Natural resource condition assessment: Everglades National Park

Redwine, Jed; Atkinson, Andrea; Clarke, Alice; McPherson, Dale; Mitchell, Carol

The Natural Resource Condition Assessment for Everglades National Park provides clear evidence of both the tremendous quantity of valuable natural resources that are present in the park and the scale of the challenges that natural resource managers must face in order to protect and preserve the condition of these natural resources for the enjoyment of future generations. Everglades National Park sits at the downstream end of what was once a 250-mile long watershed. Water once flowed uninterrupted from the headwaters of the Kissimmee River, through Lake Okeechobee, into the Everglades basin, and through to Florida Bay. The reallocation of water resources to support human development began in the 1880’s with little thought about the consequences to the ecology of the region. This pattern of development continued into the 1970’s, until the ecological consequences of drainage became so widespread and severe that the discussion of watershed scale restoration became an implicit and inseparable part of the discussion of continued societal and economic development. The Okeechobee and Everglades basins are currently in the early stages of being reconnected. The restoration of the Kissimmee watershed has been extensive. Inflows into Everglades National Park are being redirected into northeastern Shark Slough, a good step towards addressing the most severe challenge that faces the park. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of what we know about the status of natural resources in Everglades National Park. The desired state of conservation for each category of natural resource is clearly defined in this report. The path toward achieving these goals is not addressed by this report; instead, the critical path toward a restored ecosystem must emerge from a broadly inclusive discussion among those stakeholders who are invested in both the social and ecological systems that are founded on the broad set of natural resources that are assessed here. This report is intended to support the broad discussion about how to achieve restoration without being prescriptive. Every aspect of the Everglades ecosystem that was assessed in this report reveals evidence of challenges associated with human activities. This is not surprising; given the historical context that led to the establishment of EVER, the rapidly expanding human population that now exceeds 7.5 million people within 100 miles of the park boundary, and the position of the park at the downstream end of a large watershed – where cumulative impacts of upstream water diversions are most severe. The watersheds that define around 60% of the area of Everglades National Park are “worse than average”, and these areas are being targeted for improvement by the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Climate change and challenges associated with air quality are affecting all parts of the park. Exotic organisms present a profound challenge to preserving the biodiversity of the park. The native organisms present in EVER clearly thrive when consecutive years of higher-than-average rainfall occur, but multi-year improvements quickly vanish when a severe drought occurs. This assessment clearly documents a continuing decline of prey base fish, tree islands, and seagrasses in central Florida Bay, and peat soils - as a direct consequence of low rainfall interacting with the existing water management infrastructure design. While progress has occurred, the results of this assessment are clear: much progress remains to be accomplished before the most severely negative ecological impacts in Everglades National Park are corrected and the natural resources present in the park are being effectively preserved “…in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations” (Organic Act of 1916).

Natural resource condition assessment: Everglades National Park

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