Grassroots in Action: The Sierra Club's Role in the Campaign to Restore the Kissimmee River

Abstract

The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental organization that pursues its conservation agenda through lobbying, litigation, education, and electoral politics. The Club's major conservation campaigns are strengthened by the science-conservation connection, and include efforts to protect, enhance, and restore aquatic ecosystems such as the Great Lakes and the nation's wetlands. One of the Club's major conservation efforts over the past 20 years has been the campaign to restore Florida's Kissimmee River. After 20 years of effort following completion of channelization, a restoration plan was approved to backfill 47 km of the canal, restoring 130 km2 of ecosystem, including 90 km of the old river, over 11,500 ha of wetlands, and critical habitat for 300 species of fish and wildlife. The push for restoration, expected to take 10 to 15 years and to cost as much as $422 million, benefitted from cooperation and involvement from scientists and lay-people alike. Research indi- cated that ecological integrity of the Kissimmee River could be restored only with a holistic approach to the form and function of the former ecosystem. The Kissimmee River restoration campaign is an excellent example of scientists and conservationists using their combined skills to change public policy and to benefit the environment. The Sierra Club's call to NABS members and to other scientists is to not to stop here, but to continue and develop this fruitful relationship in pursuit of common conservation goals.