For most of the last century, the Everglades was viewed as a swampland
that the state and federal governments wanted turned into a
useful, productive land. Over the past 100 years, numerous government
engineering
projects
have
drained
and dredged it, disrupting its natural water flow paths and cycles.
As a result, only half of the original Everglades remains today.
The rest has been converted into cities where most of South Florida’s
five million people live and work, as well as some of the most
productive farmland in the nation.
Over the past 20 years, a massive national effort has been
launched to save the remaining Everglades and to restore its
key eco-systems. Farmers, recognizing that farming techniques required
changing and updating, have worked closely with water managers
to clean and
preserve the Everglades’ unique habitats for future generations.
The key effort to restore and preserve the Everglades began
with the passage of the 1994 Everglades Forever Act (EFA),
which established a water quality standard for farm runoff that is
twice as clean as rain,
and directed the first phase of restoration.
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is a plan to
replumb the water delivery system in South Florida. It was approved
by Congress in 2000 and is the most ambitious eco-system restoration
ever undertaken
in the world.
