus on the fate of the Everglades -- a name that technically refers to the "river" of sawgrass beginning south of Lake Okeechobee and terminating in Everglades National Park -- we lose sight of a different but equally important natural area: southwest Florida. Primarily rain-fed and higher in elevation than the sawgrass wetlands, this region includes Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW), Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. In contrast to the Everglades, with their many water impoundments and canals, these protected areas are in pretty good shape.

Unlike Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve allows limited hunting, cattle ranching, oil and gas drilling, and traveling in swamp buggies and airboats. Resident Miccosukee and Seminole Indians harvest cypress trees and other plant life and hold their annual Green Corn Dance in the Preserve. Despite these many impacts, the Preserve has excellent water quality because it naturally receives 80 percent of its water from rain and does not depend on an artificial water control system; indeed, its waters have been classified by the State as "outstanding Florida waters." However, the effects of agricultural run-off into the watershed may change that status.

Whereas "restoration" is the ambitious buzzword of the Everglades, "prevention" and "stabilization" are current strategies for the cypress swamps and pinelands of southwest Florida. "There are some needs yet to be identified so some of the same mistakes made on the east coast aren't made on the west coast," says Ron Clark, chief of resource management at Big Cypress National Preserve. "There needs to be more information-gathering regarding stressors and what the threats might be over time."