Officials in charge of reviving the Florida Everglades have created an outreach program to encourage minority involvement in the region’s decades-long, multi-billion dollar restoration plan. The $11 million outreach program accords with 2000 legislation that granted federal funding for Everglades restoration and called on the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to involve minorities in the process. Coordinators of the outreach program hope black, Latino, Native American, poor, and rural Floridians will recognize the benefits of restoration and be given a fair share of related government contracts.
