The Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District is convening to endorse an historic agreement to purchase 181,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Corp.’s land in the Everglades agricultural area (EAA) for restoration. This opportunity to purchase almost 300 sq miles of the EAA creates exciting possibilities for the future of Everglades restoration, and the Coalition supports approval of this deal.
“The Governor’s vision of including the EAA in Everglades restoration is monumental,” said Mark Perry, state co-chair and executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society. “This acquisition will represent one of the most important opportunities to protect America’s Everglades.”
The Everglades Coalition’s Essentials for Everglades Restoration identified nine restoration essentials and benchmarks that must be achieved if the group is going to deliver benefits as it originally promised. Four of these essentials addressed the critical need for more water storage and treatment to truly restore the River of Grass, and the proposed purchase would provide the land necessary to meet these needs.
“If we do not take this opportunity now, there is no assurance we will ever have the land we need to store and clean water to send south into Everglades National Park,” said Sara Fain, national co-chair, Everglades Coalition and Everglades Restoration Program Manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “With this landmark acquisition, we now have the ability to make better decisions about how to reestablish the historic River of Grass.”
"As the state of Florida continues to provide great leadership and initiative for the Everglades, we look to our federal partners for a sustained commitment to support and fund the plan that will restore the health and natural sheetflow of America's Everglades," Fain said. "Only with a strong federal-state partnership can we truly achieve our goals."
Source: Everglades Coalition
