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Hi, everyone.
My name is Jacie, and I'm the
social media coordinator here at the
Emerald Coast Science Center.
Hi, I'm Diane, and I'm the director
here.
And today we have a special guest
from the Everglades Foundation that's
going to be talking to us about
some restoration projects that are in play
in the southern end of the state.
So I'll let you introduce yourself.
Hi.
My name is Steve Davis, and I
am the Chief Science Officer at the
Everglades Foundation.
It's good to join you.
Yeah, thanks for joining us today.
So let's get started.
Can you tell us a little bit
about what the Everglades is and why
it should be important to everyone
throughout the whole entire state of
Florida?
Well, the Everglades generally, people
think of the river of grass as
being the Everglades.
And really it's a massive area of
connected wetlands that historically
extended from the southern rim of Lake
Okeechobee all the way down to the
tip of the peninsula.
So we're talking a very large area.
And the watershed was Lake Okeechobee
north up to Orlando.
So when you consider the watershed of
the ecosystem, it was 200 plus miles
in length down the middle of the
state.
And so for the state of Florida,
it's an incredibly important place because
it's a massive wetland, it helps to
sort of manage, cleanse, and recharge our
water supply.
Those of us that live in Miami,
Fort Lauderdale, major metropolitan areas
along the lower east coast, we all
get our water supply from the aquifer
that the Everglades recharges.
And it's also an important economic driver
for the state.
It affects our fishing.
It affects our water quality.
It's a hotspot for biodiversity.
So when you start to think about
its importance at a national and
international scale, it is a site of
international biodiversity.
It's a nationally, internationally
recognized wetland for its value.
It's a World Heritage site.
Down in Everglades National park, it's a
subtropical peatland wetland that actually
accumulates peat soils.
And so over a very large scale
of this wetland, it's important in
sequestering carbon.
So for a variety of reasons, this
is a really interesting place.
And I could go on and talk
about how we have this, you know,
mix of species from the tropics,
subtropics and temperate regions here in
south Florida.
But it's just a really fantastic place
that we would like more people to
understand and recognize its value.
And it's one of the things that
we talk about quite a bit when
we talk about invasive species.
And this is probably not part of
the work that you guys do.
But, you know, we talk a lot
about the pythons in the Everglades and
how that has really changed the apex
predator situation down there and really
decimated a lot of the ecosystem.
As far as, you know, they don't
have natural predators and they eat
everything.
And so we talk about that a
lot when we talk about the snakes
that we have here at the science
center as well.
And it's just such an incredibly unique
ecosystem, and it's under so many
different pressures coming at it from so
many different directions.
So it's not just the way that
we as human beings treat it.
I know some issues about fertilizers in
Lake Okeechobee, and I know some things,
you know, about pollution and then, you
know, coming downstream into the
everglades, but also so, you know, animals
that don't belong there have really
dramatically changed that area.
So can you tell us a little
bit more about the Everglades Foundation's
work and what your role as a
scientist is in the foundation?
Well, we're kind of unique as an
environmental ngo in that we are science
based.
We have a team of eight now
PhD scientists on staff with backgrounds
in ecology, hydrology, water quality,
economics, resilience.
And we engage at a variety of
levels to move everglades restoration
toward completion.
So we work with academic scientists, we
work with agency scientists to understand
how best to plan these projects to
how to operate them.
We're building massive water
infrastructure projects here in south
Florida, and we work to ensure that
not only are they built to deliver
benefits, but that they're operated to
maximize benefits to the environment, to
our water supply.
And, of course, fundamentally to all this
is ensuring flood protection for our
communities adjacent to the Everglades.
So there are a number of factors
that go into the construction, the
operation of these projects, and we work
at those levels, but we also work
to advance science and understanding of
the ecosystem and its vulnerabilities,
things that transcend restoration, like
climate change.
And so we also engage in science
to understand the vulnerabilities of the
ecosystem and potentially how we might be
able to operate it in the future,
to manage and mitigate those benefits as
much as possible.
But we operate at a variety of
levels in the scientific community.
But we also work with other ngo
groups that don't have the technical
capacity that we have to make sure
they understand why certain design
elements are important, and again, how we
can work as a community to ensure
that they're operated to deliver maximum
benefit.
So do you get support from the
government in the state of Florida?
I mean, are they supportive of the
projects that you guys are working on?
And do they understand the value of
why the Everglades is so important, not
just to us, but to the world?
We do not receive government funding.
All of our budget is raised annually
through the generosity of private donors,
foundations, corporate sponsors.
And they recognize the importance of this
ecosystem to Florida, to our state's
economy, and at a global level, the
significance of this ecosystem.
So we collaborate with the government as
much as we can.
They recognize our capacity from a
scientific and technical perspective.
But we operate best as sort of
an independent boundary organization to
ensure that science is driving this
massive restoration effort forward, the
largest ecosystem restoration project in
the world, and that it's not influenced
by special interests, that science is
actually guiding the way.
Oh, I love that.
That makes me so happy to hear
science is guiding the way, because I
know a lot of times that if
you are dependent on different funding
streams, then you can be influenced by,
you know, who's writing the checks.
And so I love that you guys
are kind of completely independent.
And also that gives you a lot
of latitude to be able to decide
what it is that you want to
work on, what, you know to be
the most important thing, because you are
the expert.
You know, you're the person that knows
the most about this ecosystem, probably,
than you know anybody else that is
looking at it or is a part
of it.
So what are some of your big
projects?
You know, what are some of the
restoration projects that you guys have
going on right now?
Well, we've got a few that are
in progress.
One is a reservoir south of Lake
Okeechobee that's under construction now.
And we hope to shape that plan.
And we're actually working on
understanding how we can operate that when
that project is built in 2030.
So when that project's completed, we want
to be poised with a plan that
will ensure, again, maximal environmental
benefits of that project.
And that's a multibillion dollar reservoir
project, again, that's under construction
right now.
So we're looking at how we can
operate the system in an improved way
with that added infrastructure.
We're also looking at how restoration
projects that are being planned right now,
one in Miami Dade county called the
Biscayne Bay Southeast Everglades
Ecosystem restoration Project.
That's a mouthful.
BBCR, we call it, and we're doing
some of the modeling associated with that
project again to try to optimize the
plan that we hope to get out
of that project in the next year
or two.
So what do you think some of
the external pressures are on the
everglades right now?
Population growth, climate change,
invasive species.
Which ones rise to the top of
your list?
Well, in general, the biggest challenge is
just trying to maintain the pace, the
momentum of restoration, and there are a
number of forces that work against that.
You constantly we have to maintain the
political will and the funding that's
needed to build these projects because the
degradation is occurring faster than we
can restore it at this time.
And that's why the reservoir south of
Lake Okeechobee is so critical, because it
reconnects the heart of the ecosystem back
to the body.
It's literally a bypass surgery for the
Everglades because it allows us to take
large volumes of water from the lake
and store and clean that water and
send it south.
So ensuring that these projects are built,
that's one of our biggest challenges, and
ensuring that the funding is there each
and every year to ensure completion of
the infrastructure and then, of course,
operating it.
But we also have other challenges.
Climate change, sea level rise are
challenges that continue to grow in terms
of their impact.
Sea levels are rising around the
Everglades because we've reduced the flow
of fresh water with the drainage efforts
of the past.
That has allowed saltwater intrusion to
penetrate further into the ecosystem.
So the sooner we can get fresh
water flowing south again, the more we
can slow that transition, allow for more
natural, gradual sea level rise, habitat
transitions to take place.
Right now, it's just pretty dramatic in
terms of the impact that it's had,
and we continue to study that as
well.
But there are a whole host of
impacts.
You mentioned invasive exotic species.
We take a perspective that, first of
all, we know we can't eliminate all
the pythons.
For example, in the Everglades, we're in
a mode to where we are going
to have to continually manage the python
moving forward.
And one of our most valuable weapons
in the arsenal is Everglades restoration.
One of the things we find is
that many of these invasive exotic species
take advantage of a compromised Everglades
immunity because we've reduced the flow of
fresh water, we've polluted other areas of
the ecosystem and that gives these non
native invasives a competitive advantage.
You mentioned that they don't have natural
competitors, and that's true, but we're
compromising the health of habitats that
the native species depend upon.
So Everglades restoration is one of the
important tools in that fight to ensure
that the native habitats and the species
that depend on them are given an
advantage that they've been lacking for
decades.
You mentioned saltwater encroachment, and
I know that that was an issue
that New Orleans was recently facing as
well with the Mississippi river and the
flow in the Mississippi river.
So that's probably something that the work
that you're doing would then translate to
a lot of other areas across the
world.
As you know, we're looking at different
climate changes and things like that
happening.
Sea level rising salt water encroachment
is going to be a very hot
topic, not just for, you know, the
Everglades, but for a lot of other
locations throughout the world.
So that's fascinating that you guys are
doing work in that area as well.
Probably going to be setting the standard
for other communities as well with the
type of work that you're able to
do.
Yeah, and we're made even more vulnerable
here in south Florida because we have
a very low sloping, low elevation
topography, and we also have a very
porous geology.
So water will not only encroach over
land, but it's encroaching into the
aquifer.
We're seeing saltwater intrusion into the
ground.
And that leads to challenges with trying
to maintain flood protection in a system
that's largely gravity driven.
And so where groundwater levels are rising
because of sea level rise, that
reduces the freeboard that we have in
the gravity flow, gravity based flood
control system to keep our communities dry
when it rains.
And so we see flooding from beneath
the ground as well as overland.
And that's a challenge moving forward,
understanding the impacts of sea level
rise, and especially in some of the
more vulnerable areas of south Florida.
So for that reason, everglades restoration
is an important first step in building
community resilience, knowing what we know
about climate change and sea level rise
because it provides a more modernization
of our flood control system and gives
us more places to put water when
it's in abundance.
So we talked a little bit about
animal species that live in the area,
but what about the plants?
Are the plant species changing, you know,
in those places, plants that hold on
to the land and protect it?
My daughter is an environmental scientist,
and she does a lot of wetland
delineation.
So I dip my toe into some
of the work that you're talking about
doing, by what I hear her doing
up here in the panhandle area of
Florida.
And I know that one of her
colleagues was just talking about the
mangroves and the different type of
mangroves that are, you know, help to
eliminate erosion or, you know, hold on
to the land and things like that
as we get into these sea level
rising and issues like that.
But do you see, is the plants
in the everglades, how healthy are they
doing?
Well, there are some areas where the
plants are doing quite well.
It's not unlike the Goldilocks story
there.
There are some areas where the water
is just right and the habitats are
fairly well preserved.
There are other areas of the ecosystem
where it's just been too dry for
too long.
And those peat soils that the Everglades
accumulated over thousands of years
have oxidized to the point where elevation
has been lost and the topography that the
Everglades has naturally been flattened out.
And then there are other areas of
the ecosystem where it's just too wet
for too long, where water backs up
along the levee or road.
And we're losing habitats like tree
islands that depend on some degree of
dry condition to support those hardwoods
that grow on the highest elevation points
of those islands.
So we're seeing habitat degradation across
the system just because it's too dry
or too wet.
But when we get down to the
coast where saltwater is intruding, we're
seeing a few things take place.
One is quite predictable that with
saltwater pushing further inland,
mangroves are following it, because the
mangroves like saltwater, relative to the
freshwater sawgrass plants of the
Everglades.
But there are some areas of those
sawgrass marshes as they get exposed to
saltwater.
And then that is typically followed by
dry conditions.
During the dry season, those marshes are
deteriorating to the point where the soil
collapses out from under them in a
relatively short period of time.
And this is something we've been studying
for a number of years.
In fact, we've just published papers
recently on the current state of knowledge
of this area of science, Everglade
science, and understanding the factors
that contribute to collapse the
vulnerabilities.
And it's important to understand this
because these areas that undergo collapse
don't seem to transition to mangroves
because it's open water.
And what we see occurring long term,
these areas of collapse coalescing
into larger open water bodies that do
not support mangrove vegetation.
And so it means, potentially a future
coastline that's much more open and more
vulnerable in south Florida.
So we're looking at the possibility of
either supplementing these areas of
collapse or vulnerability with sediment
that might allow them to increase
elevation, or ensuring that fresh water is
routed to areas that are more vulnerable
to where we could potentially minimize or
avoid collapse, and therefore allow a more
natural mangrove transition, which is a
more desirable end point.
We know mangroves help to fortify our
coastline.
They help to trap sediments, build up
soil, and so ensuring that we have
mangroves into the future.
Knowing what we know about sea level
rise is incredibly important.
So this is an important area of
research that we've been instrumental in
facilitating and advancing over the past
decade plus.
And we're seeing these ideas now being
incorporated into restoration planning.
In fact, that BBCR project I mentioned
is one that's incorporating this concept
of wetland resilience and looking at ways
we could potentially improve the
resilience of these wetlands so that they
do transition to mangroves that could
potentially keep pace with sea level rise.
There sounds like there's all these moving
parts and pieces.
So it's like scientists that have to
come from a lot of diverse backgrounds
and work together and collaborate in order
to be able to ensure the overall
healthiness of the Everglades system.
What is your favorite piece of the
work that you're doing right now?
Oh, my.
I used to be a field biologist,
and so getting out in the field
and collecting data and working with
graduate students, that was always very
rewarding and enjoyable.
I don't get to do that as
nearly as much anymore.
And we rely on our academic collaborations
to able to engage graduate students and
get in the field.
But the areas that we really have
helped to move.
An example is the new operational rulebook
for Lake Okeechobee.
This is a plan that the Army
Corps of Engineers has developed over the
last several years that will change the
way the lake is managed because we've
completed repairs of the Herbert Hoover
Dike around the lake.
And so a new operational plan was
developed.
We helped to shape that plan.
Our science team, our modelers, helped to
shape that plan to understand how we
could manage the lake in a much
more equitable way, in a fashion that
is aligned with the goals and objectives
of everglades restoration and take
advantage of that repaired dike structure
around the lake.
And so that is something that has
largely been developed through computer
models and working behind your screen.
And that's the kind of work that
I find to be incredibly rewarding, because
you see how your work, your science,
your advocacy, help to shape a rulebook
that will affect millions around the lake.
And again, better aligning the operations
of that 700 plus square Mile lake
with what we're trying to achieve with
Everglades restoration that's slowing the
dumping of polluted lake water east and
west and trying to get more of
that water cleansed and sent south.
I have been down to the Everglades
myself.
Once we went to Everglades City on
the way down to the keys for
a mini lobster season one year, and
we touristy took the airboat ride.
And it's just absolutely so different than
anything else we've ever done before.
But I will tell you the one
thing, the mosquitoes, so, yeah, they're
really, really, really thick on the ground
there and in the air.
So I just wanted to say thank
you.
Thank you so much for coming on
with us today and talking a little
bit about the Everglades.
Is there one thing that you wanted
to say that I didn't ask?
Well, first of all, I would just
like to say something in response to
your point about mosquitoes.
And they are out there, and there
are certainly areas where they're much
more abundant and thirsty.
But believe it or not, they're an
important part of the food web out
in the Everglades.
They, as larvae are aquatic, and they're
an important source of food for small
fish that ultimately make it up into
the bellies of wading birds and
alligators.
And so as much as we might
not like them, they are an important
source of food out in the Everglades.
We feel like we're part of the
food web, though, when, when we're
experiencing them.
But I think one of the most
important things I think folks should
understand is that Everglades restoration
is so much more than just about
Everglades National park.
Obviously, that is a critical target and
focal point to get more water across
Tamiami trail into Everglades National
park, where that point, it's freely
flowing all the way down to Florida
Bay and the Florida Keys.
That's where we want the water to
go.
We don't want it to be dumped
east and west to the Clusahatchee, to
the St.
Lucie Rivers, where it causes harm in
those ecosystems as well as in those
communities.
So it's important to understand what
everglades restoration is about.
It's really about modernizing our flood
control infrastructure in a way that
allows us to greatly improve conditions
for our environment all around South
Florida.
And that is not just important for
the environment, it's critically important
to our state's economy, which is a
largely tourism and real estate based
economy that depends on clean water.
And so better managing our aquatic
ecosystems through restoration
infrastructure is in all our best
interests.
I would also just add that looking
ahead to climate change, sea level rise
impacts around South Florida, this is an
important resilience building aspect for
South Florida as well.
So beyond everglades restoration, we're
looking at a variety of resiliency,
infrastructure and operational strategies
that ensure or help to improve flood
protection and vulnerability of our
coastal communities.
And Everglades restoration is really the
foundation for building resilience here in
south Florida.
Well, I feel like that resilience that
you guys, the plans and the actions
that you come up with can also
then be pushed out to other communities
with, like, problems, the same types of
problems that we're experiencing in the
Everglades.
We can't be the only place that
exists.
I mean, if we think, and we
talk about, like thinking about the
Louisiana wetlands, because that's so
much, Florida's such a weirdly shaped
state, you know, you're.
Closer to the Mississippi delta.
Yeah, exactly.
So when we hear about these issues
and we talk about these things, we're
coming at them from the perspective of
the northern Gulf coast.
So the problems that you guys are
addressing and solving and the research
that you're doing can also translate up
here to what's happening in some areas
along the Gulf coast.
And, you know, that are three, four
hour drive away from where we are,
whereas you guys are more like a
1011 hours drive away.
But thank you.
Thank you so much.
And thank you so much for the
work that you do.
And I know that you have probably
piqued our interest and made people sort
of take a longer look at what's
going on in the state.
And that's the great thing about the
state of Florida, is that we are
so unique in the amount of biodiversity
that we have that it's very important
that we all play a part in
protecting it because there's no other
place like it.
And it's important for us to make
sure that the next generation and the
next generation and the next generation
has these same options and opportunities
that we have, and not just talking
about human beings, but also talking about
the flora and the fauna that go
along in these unique ecosystems.
I would also just say that we
also have a k through twelve Everglades
literacy program that's freely available
to teachers.
It's aligned with state standards.
It's available on evergladesliteracy.org
dot.
I would encourage folks to check that
out as well as our main website,
evergladesfoundation.org dot.
So we will have in our show
notes some links to the Everglades
Foundation and some links to some of
the work that you have done if
anybody wants to learn a little bit
more about it.
So thank you so much.
We appreciate your time.
My pleasure.
Thank you for having me.
Thanks for listening to this week's
episode of Cultivate Curiosity.
If you have any questions, feel free
to email us at socialmedia@ecscience.org.
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