Everglades Restoration

'The book provides valuable contributions on three related fronts: It places past and current debates on ecosystem restoration of the Everglades in a clear systems context that acknowledges feedback between ecosystem quality and economic growth; shows for the case of the Everglades that good intentions of providing generous financial support for restoration may lead to undesired effects that actually run counter to the original goal; and demonstrates the use of regional modeling tools to develop consistent baseline forecasts and alternative scenarios.' - Matthias Ruth, University of Maryland, College Park, US The restoration of the Florida Everglades, the largest ecosystem restoration project in the world, is now underway. Missing from the original plan, however, is a study of the region's cities and farms and the economic impact their growth will make on this already endangered ecosystem. This book provides that analysis.

? in a region unlike any other place on Earth?Since the turn of the twentieth century, the American conflict between economic development and environmental conservation has been epitomized by the struggles between those who seek to develop and those who seek to protect the Everglades. In recent years the region has embraced the daunting challenge of protecting nearly 70 endangered or threatened species and restoring an ecosystem which has been profoundly altered, while still trying to meet growing human needs for space and natural resources. This environmental conflict centers around the successful implementation of an unprecedented, 38?year, $7.8 billion federal-state Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Dr. Pryor demonstrates that most of the ecological benefits for the Everglades promised in the historic CERP are riddled with conflict over many uncertainties and decades of delays which must still be resolved in order to restore this fragile River of Grass to the highest possible level.The Role of an Environmental NGO in the Landmark Florida Everglades Restoration sheds a beacon of light on this daunting challenge, providing much needed, fresh insight into the largest and most expensive environmental restoration effort in history. Dr. Pryor clearly illuminates the critical role that an environmental NGO can play as it seeks to influence the process of resolving multiparty environmental conflict such as the historic crusade to resurrect our fragile River of Grass.Dr. Pryor offers a unique ethnography for those working with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), academicians and other tireless researchers, conflict facilitators, environmentalists, ethnographers, policymakers, scientists, students and countless other stakeholders. ?The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet.? ?Marjorie DouglassVisit Dr. Pryor's website at www.drbarbarakpryor.com.

The report evaluates the plan to monitor and assess the condition of Florida's Everglades as restoration efforts proceed. The report finds that the plan is well grounded in scientific theory and principals of adaptive management. However, steps should be taken to ensure that information from those monitoring the ecology of the Everglades is readily available to those implementing the overall restoration effort. Also, the plan needs to place greater consideration on how population growth and land-use changes will affect the restoration effort and vice versa.

Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) is a process by which water is recharged through wells to an aquifer and extracted for beneficial use at some later time from the same wells. ASR is proposed as a major water storage component in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), developed jointly by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). The plan would use the Upper Floridan aquifer (UFA) to store as much as 1.7 billion gallons per day (gpd) (6.3 million m3/day) of excess surface water and shallow groundwater during wet periods for recovery during seasonal or longer-term dry periods, using about 333 wells. ASR represents about one-fifth of the total estimated cost of the CERP. Aquifer Storage and Recovery in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan examines pilot project from the perspective of adaptive assessment, i.e., the extent to which the pilot projects will contribute to process understanding that can improve design and implementation of restoration project components. This report is a critique of the pilot projects and related studies.

The 31 chapters provide a wealth of previously unpublished information, plus topic syntheses, for a wide range of ecological parameters. These include the physical driving forces that created and continue to shape the Everglades and patterns and processes of its flora and fauna. The book summarizes recent studies of the region's vegetation, alligators, wading birds, and endangered species such as the snail kite and Florida panther. This referee-reviewed volume is the product of collaboration among 58 international authors from 27 institutional affiliations over nearly five years. The book concludes with a synthesis of system-wide restoration hypotheses, as they apply to the Everglades, that represent the integration and a collective viewpoint from the preceding 30 chapters. Techniques and systems learned here can be applied to ecosystems around the world.