Coastal ecosystemsReplumbing the everglades: Large-scale wetlands restoration in South Florida

Abstract

This chapter discusses the impact of coastal ecosystems on large-scale wetlands restoration in South Florida. Water is a barrier to the human settlement of the Everglades region. Water dominates the South Florida ecosystem like few other places in North America. This was once an unbroken marshland of sawgrass and small tree islands fed by a shallow sheet of water flowing south from Lake Okeechobee. Croplands—mostly sugarcane—have displaced the entire northern third of the Everglades; only the southern end remains in a relatively natural state as Everglades National Park and Big Cypress National Preserve. The chapter also focuses on the beginning of Florida's agriculture and the Central and South Florida (C&SF) Project. The C&SF Project has brought huge social and economic benefits to the region. The changes in the water cycle and land-use patterns in South Florida have impaired the natural functioning of the ecosystem in a number of important ways, degrading the services that it has traditionally supplied and threatening to undermine the region's economy. The chapter also discusses the management of Mankote Mangrove and Bolinao Rallies around its reef. The municipal waters of Bolinao are divided into four zones with different use designations, such as “reef fishing,” “ecotourism,” “multiple use,” and “trade and navigation.”