The plan is to restore 55,000 acres of wetlands by eliminating previously built roads and canals.
By Associated Press
Published October 17, 2003
PICAYUNE STATE FOREST - Gov. Jeb Bush marked the start of the $8.4-billion restoration of the Everglades on Thursday near an abandoned development that will be converted back to wetlands and habitat for endangered Florida panthers.
The project aims to transform 55,000 acres of roads, canals and empty lots that were part of a 1960s development scam. Workers will fill in four canals, beginning with the 7-mile Prairie Canal, that were created to avoid flooding in the planned development.
They also will erase 26 miles of roads that block the flow of water in Picayune State Forest in western Collier County. The project will help restore native plants and habitat for the endangered panthers and wood storks,as well as the threatened red-cockaded woodpecker, bald eagle and eastern indigo snake.
"If you don't have a natural flow of water that mimics what ancient Florida looked like when the Everglades was significantly larger, it alters everything. It alters plants and endangered species," Bush said. "If we don't do this, we imperil not only the natural environment but our overall quality of life."
The joint federal-state restoration project is essentially a replumbing of the Everglades to restore its natural water flows, stop its degradation and ensure that enough water goes to agriculture and urban needs. Congress provided the general outline and approved the restoration three years ago.
Transforming the development known as Southern Golden Gate Estates is the first step in the larger restoration, which is expected to take at least three decades.
The development is surrounded by the Florida Panther Wildlife Refuge, the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve, the 10,000 Islands National Wildlife Refuge and Collier Seminole State Park.
The now-bankrupt Gulf American Land Corp. set out to develop the land in the early 1960s before environmental protection measures were in place. The company sold plots on land that was virtually unbuildable. Few structures were built and only six property owners ended up living on the land. The state has purchased all but two of the remaining plots, including a section owned by the Miccosukee Tribe.
The network of roads and canals built to start the development pushed the water table down by as much as 4 feet, allowing foreign Brazilian pepper trees and other exotic plants to invade the Cypress-dotted area.
The changes have caused an increase in wildfires, shot damaging loads of freshwater into coastal estuaries and threatened nearby drinking water wellfields for Collier County with saltwater.
