Dr. Steve Davis, chief science officer with the Everglades Foundation, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM yesterday morning to talk about the organization.
A group of environmental journalists, including the Associated Press and Miami Herald, spent some time at the Florida Bay last week.
Dr. Davis said, “It was a gorgeous day. I always enjoy being on the Florida Bay, a bit windy as it can be down there, and we were able to get out to some nice calm areas on the side of a few islands and talk about the importance of sea grass, talk about the importance of fresh water flow restoration from Everglades restoration and how that drives the health of the bay.”
What’s the current state of the bay now?
Dr. Davis said, “Actually, the bay is looking good, and it is an estuary of the Everglades and what that means is fresh water flow coming out of the Everglades mixes with sea water in that basin. It’s a sea grass and mangrove dominated basin that depends on a mix of those two water sources to keep it healthy. We’ve been in what is a pretty severe drought across South Florida this year, drier than average conditions mean historically, the way we’ve replumbed South Florida generally means that we don’t get much fresh water flow into Everglades National Park and into Florida Bay. But what we’ve been seeing is that salinities are in a pretty good position, and it’s because of the fact that we’ve been able to flow water across Tamiami Trail under those bridges that have been built along Tamiami Trail for Everglades restoration, that water is making its way down to Florida Bay, and so we’re not seeing the extreme salinity that we saw, say, in 2015 when we had our last severe drought in South Florida. So things are looking good for the bay. It’s not to say we’re out of the woods, because we do need the wet season to start when it typically does in late May and early June, but things are much better this year than we would have otherwise anticipated based on the drought we’ve been in. The reef is obviously vulnerable to other drivers, and chief among them is sea surface temperatures, but certainly not having that hot, excessively salty water coming out of the bay, passing through some of those channels into the offshore areas of the Keys that certainly helps to provide some resilience building capacity in the reefs, and certainly for the health of the bay too.”
Climate change does have an impact on the Everglades and the bay.
Dr. Davis said, “We do know that as South Florida is warmer, that with no change in rainfall, means we have a drier South Florida because increased evaporation, more water holding capacity in the atmosphere. But we also know we have more extreme weather events, and so with the hurricane season coming upon us, that’s something we’ll certainly be keeping our eye on. But all of this points to the need for more storage that Everglades restoration brings. There’s a large reservoir project that’s under construction right now in the Everglades agricultural area. We call it the EAA reservoir project. It is the largest project that the Army Corps of Engineers has built in terms of water storage. This is really the heart bypass surgery for the Everglades. It allows us to reconnect Lake Okeechobee back to the Everglades, ultimately down to the park and certainly down into Florida Bay, and that’s the project that we’re really pushing as the priority for restoration in South Florida. It’s not just for the health of the bay, it’s for our water supply in South Florida and throughout the Keys. We know that we need that project in order to say we’ve restored this ecosystem.”
There’s tremendous economic impact and effect on the fishing and boating industries related to what the Everglades Foundation is doing in the Florida Bay and the Everglades overall.
Dr. Davis said, “Indeed, it’s not only about the fishing and boating economy, though, it’s also about real estate. We depend on clean water, not only for all of those things that we associate with the Everglades, but it also affects our property values. There have been numerous studies done to show that the healthier the bay, the healthier our environment, the cleaner the water, the more that supports strong property values and the Florida Realtors Association has conducted studies showing just the opposite, that if we pollute our waterways, we see significant declines in property values.”
Everglades restoration has been discussed for 25 years.
Dr. Davis said, “But really, it’s just the last decade that we’ve made significant strides in building these infrastructure projects that we need to restore this ecosystem. We’re starting to see the benefits. We’re seeing the benefits in Everglades National Park. We see strong evidence of those benefits translating down to Florida Bay, and there’s much more to come.”
For more information, click here: https://www.evergladesfoundation.org/