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Interior Department
Accomplishments in Everglades Restoration Since 2000
(Note: This is a Control Agenda for all the
resources of Florida, including the human resources, because people
are controlled when water and land is controlled. This is government
run amok, implementing "The Wildlands Project" and using
taxpayer dollars to do it.)
January 10, 2003
News: U.S. Department of the Interior, Office of the Secretary
Contact: Hugh Vickery 202-208-6416 [email protected]
President Bush and Governor Jeb Bush signed an
agreement in January 2002, to restore the Everglades, as required
under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). The
agreement is enforceable and binding. It will ensure the restoration
of natural flows to the Everglades. Under the agreement, the state
commits to managing its water resources
so that water produced by the plan's implementation will be available
to restore the natural system. Meanwhile, the federal
government commits to be an active partner in obtaining funding and
working with the state to implement the plan.
Interior staff has assisted the Army Corps of
Engineers in its development of the programmatic regulations that will
be soon be finalized to guide CERP. While
final regulations have not been published, the Department believes
they will establish an appropriate framework for restoration,
and the Interior Department and its agencies will play a significant
role in implementing CERP.
President Bush proposed $96 million for Interior's
2003 Budget for Everglades Restoration, including
funding for the modified water delivery project in Everglades National
Park to restore natural flows, to protect wildlife habitat and restore
endangered species, and to purchase land to secure additional fresh
water. The Department anticipates Congressional approval soon.
The Department reached an agreement in
principle to acquire the Collier oil and gas holdings in Big Cypress
National Preserve, which will
protect that resource for future generations. The
final agreement is close to completion.
The South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force,
chaired by Ann Klee, counselor to Interior Secretary Norton, has met
numerous times this year to continue discussions among governmental
representatives and stakeholders about the development of the Army
Corps of Engineers' programmatic regulations for the restoration plan,
and other issues related to the restoration effort.
The Fish and Wildlife Service and the South Florida Water Management
District (SFWMD) approved a 50-year license agreement under which the
Service will continue to manage state-owned lands that make up 97
percent of Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
The license agreement represents a commitment by the Department to
work cooperatively with the State in managing this important resource.
The Corps of Engineers and the SFWMD have worked in
partnership with the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife
Service to develop a series of interim water
management operations to avoid jeopardy to the
endangered Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow. The most recent of these is the
Interim Operational Plan, or "IOP." The Department is
working with the Corps and SFWMD to monitor and evaluate actual IOP
operations and will incorporate the results of the monitoring into the
development of the "Combined Structural and Operational
Plan" or "CSOP." Furthermore, the
agencies will increase stakeholder participation in the development of
CSOP to incorporate a full range of views into the decision-making
process.
The Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with
SFWMD, is implementing the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape
Assessment Cooperative Agreement (LILA), a research project that will
serve as a pilot study for hydrologic regimes proposed under CERP. The
objective of the project is to define hydrologic regimes
that sustain a healthy Everglades ecosystem including wading bird,
tree island, and ridge and slough communities. The approach will be to
sculpt key Everglades landscape features, overlay controlled
hydrologic regimes with flow rates that simulate historic flows, and
measure response by wading birds, tree islands and
ridge and sloughs. Two impoundments (80 acres) at
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge will
be altered to create representative Everglades ridge and slough
habitat and tree islands.
The Department is planning to hold an "avian
summit" this spring under the auspices of the South Florida
Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. The summit will review all
scientific information on federally listed and key
indicator avian species in South Florida, including
the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow, wood stork, snail kite and roseatte
spoon-bill.
The National Park Service has acquired
virtually all remaining lands within Everglades National Park [inholders],
thereby providing permanent protection
for this important resource.
The National Park Service is on the verge of
eliminating melaleuca at Big Cypress National Preserve. The Department
also freed up $1 million to eradicate invasive
species at Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge and
successfully treated 18,000 acres. Work
has begun on a $6.2 million invasive species research facility
that will help develop better techniques of controlling melaleuca and
other exotic species in the Everglades.
In 2001, the Department provided $12 million to
Florida to allow the state to purchase important properties within the
Everglades system, including the 5,000-acre Grassy Island Ranch north
of Lake Okeechobee, that will be used to capture additional quantities
of freshwater and restore natural hydrological flow. This
year, the Department intends to provide $15 million in similar land
acquisition grants.
The Fish and Wildlife Service is finalizing its
plan to ensure the recovery of the endangered Key deer, a species
native to the Florida Keys at the extreme southern end of the greater
Everglades Ecosystem. The population, which once numbered about 300
during the 1970s, has grown to an estimated 600-700 individuals. The
Service will begin moving deer from the core area on Big Pine Key to
more remote areas in adjacent keys. If successful, this will ensure
that there are at least three populations, which will increase the
likelihood of survival into the foreseeable future. The first of these
translocations of deer is scheduled for the spring of this year.
A team of experts assembled by Fish and Wildlife
Service biologists developed a draft
landscape conservation strategy for panthers in south Florida using an
open and collaborative process. The strategy identifies lands
essential for the continued conservation of panthers in south Florida,
as well as a landscape linkage to provide for population expansion to
aid in recovery of the species.
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