Wednesday, August 28, 2024

Everglades Restoration

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has invested over a billion dollars to restore Florida's Everglades as part of the Infrastructure Bill of 2021. The goal is to restore the natural flow that has been cut off by agriculture and urban development.

The original flow was from the Kissimmee River near Orlando, down through Lake Okeechobee, to the Florida Keys. As the area grew, wetlands were channelized and drained. This deprived the remaining wetlands of fresh water impacting the quality and quantity of drinking water, causing habitat loss and increasing invasive species. The plan will increase the amount of wetlands and restore much of the flow to the Gulf of Mexico, as seen in the left-most image. This and additional information can be found from the Florida Museum of Natural History.

The image above is from the museum. Since the background is transparent, I couldn't resist adding some artistic waves to the background.


 

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