The roughly $10 billion restoration of the Everglades is "making scant progress toward achieving its goals" due to built-in bureaucracy, funding troubles, and more, according to a report from the National Research Council. The report paints a bleak picture of federal and state rescue efforts, which together comprise the largest ecosystem restoration project in history. Of the rescue plan's more than 60 components, not one has been completed yet. As it stands, "it appears that planning rather than doing, reporting rather than constructing, and administering rather than restoring are consuming [state and federal workers'] talents and time," the report says. In short, it's long past time for action. If the plan's many flaws aren't addressed soon, "the Everglades ecosystem may experience irreversible losses to its character and functioning." Florida's plan to buy 187,000 acres of sugar-industry land in the Everglades to help restore water flows is a noble effort, the report says, but benefits from it won't be seen for at least a decade and the Everglades need action now in order to be saved.
Oh, Give It a Restoration, Will You?
Everglades restoration going slowly, poorly, federal report says 2
-
Posted 4:38 PM on 30 Sep 2008
-
Posted in
-
Read More About
Related Stories
Obama headed to Copenhagen, sets the bar for success
‘Copenhagen Diagnosis’ offers a grim update to the IPCC’s climate science
Add a Comment
You are not logged in. Thus, you cannot post a comment. If you have an account, log in. If you don't have an account, well, by all means go make one! Meet you back here in five.
Comments
View as Threaded
pynnacle Posted 2:26 am
01 Oct 2008
While we all stubbornly believe that every blunder we make can be fixed, maybe the Everglades problem is proving that our mistakes are sometimes irreversible. Maybe it is time we man-up and admit that this is one mistake that can never be fixed completely.
As of right now, there are thousands of papers detailing the results of painstaking studies that have been done on the Florida Everglades. Yet with the completion of every study, the picture of the Everglades becomes more and more complex. It's not just a big wash tub that we can just fill back up with water. In fact, simply throwing water on the sucker might cause even more problems. And because human habitation has taken root, we have to consider flood control.
Its a jumbled mess that might never be put back together. But not all is bleak. The restoration project, while not entirely successfull at its intended job, has already proven successfull at providing more information about the complexity of wetland ecosystems than ever before. Lessons learned from this project can be (and indeed are being) used in other areas around the world. The uniqueness of the Everglades has painted a more complete picture of the biogeochemical processes and the hydrology for any watershed.
Permalink
caniscandida Posted 4:38 am
01 Oct 2008
But your general philosophical point is well-made and important. "It's a jumbled mess that might never be put back together" unfortunately does not describe the Everglades alone. It is just one instance of a Humpty-Dumpty-ism which it behooves all of us to take to heart.
Permalink