The Everglades, a region of tropical wetlands in southern Florida, are under an ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted during the 20th century; it is considered the most expensive and comprehensive environmental repair attempt in history.Grunwald, p. 2.Schmitt, Eric (October 20, 2000). "Everglades Restoration Plan Passes House, With Final Approval Seen", The New York Times, p. 1. The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to construct an airport in the Big Cypress Swamp. Studies indicated the airport would have destroyed the ecosystem in South Florida and Everglades National Park.J. V. F. (October, 1969). "Special Feature: Recent Developments in Everglades Controversy", BioScience, 19 (10), pp. 926–927. After decades of destructive practices, both state and federal agencies are looking for ways to balance the needs of the natural environment in South Florida with urban and agricultural centers that have recently and rapidly grown in and near the Everglades.
In response to floods caused by hurricanes in 1947, the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project (C&SF) was established to construct flood control devices in the Everglades. The C&SF built of canals and levees between the 1950s and 1971 throughout South Florida. Their last venture was the C-38 canal, which straightened the Kissimmee River and caused catastrophic damage to animal habitats, adversely affecting water quality in the region. The canal became the first C&SF project to revert when the canal began to be backfilled, or refilled with the material excavated from it, in the 1980s.
When high levels of phosphorus and mercury were discovered in the waterways in 1986, water quality became a focus for water management agencies. Costly and lengthy court battles were waged between various government entities to determine who was responsible for monitoring and enforcing water quality standards. Governor Lawton Chiles proposed a bill that determined which agencies would have that responsibility, and set deadlines for pollutant levels to decrease in water. Initially the bill was criticized by conservation groups for not being strict enough on polluters, but the Everglades Forever Act was passed in 1994. Since then, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have surpassed expectations for achieving lower phosphorus levels.
A commission appointed by Governor Chiles published a report in 1995 stating that South Florida was unable to sustain its growth, and the deterioration of the environment was negatively affecting daily life for residents in South Florida. The environmental decline was predicted to harm tourism and commercial interests if no actions were taken to halt current trends. Results of an eight-year study that evaluated the C&SF were submitted to the United States Congress in 1999. The report warned that if no action was taken the region would rapidly deteriorate. A strategy called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was enacted to restore portions of the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee River, and Florida Bay to undo the damage of the past 50 years. It would take 30 years and cost $7.8 billion to complete. Though the plan was passed into law in 2000, it has been compromised by political and funding problems.
On June 27, 2025, a coalition led by Friends of the Everglades, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians filed suit in a federal court seeking an injunction against the installation of an immigration detention camp until a full environmental review and public-comment period are completed. Plaintiffs argue the project threatens endangered species habitat, including that of the Florida panther, and violates both the National Environmental Policy Act and tribal cultural-resource protections.
Background
The Everglades are part of a very large watershed that begins in the vicinity of Orlando. The Kissimmee River drains into Lake Okeechobee, a lake with an average depth of . During the wet season when the lake exceeds its capacity, the water leaves the lake in a very wide and shallow river, approximately long and wide.Lodge, p. 20. This wide and shallow flow is known as sheetflow. The land gradually slopes toward Florida Bay, the historical destination of most of the water leaving the Everglades. Before drainage attempts, the Everglades comprised , taking up a third of the Florida peninsula.Lodge, p. 14.
Since the early 19th century the Everglades have been a subject of interest for agricultural development. The first attempt to drain the Everglades occurred in 1882 when Pennsylvania land developer Hamilton Disston constructed the first canals. Though these attempts were largely unsuccessful, Disston's purchase of land spurred tourism and real estate development of the state. The political motivations of Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward resulted in more successful attempts at canal construction between 1906 and 1920. Recently reclaimed wetlands were used for cultivating sugarcane and vegetables, while urban development began in the Everglades.Dovell, Junius (July 1948). "The Everglades: A Florida Frontier", Agricultural History 22 (3), pp. 187–197.
The 1926 Miami Hurricane and the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane caused widespread devastation and flooding which prompted the Army Corps of Engineers to construct a dike around Lake Okeechobee. The four-story wall cut off water from the Everglades. Floods from hurricanes in 1947 motivated the US Congress to establish the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project (C&SF), responsible for constructing of canals and levees, hundreds of pumping stations and other water control devices. The C&SF established Water Conservation Areas (WCAs) in 37% of the original Everglades, which acted as reservoirs providing excess water to the South Florida metropolitan area, or flushing it into the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.Light, Stephen, J. Walter Dineen "Water Control in the Everglades: A Historical Perspective" in Everglades: The Ecosystem and its Restoration, Steven Davis and John Ogden, eds. (1994), St. Lucie Press. The C&SF also established the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), which grows the majority of sugarcane crops in the United States. When the EAA was first established, it encompassed approximately 27% of the original Everglades.
By the 1960s, urban development and agricultural use had decreased the size of the Everglades considerably. The remaining 25% of the Everglades in its original state is protected in Everglades National Park, but the park was established before the C&SF, and it depended upon the actions of the C&SF to release water. As Miami and other metropolitan areas began to intrude on the Everglades in the 1960s, political battles took place between park management and the C&SF when insufficient water in the park threw ecosystems into chaos. Fertilizers used in the EAA began to alter soil and hydrology in Everglades National Park, causing the proliferation of exotic plant species.Snyder G.H., J. Davidson, "Everglades Agriculture: Past, Present and Future" in Everglades: The Ecosystem and its Restoration, Steven Davis and John Ogden, eds. (1994), St. Lucie Press. A proposition to build a massive jetport in the Big Cypress Swamp in 1969 focused attention on the degraded natural systems in the Everglades. For the first time, the Everglades became a subject of environmental conservation.Mueller, Marti (October 10, 1969). "Everglades Jetport: Academy Prepares a Model", Science, New Series, 166 (3902), pp. 202–203.
Everglades as a priority Environmental protection became a national priority in the 1970s. Time magazine declared it the Issue of the Year in January 1971, reporting that it was rated as Americans' "most serious problem confronting their community—well ahead of crime, drugs and poor schools". When South Florida experienced a severe drought from 1970 to 1975, with Miami receiving only of rain in 1971— less than average—media attention focused on the Everglades.Gunderson, Lance, et al. (1995). "Lessons from the Everglades", BioScience, 45, Supplement: Science and Biodiversity Policy, pp. S66–S73. With the assistance of governor's aide Nathaniel Reed and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Arthur R. Marshall, politicians began to take action. Governor Reubin Askew implemented the Land Conservation Act in 1972, allowing the state to use voter-approved bonds of $240 million to purchase land considered to be environmentally unique and irreplaceable. Since then, Florida has purchased more land for public use than any other state.Grunwald, p. 262 In 1972 President Richard Nixon declared the Big Cypress Swamp—the intended location for the Miami jetport in 1969—to be federally protected. Big Cypress National Preserve was established in 1974, and Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve was created the same year.
In 1976, Everglades National Park was declared an International Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, which also listed the park as a World Heritage Site in 1979. The Ramsar Convention designated the Everglades a Wetland of International Importance in 1987. Only three locations on Earth have appeared on all three lists: Everglades National Park, Lake Ichkeul in Tunisia, and Srebarna Lake in Bulgaria.Maltby, E., P.J. Dugan, "Wetland Ecosystem Management, and Restoration: An International Perspective" in Everglades: The Ecosystem and its Restoration, Steven Davis and John Ogden, eds. (1994), St. Lucie Press.
Kissimmee River In the 1960s, the C&SF came under increased scrutiny from government overseers and conservation groups. Critics maintained its size was comparable to the Tennessee Valley Authority's dam-building projects during the Great Depression, and that the construction had run into the billions of dollars without any apparent resolution or plan.Davis, Jack (January 2003). "'Conservation is now a dead word': Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the transformation of American environmentalism." Environmental History, 8 (1) pp. 53–76. The projects of the C&SF have been characterized as part of "crisis and response" cycles that "ignored the consequence for the full system, assumed certainty of the future, and succeeded in solving the momentary crisis, but set in motion conditions that exaggerate future crises".Holling, C.S. "The Structure and Dynamics of the Everglades System: Guidelines for Ecosystem Restoration" in Everglades : The Ecosystem and its Restoration, Steven Davis and John Ogden, eds. (1994), St. Lucie Press. The last project, to build a canal to straighten the winding floodplain of the Kissimmee River that had historically fed Lake Okeechobee which in turn fed the Everglades, began in 1962. Marjory Stoneman Douglas later wrote that the C&SF projects were "interrelated stupidity", crowned by the C-38 canal.Douglas (1987), p. 229. Designed to replace a meandering river with a channel, the canal was completed in 1971 and cost $29 million. It supplanted approximately of marshland with retention ponds, dams, and vegetation. Loss of habitat has caused the region to experience a drastic decrease of waterfowl, wading birds, and game fish. The reclaimed floodplains were taken over by agriculture, bringing fertilizers and insecticides that washed into Lake Okeechobee. Even before the canal was finished, conservation organizations and sport fishing and hunting groups were calling for the restoration of the Kissimmee River.