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. Building more water storage facilities would also drastically improve our ability to remove phosphorus from the water. Rehydrating the Florida Everglades is the largest ecological restoration project in the world. Sawgrass, which grows throughout the Everglades, can withstand drought, floods and fires and thrives in soils that contain pathetically few nutrients. 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. We have already made huge investments in water distribution and management to buffer ourselves from floods and drought, and to restore the ecology of the Everglades. Water storage is key to the future of cities, agriculture and Everglades restoration - the same structures buffer everyone. The multimillion-dollar Everglades restoration project intends to bring historic water-flow ... total ecosystem recovery is the ultimate goal. However, that view rests heavily on the assumption that we will commit to fixing a central problem – water storage. Historic water flow pattern through the Everglades (click for larger image). In the past five years he has also received funding from the U.S. — Just a century ago, water flowed down the Kissimmee River into Lake Okeechobee, then south through the vast Everglades to Florida Bay, the ultimate destination of uninterrupted sheetflow. The natural plant and animal communities for which the Everglades are known developed under very low phosphorus conditions. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, The Large Hadron Collider and the Hidden Universe What Natural System Restoration Requires Although â getting the water rightâ is the oft-stated and immediate practical goal, the ultimate restoration goal is to reestablish the distinctive characteristics of the historical Everglades to what remains of the undeveloped South Florida ecosystem. Fish and bird populations are not recovering, alligators are getting skinnier, invasive pythons are ranging unchecked and algal blooms repeatedly devastate Florida Bay. One million acre-feet (an acre one foot deep) of storage, distributed across several locations both south and north of Lake Okeechobee, could substantially reduce water surpluses and shortages for farmers, tribes, city residents and the Everglades. 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. Beautiful photographs accompany the narrative text. And the nonprofit Everglades Foundation, which advocates for restoration, is offering a $10 million prize to researchers who can develop a cost-effective technology for removing phosphorus from natural water bodies. 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. The plan would restore the natural flow of water through the wetlands by removing hundreds of miles of man-made canals and levees. By J.R. Pegg. Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, YorkTalks 2021 Extensive efforts were initiated in the 1990s to protect the Everglades from further degradation caused by phosphorus: farmers have implemented best management practices to reduce phosphorus before the water leaves the farm. A key goal of the Everglades restoration is to increase the amount of water flowing through the Everglades. 45. High phosphorus causes impacts in the Everglades such as: By 1990 over 40,000 acres of the public Everglades were estimated to be impacted. Exploring the psychology of veganism vs. non-veganism: Implications for climate change and the human-animal Relationship, Helping your child with contamination related concerns, The Large Hadron Collider and the Hidden Universe, Linda Friar, National Park Service/Flickr, Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, as much as 82 percent from average levels year to year, South Florida Water Management District/Flickr. Ecologist Peter Frederick explains why this massive effort is worth its multi-billion-dollar cost. Florida is now under federal court orders not to release water to the Everglades until phosphorus levels have been reduced close to natural concentrations. — This enabled agricultural development and a huge western expansion of Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. The restoration plan seeks to restore some of the Everglades’ natural water flow. Current Everglades water flow (click for larger image). An official website of the United States government. Since then Friends has remained faithful to its mission to protect, preserve, and restore the only Everglades in … the STAs have permits required under the Clean Water Act that limit how much phosphorus can be discharged. 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