Truemors
Despite the fact that there was a multibillion dollar effort to restore the Everglades, this famous area of Florida is in decline. There has been a lot of pitfalls due to red tape, disagreements and ignoring of a report that the wetlands are in peril.
The rapid decline could become irreversible if action is not taken quickly.
"The Everglades ecosystem is continuing to decline. It's our estimate that we're losing the battle to save this thing," said William Graf, the report's committee chairman and head of the department of geography at the University of South Carolina at Columbia.
The South Florida Water Management District, which oversees restoration for the state, said in a statement that it agrees with the report's findings "that restoration progress is hampered by limited federal funding and a complex and lengthy federal planning process."
Approved by Congress in 2000, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was originally estimated to cost about $7.8 billion and expected to take 30 years to complete - a price tag that has since ballooned due to construction costs and other inflation.
The big benefit would be to restore some natural water flow, as the constant dikes and diversions has actually shrunk the Everglades to half its original size.
More than $2 billion so far has been committed to the project, but is is going to take more money.
Parts of the Everglades are really heavily polluted and wildlife is disappearing at a rapid rate, with at least 67 endangered species facing extinction.
As stated before, the effects could be irreversible.
Comments (0)