The roughly $10 billion restoration of the Everglades is “making scant progress toward achieving its goals” due to built-in bureaucracy, funding troubles, and more, according to a report from the National Research Council. The report paints a bleak picture of federal and state rescue efforts, which together comprise the largest ecosystem restoration project in history. Of the rescue plan’s more than 60 components, not one has been completed yet. As it stands, “it appears that planning rather than doing, reporting rather than constructing, and administering rather than restoring are consuming [state and federal workers’] talents and time,” the report says. In short, it’s long past time for action. If the plan’s many flaws aren’t addressed soon, “the Everglades ecosystem may experience irreversible losses to its character and functioning.” Florida’s plan to buy 187,000 acres of sugar-industry land in the Everglades to help restore water flows is a noble effort, the report says, but benefits from it won’t be seen for at least a decade and the Everglades need action now in order to be saved.
