Seen and Heard at the America’s Everglades Summit

(Photo caption: Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of Interior, Thomas Strickland, addresses America's Everglades Summit attendees) 

The Everglades Foundation recently wrapped up a successful America's Everglades Summit in Washington, D.C. More than 300 participants took part in an event that was created to generate political support among policymakers for restoration of America's Everglades and raise the profile of restoration's ecological and economic impacts.

Activities kicked off at the Newseum with a roundtable moderated by former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw, featuring a lively discussion between top government decision-makers and environmentalists. It concluded with briefings and individual Summit attendee meetings with members of Congress and their staffers.

Brokaw led the roundtable discussion with panelists including: Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Thomas Strickland; Assistant Administrator, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Peter Silva; Deputy Director and General Counsel of the Council on Environmental Quality, Gary Guzy; Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Army (Civil Work), Jo-Ellen Darcy; Commander of Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Col. Al Pantano; Secretary, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Michael Sole; Chair, South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board, Eric Buermann; Executive Director, SFWMD, Carol Ann Wehle; Everglades Foundation Board Chair, Paul Tudor Jones II; and Senior Scientist, Everglades Foundation, Tom Van Lent.

An Additional 5.5 Miles of Tamiami Trail Bridging

A major announcement was made during the roundtable discussion when the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Interior, Thomas Strickland, revealed that the Interior Department's National Park Service released a draft Environmental Impact Statement recommending an additional 5.5 miles of bridging the Tamiami Trail. 

Together with the one-mile Tamiami Trail bridge currently under construction, the additional bridging will allow water dammed on the north side of the road to flow south into the parched Everglades National Park. The new bridging creates an opportunity to restore up to 100 percent of the historic volume and distribution of water that used to flow southward into Northeast Shark River Slough before the Tamiami Trail was constructed.

U.S. Sugar Corp. Land Purchase & Everglades Restoration 

The U.S. Sugar Corp. land transaction featured prominently in discussions about the future of Everglades restoration. Tom Brokaw mentioned representatives from Florida Crystals had contacted him questioning the purpose and value of the U.S. Sugar land acquisition. In response, the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Chairman, Eric Buermann, characterized the purchase as a savior of the fragile South Florida environment, allowing the state of Florida its only opportunity in more than half a century to restore water flow south to save the Everglades. Referring to a pair of recent court decisions, Buermann explained that federal judgments have required more land and storage to clean up water and the Everglades and asked, "If not this land, what land?"

Everglades Foundation Chair Paul Tudor Jones II compared the purchase to the challenges President Theodore Roosevelt faced in putting together the National Park System. He suggested that this "generational chance we have to acquire the land must have the political will; we cannot allow any self-interested group to stand in our way." He added the benefits of the purchase must be compared to the costs of the alternatives. Contrasted against the costs of other lands and the proposal for aquifer storage and recovery (ASR), the acquisition of the U.S. Sugar land is most cost-effective restoration option.

Economic Benefits of Everglades Restoration

Jones made the economic case for investing in restoration calling Everglades restoration the single biggest economic engine in South Florida. To support his position, he referenced preliminary findings of an economic study commissioned by the Everglades Foundation which indicates that an outlay of $11 billion in restoration projects today will conservatively generate a 185 percent return on investment over the next 40 years. Final results from the study should be released in July 2010.

Making the Case to Congress

More than 100 Summit attendees participated in the Everglades Advocacy Day training session and were able to ask the Congressional leadership pointed questions about Everglades restoration issues. Following the question-and-answer period with members of Congress, Summit attendees broke into assigned teams to meet personally with lawmakers to seek support for Everglades restoration funding and discuss progress on a wide range of initiatives.

Those who met with lawmakers had several points to make:

• First and foremost, the Everglades is a national treasure that continues to sustain the economy of Southern Florida and replenishes the water supply for one out of every two Floridians.

• Results from Everglades restoration projects are real and measurable. The Kissimmee River restoration has resulted in the return of 90 percent of the regional wading bird population and 45 percent of regional fisheries. Other Everglades wetland ecosystem restoration efforts have continued, with four project groundbreakings in the last seven months.

• Everglades advocates need to continue pushing for funding and generate additional momentum while the costs of construction and land values are at all-time lows. The U.S. Sugar Corp. land purchase will provide the opportunity to recapture water flow that historically went south and make the overall restoration undertaking more cost-effective.

The Summit attendees left Washington, D.C., with the understanding that there is broad-based support for Everglades restoration and that there is a firm foundation to engage more stakeholders to save the historic River of Grass.

To see and hear the "Faces of the Everglades" video, please click here.
(America's Everglades Summit video maps and Imagery granted by SPOT Image under Planet Action Initiative. "© CNES (2010), distribution Spot Image S.A." )