Everglades Restoration

Over the past century, much of the Florida Everglades has been transformed from a principally subtropical wetland to a human-dominated system of agriculture and urban development. The present Everglades system is half its predisturbance size, the underlying water table is lower, the cyclical hydro-periods are altered, and the [Page 1039]vital freshwater sheet flow is diverted to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico (see satellite images A and B). These anthropogenic changes have affected the Everglades by isolating and impounding the wetlands, reducing the wildlife habitat, degrading the water quality, and promoting the invasion of nonindigenous vegetation. In recognition of the imbalances created within the Everglades system by humans, the state of Florida is currently undertaking a multibillion-dollar restoration project as it attempts to ...