The Everglades are more than just swamps, fanboats and crocodiles, and recovery efforts will have more impact than the land between Florida’s East and West Coasts.
Florida Bay, the body of water between the southern tip of mainland Florida and the Florida Keys, accounts for about a third of Everglades National Park.
High salt levels during the dry period can have fatal consequences for plants and animals living in the area, but experts hope this year’s early rainy season will prevent massive sea grass deaths like in the past.
Everglades River
Steve Davis, Chief Science Officer of the Everglades Foundation, is known as the “Estuary of the Everglades.” This is actually a huge, slow moving river that starts around Orlando and runs towards the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula.
“What that meant for the Bay of Florida was that during wet years there was enough water in the bay to maintain salt within its optimal salinity,” Davis said. “However, when we encounter drought years from the average year, salinity levels in the bay can be so high that it can be detrimental to the health of sea grasses and other species that depend on their habitat.”
There is no particularly strong tide in Florida Bay. This means that the water can sit in the bay for up to a year. Salinity levels in the bay could double normal marine salinity if evaporating seawater is not replaced with water from the Everglades, Davis explained.
“And that’s when we really ran into some issues with the health of the bay habitat here,” he said.
The last major seagrass depletion occurred in 2015. Xavier Figuredo, recreational boat captain for Bay and Leaf, said he worked in the area when a massive die-off hit about 40,000 acres.
“You can’t see the water. All you see is dead trees floating above,” Figired said. “And it smells like rotten eggs, sulfur. When the die-offs continued, much of the ecosystem was affected and the fish were affected.”
Preventive measures
Despite over 40% of Florida being below, Davis said he is not particularly concerned about the death of another seagrass. Salt levels in the bay are already lower than they were in 2015 this year.
Davis said it was at least in part to a massive project that elevated the Tamami Trail, a road built in 1928 before heading through the Everglades to Tampa.
The route was essentially a huge dam that prevented water from flowing south, but replaced the roads completed in 2013 and 2019 with two long bridges, and did not unblock the so-called Grass River.
“The months of influx across the Tamami Trail helped ease the salt content,” Davis said.
Another important advantage that Florida Bay has over this year in 2015 is its forecast for the early rainy season, Davis said.
The future of restoration
While the promotion of the Tamiami Trail has already brought great benefits to the Everglades and the Bay of Florida, scientists have relied on the large-scale restoration project, the Everglades’ agricultural area reservoir, to address decades-old water issues across Florida.
The $3.9 billion project will create reservoirs and wetlands to store and clean contaminated water from Lake Okeechobee in central Florida, before being discharged into the southern Everglades. This should reduce the amount of contaminated water sent to Florida’s east and west coasts.
Davis called the Everglades’ Agricultural Area Reservoir “a game changer for freshwater flow repair.”
“What we’re looking at now is the benefits of plumbing, the infrastructure that helps put all the water in the park,” he said. “But if we can flow these massive amounts of water south, the overall system improvements will all the way to Florida Bay.”
Protect the economy
Paul Hinsley, chief economist at the Everglades Foundation, said the Everglades restoration is not only tied to Florida’s ecological fate, but also its economic future.
“Every investment in restoration we receive a financial return of $4,” says Hindsley.
Economic benefits include adding to residential and industrial water supplies, reducing extreme events from droughts such as fires, and reducing the risk of flooding due to heavy precipitation, Hindsley said.
Everglades also offers over $5 billion a year, reducing the risk of costs associated with claims for the National Flood Insurance Program. Meanwhile, South Florida mangroves and coral reefs play an important role in reducing the impact of storm surges.
“To protect the environment is to protect the wealth of Floridians,” Hinsley said.
Fisher writes for the Associated Press.
