Islamorada, Fla. – Everglades are more than just swamps, fans and caimanes boats and restoration efforts impact more than the Earth between the east and west coast of Florida.
Florida Bay, a body of water located between the southern end of the Continental Florida and the Florida Keys, represents approximately one third of the Everglades National Park.
High salt levels during dry periods may have fatal consequences for plants and animals that live in the region, although experts expect an early rainy season this year to avoid a massive death of sea grass as experienced in the past.
Steve Davis, scientific director of the Everglades Foundation, called Florida Bay the Everglades estuary, which is actually a giant and slow river that begins in Orlando and goes to the southern end of the Florida Peninsula.
“What that meant for Florida Bay was that during the wet years, there is enough water in the bay to maintain salinities within that optimal salinity range,” Davis said. “But when we find an average to dry year or a year of drought, it meant that salinity levels in the bay would become so high that it could be harmful to the health of marine pastures and the other species that depend on that habitat.”
Florida Bay has no particularly strong tides, which means that water can sit in the bay for up to one year. When evaporating seawater, it is not replaced by Everglades water, the salinity levels of the bay can double normal oceanic salinity, Davis explained.
“And that’s when we really find some problems with the health of habitats here in the bay,” he said.
The last great death of sea grass occurred in 2015. Xavier Figueredo, a recreational captain of boats with Bay and Reef Company, said he was working in the area when mass death reached around 40,000 acres (16,000 hectares).
“You can’t see the water. Everything you see is dead herb floating at the top,” Figueredo said. “And it smells like sulfur, as rotten eggs. As death continued, more of the ecosystem was affected, the fish were affected.”
Even with more than 40% Florida underneath drought conditionsDavis said he is not yet especially worried about another death of sea grass. Salt levels in bay are already relatively lower this year than in 2015.
Davis said it is at least partially thanks to a massive project that raised more than 3.5 miles (5.6 kilometers) of Tamiami Trail, a road built in 1928 that crosses the Everglades from Miami to Naples before heading north to Tampa.
The route was essentially a giant dam that prevented water from flowing south, but replacing the road with two long bridges, completed in 2013 and 2019, unlock the so -called grass river.
“Months of entry in Tamiami Trail have helped moderate salinities,” Davis said.
The other significant advantage that Florida Bay has this year compared to 2015 is the prognosis of an early wet station instead of a late wet season, Davis said.
While raising Tamiami Trail has already created a significant benefit for Everglades and Florida Bay, scientists have a mass restoration project, the Everglades Reervoir agricultural areato address the water problems of decades throughout Florida.
The $ 3.9 billion project will create a deposit and a wetland to store and clean the contaminated water of Lake Okeechobee in the center of Florida before it is discharged in the Southern Everglades. This should also decrease the amount of contaminated water that is sent to the east and west coast of Florida.
Davis called the Everglades agricultural area “The Game Changer for the restoration of fresh water flow.”
“What we are seeing right now are the benefits of plumbing, the infrastructure that helps take all that water to the park,” he said. “But once we can flow those largest volumes of water to the south, we will see an improvement throughout the system to Florida Bay.”
The restoration of Everglades is not only linked to the ecological future of Florida, but also in his economic future, said Paul Hindsley, chief economist of the Everglades Foundation.
“For every dollar of investment in restoration, we are receiving $ 4 in economic benefits,” said Hindsley.
Economic benefits include adding the residential and industrial water supply, reducing extreme days of drought, such as fires and reducing the risk of flooding of strong rainfall, Hindsley said.
Everglades also provide more than $ 5 billion a year at a reduced risk of costs associated with national claims of the flood insurance program. Meanwhile, the mangroves and reefs of southern Florida play an important role in reducing the impacts of the marile cyclonic.
“Protecting the environment is to protect the richness of the Floridans,” said Hindsley.
