If you are up before the morning sun casts its first rays over Florida
Bay, you notice them moving about, silent figures trudging through the
shadows, armed with telephoto lenses, birding scopes and intense
expressions of wide-eyed anticipation. As the sky begins to lighten, they
have already hunkered down, watching as the scene unfolds: great egrets
frozen in concentration in a shallow marsh; brown pelicans, twenty at a
time, slamming into the water as they pursue a school of fish; ospreys,
fish dangling from their talons, returning to feed their chicks atop
towers, trees and poles. Bird-watchers come to the Everglades as pilgrims
to a holy shrine. In reality, people from all over the country and all
over the world flock to the Everglades to see not just the birds, but the
crocodiles, bobcats, manatees, gumbo-limbo and mahogany trees, mangroves,
orchids and other flora and fauna that thrive in this unique wet, tropical
environment. The edgy wildness and beauty of the Everglades are legendary, but
behind the façade of pristine nature lies a disturbing reality, the
Everglades are slowly dying. Decisions that began many years ago both
inside and outside the borders of what is now the park have negatively
impacted the hydrological cycle that maintains the wetlands. Without the
necessary flow of water and appropriate levels of nutrients the system
begins to break down. The impact is ecological, but the decisions and
decision-making processes are, of course, of human origin. To understand
these historical decisions and other, more recent actions affecting the
Everglades, one must attempt to understand the overwhelmingly complex and
potent mix of politics, ecology and economics in which the everglades lies
nested. For this reason, the Everglades National Park was chosen as the
first site for the 2004 Natural Resources Leadership Institute. The issue
selected as a focus for our group was ecological restoration, a
small component of the overall Everglades challenge, but one that serves
as a gateway to understanding many of the other questions hinted at above. Day I: FNRLI instructors and fellows met at the Flamingo Marina and Lodge and
opened the first session with an outdoor lunch on the patio overlooking
Florida Bay. At the beginning of the Session, fellows had the opportunity to become
more familiar with each other’s personal and career backgrounds. During
this time, we also worked together to define "Leadership" which
was identified as a key factor in successful conflict management and
problem solving. Working in small groups, fellows discussed their
experiences with leadership and shared their thoughts on associated
challenges, lessons learned and success stories. Throughout the 3-day
session, fellows examined and discussed the different facets of leadership
and the issues involved in the Everglades Restoration/Mitigation
Project, our first case study. To take advantage of the Everglades setting and theme, FNRLI fellows
took a boat tour of Florida Bay during the evening before sunset. Wildlife
including ospreys, blue herons, and white pelicans were seen gliding
through the air and feeding on fish from the bay. To conclude the first evening, we gathered in the meeting room to hear
a guest speaker, Frank Bernardino from the South Florida Water Management
District Office of Policy and Legislation talk about the "Hole in the
Doughnut" wetlands restoration/mitigation project. He explained the
history of the project and the challenges that he faced (and still faces)
as a leader in Florida natural resource management. His compelling and
insightful presentation helped us understand the issues involved in the
Everglades Restoration/Mitigation Project as well as some of the broader
issues affecting debate over the Everglades. Following the evening talk,
the NRLI group gathered for an impromptu social hour at the Marina
restaurant. Day II: Day two activities focused specifically on the "Hole in the
Doughnut" (HITD) case study of wetlands mitigation. The name comes
from the area in question, which is located right in the middle of the
park. After breakfast and an overview of the eight-session FNRLI
curriculum, we spent the morning and early afternoon on a field trip
visiting restoration sites in and around the Everglades with the help of
FNRLI Alumnus Matt Davis. The trip began at the headquarters of the HITD
restoration project where we were provided an overview of the project and
its history to complement what we had learned the previous day. From there
we were given a tour of the site where thousands of acres of invasive
exotic "Brazilian Pepper" are being removed to restore the area
to its original state of wetlands. The area is one of former agricultural
production that has been overrun with Brazilian Pepper stands so thick
that they are practically impenetrable. After varied and unsuccessful
attempts at removing the invasives, scientists realized that the only way
to truly restore the area would be to literally scrape away the soil down
to the limestone bedrock and let it regenerate from there. The results
have been remarkable and we were able to see regeneration on an impressive
scale and at different points in the recovery process. Sightings of a rare white-tailed Kite and other birds were testimony
to the success of the efforts to date. It was remarkable to see the scale
of the operation with enormous backhoes, dump trucks and bulldozers
scooping up and removing acre after acre of pepper-infested soil and
trucking it away. Bruce joked that with all the mud and giant equipment it
was an adolescent boy’s dream world
FNRLI Session I
Everglades Restoration-South
Everglades National Park
January 22-24, 2004
| Return
to Issues 2004 |
A couple of dolphins
followed the boat as well, cresting in and out of the water before sunset.
As the sun dipped down into the water to end the day, some even claimed to
have seen the famous and mysterious ‘green flash’!
Subsequent to the HITD site visit, Matt took us to a second restoration project that he is directing at a former rocket test site. Here we saw how exotics were removed and native regeneration encouraged (through planting and other activities) over a long area bordering the road leading to the abandoned facility. After a relaxed lunch at a roadside rest stop, we returned to Flamingo and the meeting room for a stakeholder panel Matt had organized and Bob facilitated. There we heard about the project and its mitigation origins from two distinct perspectives, George Dalrymple
a biologist and longtime consultant on Everglades and other wetland issues, and Ed Swakon, an engineer and environmental consultant to developers in the Broward area. They related the story of the process whereby biologists, developers and county and state officials negotiated over a long period of time, then agreed upon, a new strategy and formula for mitigating wetland loss. The agreement laid out a plan for "off-site mitigation" where mitigation banks sell environmental credits to developers that are then used for restoration projects in other areas of the state. The Hole in the Doughnut is one such example. Developers have contributed a particular sum of money for each acre of wetland destroyed through their projects, and that money is being used to restore parts of the Everglades Park populated by exotics. The differing perspectives offered on the HITD process led to a lively debate about the concept of mitigation and the appropriateness of public participation in the decision-making process.By the end of the day, we were all quite engaged in the themes at hand and once again gathered after dinner for "Open Space" discussions (optional, open discussions of themes chosen by participants) and an evening of socializing and getting to know each other better. Anne, Roland and Diane spent the evening polling participants about their thoughts on the Everglades session to date and planning a closing presentation for the following day.
Day III:
On the third day of the Everglades session we awoke to yet another day of spectacular weather; cool, clear and dry. After breakfast at the lodge, Roy, Bob, Bruce and Earl helped us debrief from the field trip, then begin to consider future NRLI sessions, activities and assignments.
After that, we had a presentation by Everglades’ advocates Carol and Karsten Rist who are well known for their long-term dedication and commitment to the Bird Drive Everglades/HITD restoration project. The Rists’ explained to the Fellows how the consensus building process worked on this project with all of the interested parties: various government agencies, environmental advocates and engineers together negotiating at ‘the table’. Each of these stakeholders provided their perspective and voiced their concerns before coming to a resolution to which everyone agreed. After literally years of negotiation, the agreement allowed the restoration of HITD portion of the Everglades to begin while providing the development community with a streamlined and consistent process for gaining approval for future projects in the area. The Rists’ provided a third (and again unique) perspective - that of environmental advocates - and it contrasted well with the science and development perspectives we had been exposed to on day II.
 |
After the Rists’ spoke, the ‘technical’ part of the session in the Everglades began to wind down and Roy introduced us to the idea of the FNRLI practicum. To illustrate the concept, FNRLI alumni Stan Bronson, Bruce Delaney and Matt Davis related their personal experiences with the practicum assignment
.The last (half) day of the Everglades module ended with Anne, Roland and Diane’s inspired and hilarious "feedback limericks"
. |
We all agreed that Session one of the Natural Resources Leadership Institute had been a success. The Fellows had many wonderful opportunities to get to know one another and cited the chance to meet and interact with such a diverse and interesting group of fellow professionals as the highlight of the Everglades session.
Throughout our journey as FNRLI Class IV Fellows we hope to continue having similar, stimulating opportunities to express our different views on various natural resource concerns like those we experienced at the Everglades. Although our views may initially be different, we all want the same result, to maintain Florida’s natural resources. The skills and concepts we learned during Session one provided an excellent foundation for the upcoming sessions.
 |
For those of you who may be interested in participating in future Natural Resources Leadership Institute classes please contact Bruce Delaney at
BLDelaney@ifas.ufl.edu or by phone at (352) 846-1511.Written By:
Marella Crane - Florida Sea Grant
Jon Dain - Tropical Conservation and Development Program - UF
Carolee Howe - Florida Farm Bureau Federation
Images courtesy of:
Gian Basili – St. John’s River Water Management District
Burl Long – Food and Resource Economics Department – UF/IFAS
Bob Jones – Conflict Resolution Consortium - FSU
