Tell your Representatives how Important Everglades Restoration is to your community!

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Today, as we celebrate Everglades Day we need your help to remind Florida's leadership of the importance of Everglades restoration.

Everglades activist and author, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, would turn 131 years old today – Everglades Day – the day we honor her spirit and carry out her legacy as advocates for Everglades restoration.

Everglades restoration is essential for getting the water right and it touches every part of South Florida’s vast and diverse ecosystem from the headwaters of the Kissimmee River, to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) includes 68 projects throughout the greater Everglades ecosystem and northern estuaries targeted at improving the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of freshwater.

When complete, the projects will work together to provide significant economic and environmental benefits including improved water quality, water supply, increased resilience to climate change, and support for thriving tourism, fishing, and real estate industries.

Everglades Day is an opportunity for environmentalists and activists to give a voice to the Everglades and share the importance of Everglades restoration during legislative session when Florida’s lawmakers are discussing policy and budgets and considering amending and passing new laws.

SCCF typically sends representatives to Tallahassee along with over 60 other conservation and environmental groups who are part of the Everglades Coalition. Like many other aspects of our lives, Everglades Day will need to be celebrated virtually this year.

We are asking YOU to help us get the message to our elected officials that Everglades restoration is a top priority for Floridians.

THANKS for making your voice heard!

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Subject:

Support for Everglades Restoration

Dear Representative:

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was authorized by Congress in the Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA) in 2000 with the intent of improving the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of water throughout the Greater Everglades ecosystem. CERP has 68 project components throughout South Florida that address local water issues and work synergistically to improve the health of our diverse and unique ecosystems, provide water supply for millions of Floridians, and to enhance and protect our economy from the effects of flooding, harmful algal blooms, and climate change.

On April 7, 2021, the environmental activist and author Marjory Stoneman Douglass would have turned 131 years old, so in honor of continuing her work and passion, Everglades Day is an opportunity to remind our leaders of the significance of Everglades restoration to Florida residents and the environment.

The Everglades are unlike any other place in the world. This ecosystem is a subtropical wetland that has unique flora and fauna including the Florida panther, crocodiles, and a diversity of wading birds. This habitat has a long history of alteration and development that critically threatens our communities today. Water that once overflowed the banks of Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades has been cut off by agricultural development and has been diverted to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries causing a reverberation of negative effects throughout the entire Greater Everglades ecosystem from the headwaters of the Kissimmee River to the Florida Bay. Some of these threats include, flooding and drought, eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, seagrass die offs, threats to water supply, and economic losses from the tourism, fishing, and real estate industries.

Everglades restoration will improve sheet flow from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades and reduce damaging discharges to the Northern estuaries. It will also enhance valuable ecosystem services that benefit natural and human communities. The restored ecosystem will improve carbon sequestration in the water conservation areas (WCAs), improve conditions for seagrass, protect the drinking water supply from salt water intrusion, increase biodiversity, and increase Florida’s resilience to climate change and sea level rise.

Florida’s economy depends on the tourism industry and a healthy environment. In 2019 Florida visitors contributed $96.5 billion to Florida’s economy and supported 1.6 million jobs in the tourism industry. The completion of CERP will benefit our economy in many ways including a decrease in the cost of ground water desalination, an increase in real estate value from improved water quality, improved commercial and recreational fishing, and job creation. A report prepared by Mather Economics estimated that the economic benefits will be significant with a conservative estimate of a 4 to 1 return on investment in Everglades Restoration.

Each of the projects within CERP are all part of a much larger system that when complete, will reduce inequities and improve how water is managed throughout the system. These projects are scheduled for planning, design, and construction through 2030 with estimated costs required to support the projects in the 2020 Integrated Delivery Schedule (IDS) developed by the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force Working Group. It is imperative that all projects are fully funded in order to realize the economic and environmental benefits of Everglades restoration. The IDS is a great tool for determining when projects should receive funding for planning and construction while recognizing that the projects will work together once they are all completed to improve the water for everyone in Florida.

I urge you to support funding for Everglades restoration and to support legislation that improves water quality in Florida and eases the suffering of the beautiful Everglades ecosystem.

Sincerely, Your Name

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