Everglades is a vast wetland that once covered most of South Florida. Since the
1800s, agriculture and other development have replaced much of the original
wildlife habitat. Now, a proposal by the region's biggest sugar producer to
quit farming and sell its land to the state for permanent conservation has
raised new hopes for the Everglades ecosystem. And as Véronique LaCapra
reports, it could give a big boost to restoration efforts.
Florida Everglades is the largest remaining subtropical wetland in the United
States. But over the past century or so, half of the floodplain has been
drained for human use. In the late 1940s, a massive government engineering
project built roads, canals, and levees, to make even more dry land and fresh
water available for farming and other development. The project drastically
altered the flow of water in the Everglades, destroying approximately 5,000
square kilometers of wildlife habitat.
this has brought a rapidly expanding human population – about 7.5 million
people – in close contact with an ever-more vulnerable ecosystem.
Aumen is an aquatic ecologist for the Everglades National Park, which protects the southern part of the
original Everglades. In what used to be the northern part of the wetland, a
huge agricultural area now covers more than 2,800 square kilometers.
says that in the Everglades Agricultural Area, crops can be grown almost
year-round. "We're a major source of winter vegetables for much of the
United States, and South Florida's also a major producer of sugar – of
sugarcane, for the United States."
sugarcane and other agricultural crops takes fertilizer – plant nutrients, such
as phosphorus. Mark Kraus is an ecologist with the Everglades Foundation, a non-profit organization that supports
Everglades restoration. He says that while phosphorus may be good for
sugarcane, it has been devastating for the Everglades' plants, which need very
low levels of nutrients.
Everglades are adapted to about 10 parts per billion of phosphorus," Kraus
explains. "When you add a lot of additional phosphorus, it promotes the
growth of other plants that aren't natural to those low-nutrient systems."
in water flow, nutrient pollution, and invasive species have all taken their
toll on the Everglades, eliminating 90 percent of the wetland's former two
million wading birds, and bringing almost 70 species – including panthers,
alligators, and crocodiles – closer to extinction.
as Nick Aumen explains, restoration projects have been expensive, and slow to
show results. "The Everglades are the site of some of the largest and most
expensive restoration projects in the world."
says that perhaps the biggest restoration effort was begun in 2000, and is
projected to take as long as 35 years to complete and is estimated to cost as
much as $18 billion.
restoration efforts have focused on energy-intensive engineering projects,
including a controversial plan to pump water from Lake Okeechobee in and out of
underground aquifers to control flooding and water availability.
according to Mark Kraus, a proposed land deal could change all that. "This
land purchase is going to allow us to restore the Everglades more quickly, in a
much less engineered fashion, and in a much more sustainable way."
the end of June, the state of Florida proposed to buy out U.S. Sugar
Corporation, the largest sugarcane producer in the
United States. The deal would take more than 750 square kilometers out of
production, to be replaced by large water storage areas and artificial
Kraus says the deal presents a really exciting opportunity for Everglades
restoration. "I have been involved in this Everglades restoration project
for over 12 years now," says Kraus. "We always thought that the right
way to do this would be to be able to acquire some agricultural land […] and
provide these large areas of water storage and water cleansing."
the deal has its problems. Under agricultural cultivation, the area's peat
soils have subsided by more than a meter, and getting water to flow south again
will take some engineering.
more, U.S. Sugar's holdings are scattered throughout the region, so the state
will have to negotiate land swaps with other sugarcane producers to recreate a
continuous flow-way to the Everglades.
under the current terms of the deal, no restoration projects will begin anytime
soon: U.S. Sugar gets six years to transition out of farming.
Aumen cautions that seeing environmental benefits from the more than 75,000
hectare buy-out could take even longer. A previous government land acquisition
took ten years to start restoration in an area less than a third that size.
"So it would not be surprising for us if this took as long, especially
because it's a much larger land area."
Aumen and Kraus agree that if the deal between the state of Florida and U.S.
Sugar is successful, it could bring about unprecedented environmental benefits
to one of the world's most beautiful – and threatened – ecosystems.