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Chicago/Denver - Summer 2010

Congratulations Mary Pressly!!!

2nd Place Philadelphia Flower Show 2010

Mary Webster - Demo Class Polly Reed and Beth Dowdle follow Mary's lead

Stunning !!!

Sharon Neri wrote the following article for ConWatch:

Following the Flow: The Everglades Journey for 2010

(click on title above for Winter, 2009-10 Issue)

“There are no other Everglades in the world.

They are . . . one of the unique regions of the earth;

remote, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them.”

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

In September of 2008, the GCA Conservation and National Affairs and Legislation Committees, after an intense study of the proposed full restoration plan of the greater Everglades ecosystem, spent five days exploring the Florida Everglades - by airboat, tram, and on foot. [See Conservation Watch, Nov. 2008 “Everglades – Special Edition” still available on the GCA website under “Publications", "ConWatch.”]

What is happening now?

The wetlands that define the fragile Everglades bionetwork are in extreme distress. The estuaries on both coasts are critically damaged, imperiling the vast diverse species of wildlife and plant life. Today, despite the federal legislation passage a decade ago, the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) in 2000 that created the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Act (CERP), and many millions of dollars spent to implement the Everglades portion of it, little progress has been made. The U.S. government, the State of Florida, Tribal Indians, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), and local and

environmental partners working with the Army Corps of Engineers have been unable to solve many of the problems of unacceptable water quality, blocked sheetflow,* and inadequate storage. This Florida watershed in the lower Everglades includes the Tamiami Trail, east and west Spreader Canals, Biscayne Bay and Old Florida Bay coastal wetlands, water preserve areas, reservoirs, and the Ten Thousand Islands.

More than 30% less water flow over several decades makes it virtually impossible for the Everglades to sustain its ecological health and support the variety of species that inhabit this inimitable and fascinating ecosystem.

(Photo credit: google images)

Things are about to change. Help is on the way. But progress is burdened by delays and heated debates. Gov. Charlie Crist’s controversial $536 million deal to buy 73,000 acres from U.S. Sugar (to reestablish water flow areas) has been challenged in court by other “Big Sugar” interests and the Mikosukee Indian Tribe, although the plan has been approved by the SFWMD.

This would be the first part of water flow restoration. Individual Florida GCA Clubs (Palm Beach, Grass River, and Jupiter) were asked to testify for the State. The Obama Administration pledged nearly a half billion dollars in an impressive funding package for restoration projects, including the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Lucie Estuary, the Caloosahatchee River Estuary, Tamiami Trail, Herbert Hoover Dike, the Picayune Strand, the 130-mile Kississimee River watershed that feeds Lake Okeechobee, and the sheetflow through the Everglades to Biscayne Bay and Old Florida Bay.

The Tamiami Trail, built in 1920 to connect Miami and Tampa, was identified as one of the most serious environmental threats to the “River of Grass.” The Everglades, once a slow-moving, broad, shallow sheet of water, was dammed and ditched until it became a series of reservoirs; only the Everglades National Park remained free flowing. The Tamiami Trail effectively blocked natural freshwater flow southward, and became one of the most formidable barriers to sheetflow. These barriers and other impediments must be removed.
It’s all about sheetflow. The Everglades cannot be restored without restoring
sheetflow. The St. Lucie and the Caloosahatchee estuaries cannot be protected without restoring sheetflow. Fresh-water flows to Florida Bay cannot be reestablished without restoring sheetflow.

A jubilant celebration on December 4, 2009 greeted Everglades supporters at the Tamiami Trail, as U.S. Dept. of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and the Army Corps of Engineers unveiled their 2010 Tamiami Trail Project. It includes building a one-mile bridge to replace a flood portion of the Trail, reviving wetland habitat for more than 65 threatened and endangered species. As the waterflow north of Tamiami Trail increases, the National Park Service is considering constructing up to six additional miles of the bridge in the future. On January 7, 2010, the Picayune Strand Restoration broke ground, restoring and protecting 55,000 acres in Collier County as a valuable habitat for the endangered Florida panther. These are major, bold steps - two vital projects in 2010 that will help in restoring the natural flow of the Everglades.

- Sharon Stewart Neri – G.C. of Palm Beach (FL)

GCA Zone VIII Conservation/NAL Representative 2006-08

[*sheetflow - An overland flow or downslope movement of water taking the form of a thin, continuous film over relatively smooth soil or rock surfaces and not concentrated into channels larger than rills.]

(click on Image for full issue)