The ambitious Florida Everglades restoration project has lurched one massive step forward. The state announced last week that it would buy 75,000 hectares of land from the US Sugar Corporation, a deal that could help restore the flow of fresh water through the wetland ecosystem.
Scientists working on the more than $10 billion project, approved by Congress in 2000, were stunned and delighted by the news. “Most folks were resigned to the fact that it would be hard to acquire that much land,” says Don Boesch at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.
The Everglades depend on the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay, but agriculture and development have reduced water volume and quality. Returned to a marshland state, this land should open a path for water flow, and provide much needed water storage in dry seasons.