Restoration, Management and Protection of the Greater Florida Everglades Ecosystem

April 1, 1999 Resolutions

Number: 1999-19

 

WHEREAS, the Greater Everglades Ecosystem, which includes the Upper Chain of Lakes, Kissimmee River Drainage Basin, Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and their drainage basins, the historic Everglades, the Big Cypress Watershed, Florida Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands and the Florida Keys, historically represented one of the world’s largest and most ecologically significant wetlands and associated habitats; and

WHEREAS, the Florida Wildlife Federation (FWF) and National Wildlife Federation (NWF) have a long history of participating in major conservation initiatives in the Everglades ecosystem including:

  1. filing joint litigation to protect the water quality of Lake Okeechobee and the entire Everglades;
  2. requiring that construction of Interstate 75 across the Everglades provide better hydrological connectivity than the old Alligator Alley which was a strong impediment to flow;
  3. requiring wildlife underpasses and fencing along Interstate 75 to reduce the likelihood of wildlife road kills, including the endangered Florida panther;
  4. mitigating the loss of wetlands resulting from I-75 construction by adding 5,000 acres of saw grass wetlands to the Holey Land Wildlife Management Area;
  5. supporting managed recreational access for the public to replace unlimited access which existed prior to I-75 construction; and

WHEREAS, both Federations played a key role in the establishment of the Big Cypress National Preserve safeguarding approximately 750,000 acres from development, protecting the water supply for the Ten Thousand Islands and the western Everglades, and at the same time providing for traditional resource-based recreation, including hunting and fishing subject to regulation by the National Park Service and the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission; and

WHEREAS, significant parts of the Big Cypress Watershed, especially those lands owned by the state and federal government, but now protected and still relatively intact, were negatively impacted by a series of drainage canals and secondary roads built in the 1960s and 1970s; and

WHEREAS, the Federations’ efforts led to the establishment of the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge in 1957 and continue to this day to protect the endangered Key Deer and other endangered species in the Florida Keys; and

WHEREAS, FWF and NWF recognize that there have been attempts to drain the Everglades since the mid 1800s and that the rate and significance of these attempts dramatically increased in 1948 when the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, acting under authorization of the U. S. Congress and the State of Florida, constructed the Central and South Florida Project (C&SF Project); and

WHEREAS, the C&SF Project has created large-scale hydrological modifications by the development of a vast network of canals, levees, pumps and dikes which have eliminated approximately half of the historic Everglades with tremendous loss of fish and wildlife habitat; and

WHEREAS, the C&SF Project was a public works project designed to drain vast areas of the Everglades which directly led to dramatic increases in the urban human population along the eastern portions of the Everglades system and resulted in the elimination of almost all of the native habitats along the Atlantic coastal ridge of southeast Florida and over half of the historic Everglades; and

WHEREAS, the C&SF Project facilitated the development of large-scale agribusiness, particularly in the Everglades Agricultural Area, the vast majority of which is devoted to the cultivation of sugar cane (approximately 550,000 acres);and

WHEREAS, the elimination of hundreds of thousands of acres of native Everglades wetlands for human development purposes and the protection of these areas from both flood and drought continue to negatively impact the remaining state and federally-owned portions of the Everglades ecosystem largely through diminution of water quality and unnatural timing and depths of water; and

WHEREAS, native wildlife populations have been adversely impacted in many ways, including the artificial impounding of waters caused by a series of levees and highway berms, which has eliminated shallow water feeding habitat for wading birds and flooded tree islands which provide necessary habitat for wildlife that require higher upland habitats; and

WHEREAS, holding water levels too high in Lake Okeechobee has adversely affected its vast littoral marshes; and

WHEREAS, unnatural discharges of vast quantities of freshwater into coastal estuaries through canals rather than moving water via sheet flow across broad marshes has had very serious negative impacts on Everglades National Park and the estuarine and marine life in Florida Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands; and

WHEREAS, both Federations recognize that the future of the Big Cypress Watershed is closely linked to the Central and South Florida Project Comprehensive Review Restudy (hereafter referred to as the “Restudy”), a project of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District authorized by Congress in 1992 and 1996 to review the C&SF Project; and

WHEREAS, the primary goal of the Congressionally authorized Restudy is to enhance the ecological values of the Everglades by:

  1. increasing the total spatial extent of natural areas;
  2. improving habitat and functional water quality;
  3. improving native plant and animal species abundance and diversity; and

WHEREAS, in addition to the primary goal of enhancing ecological values of the Everglades, further goals of the Restudy are to enhance economic values and social well being by:

  1. increasing the availability of fresh water (for agricultural, municipal and industrial use);
  2. reducing flood damages (to agricultural and urban areas);
  3. providing recreational and navigational opportunities;
  4. protecting cultural and archeological resources and values; and

WHEREAS, both Federations are actively involved in participating in the Restudy and acknowledge that this process will determine the future of the Everglades; and

WHEREAS, Congressional authorization and implementation of the Restudy will determine which restoration projects receive Corps funding and to what degree the Everglades ecosystem will be restored and protected; and

WHEREAS, the implementation of the Restudy will take place over 30 years at a cost of billions of dollars of federal and state funds and will require the continued strong endorsement and oversight of both NWF and FWF; and

WHEREAS, FWF in conjunction with NWF has participated in the Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida addressing a myriad of growth-related issues in the region in a manner that protects and restores the greater Everglades ecosystem to the greatest extent possible;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in its Annual Meeting assembled March 18-21, 1999, in Houston, Texas, promotes and encourages the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, the State of Florida and local governments to restore the Greater Everglades ecosystem specifically through the authorization and implementation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District’s Central and South Florida Project Comprehensive Review Study (Restudy); and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation:

  1. advocates that both federal and state conservation lands and waters receive waters within the Everglades ecosystem in the proper timing, depth and quality to maintain healthy populations of native flora and fauna;
  2. endorses restoration of flowways throughout the ecosystem specifically including provision for much greater hydrological connectivity by levee degradation and removal, bridging and additional culverting of Tamiami Trail to the greatest extent possible across south Florida;
  3. advocates the development of a policy which favorably considers Everglades ecosystem health needs during times of hydrological extremes;
  4. recognizes and supports sustainable resource-based outdoor recreation, including wildlife observation, fishing, hunting and trapping within the Everglades ecosystem subject to applicable state and federal regulations;
  5. supports coordinated and cooperative management by Florida and federal fish and wildlife management land managers and water managers;
  6. supports the “polluter pay” concept to address the region’s water pollution issues;
  7. advocates that future growth and development in south Florida be within existing developed areas rather than promoting sprawl; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation supports a Restudy restoration strategy that:

  1. restores Water Conservation Areas 2B and 3A to more natural conditions;
  2. approaches the use of aquifer storage and recovery with caution and as experimental;
  3. urges the Corps of Engineers and Water Management District to provide significant water storage capacity within the Everglades Agriculture Area and on converted habitats throughout South Florida to provide sources of water, protect groundwater and to buffer adverse impacts to state and federal conservation lands;
  4. does not allow existing public conservation lands, including the Holey Land and Rotenberger areas which are important native Everglades wildlife habitat areas also enjoyed for outdoor recreation, to be used for wastewater treatment or water storage;
  5. recognizes that water conservation will be an essential strategy to accommodate growth;
  6. agrees that the best scientific information available at this time indicates that phosphorous concentrations of waters discharged into the Everglades ecosystem should not exceed 10 parts per billion; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation supports a Restudy strategy that recognizes that the promotion of South Florida’s economic values and social well being is accomplished by restoring and enhancing the ecological values of the Everglades.