40
1.5 Conclusions
The unique Florida Everglades ecosystem came under assault from human action
early in the nineteenth century. Initial insults, starting in the mid 1800s, to the subtropical ecosystem took the form of ditch and drain projects that converted the wetlands into dry land that could be used for agriculture and urban expansion. By the
time people began to see the unwanted effects when more than half of the Everglades
was lost to development, flora and fauna populations were in decline and the ecosystem was severely compromised to the point that nutrient-rich surface and ground
water supplies to the coast caused algal blooms, dead zones as in Florida Bay, and
degraded coral-algal reefs of the Florida Reef Tract in the Atlantic Ocean along the
Florida east coast. Estuarine systems on the east, west, and southern coasts of the
Florida Peninsula were also degraded by injection of nutrient-rich waters from the
Everglades. The extent of ecosystem decline basically affects the entire southern
part of the State of Florida. Numerous efforts put in place to remediate the environmental damage were only marginally successful at best and complete failures at
worst. A recounting and evaluation of the largest restoration project on the planet
stresses the point that government planners and managers eschew dealing with
causes in preference to trying to fix symptoms. The latter approach appeases special
interest groups such as the agricultural lobby to the point that it is not envisaged how
the Everglades can be put back together again.
Restoration of the Florida Everglades is not an isolated case on the world scene
as many coastal wetlands are being usurped by urban expansion and commercial/
industrial development. Such approaches are not conspiratorial in nature but most
likely result from ignorance and mismanagement of fragile ecosystems, as government agencies are influenced by special interest groups that promise income incentives to public coffers from activities on the drained and ‘reclaimed’ wetlands. Short
sightedness on the part of governments create a lack of understanding of the value
of these coastal wetlands to the environment and a willingness to ignore causes of
environmental destruction on the part of the general public and its government creates situations that are untenable for future generations. What is evident today in the
case of the Florida Everglades is that more than half of the ecosystem has already
been destroyed and the remainder is in grave danger of despoliation and ecological
succession into an environment that will be foreign to the zone that it was developed
in. This estrangement from potential natural environments occurs because native
species are lost or reduced to the brink of extinction because present management
practices, adaptive or not, cannot put the system back together again. The almost
kaleidoscopic piggybacking and partly overlapping restoration programs call for
concision of effort to avoid duplicity and uncoordinated work. The present state of
affairs is unsustainable and it remains unknown what the Everglades ecosystem will
evolve into at this point in time. Such may be the case for other coastal wetlands
elsewhere.
C.W. Finkl and C. Makowski
1.5 Conclusions
The unique Florida Everglades ecosystem came under assault from human action
early in the nineteenth century. Initial insults, starting in the mid 1800s, to the subtropical ecosystem took the form of ditch and drain projects that converted the wetlands into dry land that could be used for agriculture and urban expansion. By the
time people began to see the unwanted effects when more than half of the Everglades
was lost to development, flora and fauna populations were in decline and the ecosystem was severely compromised to the point that nutrient-rich surface and ground
water supplies to the coast caused algal blooms, dead zones as in Florida Bay, and
degraded coral-algal reefs of the Florida Reef Tract in the Atlantic Ocean along the
Florida east coast. Estuarine systems on the east, west, and southern coasts of the
Florida Peninsula were also degraded by injection of nutrient-rich waters from the
Everglades. The extent of ecosystem decline basically affects the entire southern
part of the State of Florida. Numerous efforts put in place to remediate the environmental damage were only marginally successful at best and complete failures at
worst. A recounting and evaluation of the largest restoration project on the planet
stresses the point that government planners and managers eschew dealing with
causes in preference to trying to fix symptoms. The latter approach appeases special
interest groups such as the agricultural lobby to the point that it is not envisaged how
the Everglades can be put back together again.
Restoration of the Florida Everglades is not an isolated case on the world scene
as many coastal wetlands are being usurped by urban expansion and commercial/
industrial development. Such approaches are not conspiratorial in nature but most
likely result from ignorance and mismanagement of fragile ecosystems, as government agencies are influenced by special interest groups that promise income incentives to public coffers from activities on the drained and ‘reclaimed’ wetlands. Short
sightedness on the part of governments create a lack of understanding of the value
of these coastal wetlands to the environment and a willingness to ignore causes of
environmental destruction on the part of the general public and its government creates situations that are untenable for future generations. What is evident today in the
case of the Florida Everglades is that more than half of the ecosystem has already
been destroyed and the remainder is in grave danger of despoliation and ecological
succession into an environment that will be foreign to the zone that it was developed
in. This estrangement from potential natural environments occurs because native
species are lost or reduced to the brink of extinction because present management
practices, adaptive or not, cannot put the system back together again. The almost
kaleidoscopic piggybacking and partly overlapping restoration programs call for
concision of effort to avoid duplicity and uncoordinated work. The present state of
affairs is unsustainable and it remains unknown what the Everglades ecosystem will
evolve into at this point in time. Such may be the case for other coastal wetlands
elsewhere.
C.W. Finkl and C. Makowski