Everglades Work Far from Standing Still

By Kameran Onley

Kameran Onley is the Assistant Deputy Interior Secretary and Chair of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.

The Nov. 30 editorial in The Palm Beach Post, "Everglades stagnation," begins by asserting, "Blame President Bush and years of an uncooperative Congress. Everglades restoration is at a standstill ..." This statement ignores the many accomplishments that are under way and even federal efforts before 2000.

Restoring the Everglades is one of the most ambitious and complex landscape restoration
efforts ever attempted. The Department of the Interior and its agencies, including the
National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the United States Geological
Survey, are proud partners in the effort.

For more than a decade, we have been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal agencies, the state, including the South Florida Water Management District, two Native American Indian tribes, numerous local governments and other interested parties to develop and implement programs to increase supplies of clean fresh water, restore habitat and aid the recovery of threatened and endangered species.

Collectively, the Interior Department is steward of one-half of the remaining Everglades. The lands and resources that we manage represent the principal beneficiary of programs that have been under way for years, including Kissimmee River Restoration, C-111 and Modified Water Deliveries, as well as the four-decade Comprehensive Everglades
Restoration Plan of 2000 (CERP), which the administration is implementing.

The National Academy of Sciences, in its 2006 report to Congress, noted that progress is being made. Specifically, the academy found that "much good science has been developed to support the restoration efforts and that progress has been made in CERP program support."

Similarly, a May 2007 Government Accountability Office report noted that of
the more than 200 projects that encompass restoration, 70''percent are completed and/or under way, with the remainder in the planning stage or not yet started.

Progress is being made every day, and although some things may be occurring more slowly or differently than anticipated, we are not at a standstill. For example, this administration developed the legal and regulatory framework to implement Everglades restoration over the next four decades.

We established independent peer review and a monitoring and assessment plan for
restoration. We submitted three project implementation reports to Congress that served as the basis for the recent authorization of Everglades restoration projects, including the Indian River Lagoon and Picayune Strand projects. We partnered with the state on its initiative to accelerate work on components of eight initially authorized projects by
issuing federal permits and assisted in buying land for those projects.
At Interior, we also are taking many other actions to protect the water, land and wildlife of the Everglades. For example, we are updating the general management plans for Everglades and Biscayne national parks to ensure that these areas are preserved for the future; likewise, we established a no-take research natural area in Dry Tortugas
National Park.

The administration also has increased federal money to combat invasive exotic species in the area and initiated a number of projects to protect endangered and threatened species and their Everglades habitats such as moving endangered key deer to assist in the species' recovery.

Overall, since this administration took office in 2001, federal appropriations for restoration projects nationwide totaled $1.1 billion, with $372''million of that amount for Everglades restoration projects.

The primary challenge will be to maintain the partnership among all parties for the next several decades. Instead of wondering whether Everglades restoration ever will be done, it is more effective to plan ahead, accomplish what we can and then move on to the next priority. The Department of the Interior and its employees are deeply committed to
making restoration succeed. We must, so that the Everglades is preserved and restored for this and future generations.

This article appeared in the Dec. 8, 2007 edition of the Florida Palm Beach Post.