DEFINITION OF RESTORATION AREA 

This section attempts to define the area on which hydrologic restoration should take place in order to obtain ecosystem restoration. Risk is inherent in any restoration process, particularly one of the scope of an entire region, which is what is needed here. Three alternative land areas for restoring the hydrologic system are prescribed. The "unconstrained", which recognizes and accepts the economic and social structure of South Florida but makes repairs to the hydrologic system even on developed urban lands, provides the greatest chance of success in restoring the South Florida Ecosystem. The "minimum" involves the most risk because it minimally addresses losses of wetlands, hydrologic function, and habitat heterogeneity. In between are many possible increments that can increase the success potential of the restoration effort, one of which is outlined in this document.

 How Much Land is Enough?

 The question of how much land is enough for successful restoration is an important consideration. The public purchased large expanses of land that became Everglades National Park and the Big Cypress with the intention of preserving natural ecosystems. As is detailed in the "The Altered System" section, these protected lands, large as they are, are not large enough to preserve the ecosystem. This is because functions the natural ecosystem depends upon are provided by lands outside the preserves; those supporting functions have been altered. In defining the minimum area for restoration in this case we recognize the risk of defining too small an area to provide all the essential elements required for a functioning ecosystem and ecosystem restoration. One should recognize that the probability of ecosystem restoration success is related to the areal extent and degree of hydrologic restoration and, therefore, the more area the better.

The three characteristics of the natural system that gave it resiliency and sustainability were dynamic storage and sheet flow, large spatial extent, and heterogeneity in habitat. These essential characteristics must be kept in mind in defining the required area for restoration.

Minimum

 This prescription of minimum area is based on the best scientific information available to the Study Group regarding a hydrologically restorable unit that would result in a sustainable ecosystem. As more information becomes available, this area may need to be increased. This is, afterall, the first step in an adaptive management process, and the need for iterative improvements in both concepts and quantitative information applies here.

 The minimum, or constrained, size of the area to be restored by redesign of the Central and Southern Florida Project starts with (1) all existing public lands (Fig. 5), (2) associated estuaries, (3) the Florida Reef Tract, and (4) any additional lands required to restore the above lands and waters. This assumes public acquisition is already underway for such critical areas as the Frog Pond, the Rocky Glades, the "8 1/2 Square Mile Area", the "Model Land" area, the "Triangle Area", and other lands in the Taylor Slough watershed and C-111 area of the extreme southeastern Everglades. This also assumes inclusion as public lands of the Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) identified in the settlement of the 1991 lawsuit (U.S. vs. South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation) and that all water quality requirements of the 1991 lawsuit will be met.

 As a starting point, the public lands may represent a critical mass for restoring, by major engineering feats, some hydrologic functions that will be beneficial to wetlands and estuaries. However, other lands undoubtedly will need to be acquired to obtain adequate dynamic storage, remnant landscapes, and greater spatial extent and heterogeneity of wetlands. These acquisitions will reduce the risk of failing to recover wading bird and endangered species populations as well as the natural biological diversity of the system. Short hydroperiod wetlands, for example, are underrepresented in the current public holdings and are essential to wading bird recruitment. These lands are particularly needed to restore full wetland function.

 Restoration of the South Florida Ecosystem cannot stop with wetlands and estuaries. The present and authorized public lands do not alone provide all the hydrologic functions needed to restore the South Florida Ecosystem. Both ecosystem health and quality of life are deteriorating in South Florida urban areas. Diminished and compromised water supplies, public health issues related to fish consumption, and air pollution are growing concerns. The entire South Florida ecosystem, including the places where people work and live, has to be restored to ecological health. Acquisition of additional strategically located lands and modification of water management affecting other non-public lands may be necessary.

Specifically, land acquisitions related to restoration should be for the following objectives: (1) recreate strong hydrologic linkages between systems, (2) restore adequate water catchment and storage, (3) expand the spatial extent and heterogeneity of the system, (4) restore critical landscape elements that have been lost or diminished, (5) provide buffering between natural and developed areas, (6) provide water quality enhancement, and (7) secure critical remaining groundwater recharge capability. A prescription for land selection is given with some conceptual boundaries (Figs. 6-8).

 Given the criteria listed above, public acquisition of the lands will greatly improve the chances of restoration success, as well as the level of restoration achieved. These areas should be evaluated for aquisition now:

 Landscape Remnants

 Several landscapes that have been lost or greatly diminished have been identified. Restoration should include areas that still contain these landscapes or are suitable for the reestablishment of these landscapes. These include:

 Cypress strands on eastern boundary of Everglades, mainly in Palm Beach County.

 Short hydroperiod wetlands on the eastern side of the Everglades (Palm Beach, Broward, and Dade Counties).

 Suitable lands for restoring pondapple forests and dense sawgrass plain landscapes (Palm Beach County).

 Hydrologic Linkages and Dynamic Storage and Sheet Flow

 It may be necessary to acquire land in the EAA to increase the conveyance capacity between Lake Okeechobee and the Water Conservation Areas and to increase water storage capacity in the system. The present conveyance system apparently is not adequate since thousands of acre feet of water are discharged to sea each year through the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, to the detriment of receiving estuaries. In water years 1983-1992, the average annual discharge from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee was about 350,000 acre ft., ranging between 76,000-1,500,000 acre ft. Net discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie Canal occurred in 6 of the 10 water years, 1983-1992, amounting, to a 10-yr average annual discharge. of 267,000 acre ft, ranging between 3,000-1,000,000 acre ft. Recapturing a large portion of this water for freshwater wetlands and discharge downstream to Florida Bay in a natural rain-driven pattern is absolutely critical to the restoration effort.

 It may be possible to use engineering to achieve the conveyence function. For instance, design alternatives include (1) canal enlargement, (2) an aquaduct, and (3) the flowway concept. The flowway, however, is the most ecologically advantageous way to move water from Lake Okeechobee to the Water Conservation Areas through the EAA because it reestablishes some of the hydrologic functions of sheet flow and dynamic storage. Furthermore the flowway, acting like a marsh, would provide water quality improvement to the Lake waters. These are critical functions that would not be provided by the canal enlargement or aquaduct options. The concept of a flowway is presented in Figure 7.

 If land acquisition is necessary, the precise location and quantity of land will depend on surveys, modeling results, and engineering designs. The flowway should be capable of conveying the regulatory releases of the Lake, plus any agricultural runoff. Land acquisition could be accomplished in a phased way, by acquiring agricultural land as soil oxidation forces it out of agricultural production. A cross-section of the EAA showing topsoil and solid substrate elevations projected through the year 2000 (Stephens 1984) suggests that organic soils in the part of the EAA between the Miami and the North New Rivers may soon be too thin for conventional farming. Much of the southern part of this area (The Holey Land and the Ruttenberger Tract) is already in public ownership. This area also contains a major component of the 35,000 acres of Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) provided in the settlement agreement (U.S. vs. South Florida Water Management District and the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation).

 Catchment and Recharge

 Several important natural catchment groundwater recharge areas have been identified that currently are not fully protected from development. These are important to providing water storage to make the system more resilient to seasonal and long term droughts. These areas also serve other important biological functions, as will be described. The Okaloacoochee Slough and the Corkscrew Regional Watershed are located in close proximity to each other on the Immokalee Rise in northern Collier County and function jointly in support of the biodiversity of the southwest Florida region. 

Okaloacoochee Slough, besides being a catchment and recharge area, is important to the long term survival of the Sandhill Crane, the Florida Panther, and wading birds, including the Wood Stork. It is a major foraging area for nesting wading birds, providing sustained forage throughout most of their nesting seasons (Browder 1983). The area was identified as a critical corridor area for the panther, given the projected citrus development in the Immokalee Rise area (Mazzotti et al. 1992).

 The Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem, as defined by the South Florida Water Management District (Mazzotti et al. 1992), is another important area hydrologically and ecologically. It is a major nesting site for Wood Storks. Part of this area already is publicly owned or owned and managed by the National Audubon Society.

 The southern (south of SR 84 [Alligator Alley]) Golden Gate Estates area of the western Big Cypress is a degraded wetland that was a short hydroperiod scrub cypress and marl wet prairie before it was drained by a series of canals. As a natural system it provided sheet flow to the mangrove swamps and estuaries of the Ten Thousand Islands. The Golden Gate Estates area should be restored as part of the effort to restore sheet flow to Faka Union Bay and adjacent areas of the Ten Thousand Islands.

 Sheet Flow

 Restoration of the predrainage delta of the Kissimmee River and littoral system of Lake Okeechobee would mean both improved water quality (by water flow through marshes) and improved fishery recruitment (through restoration of nursery grounds). Restoration of the following two areas would make this possible.

Paradise Run area, as defined by USFWS (1993) and shown in Figure 6 (the southern part of parcel number 2).

 Segment of Indian Prairie immediately adjacent to the Lake Okeechobee Dike, as defined by USFWS (1993) and shown in Figure 6 (parcel number 3).

 Elimination of a segment of the northwest section of the Herbert Hoover Dike would be required to restore the predrainage delta.

 Ecological Health for Urban Areas

 The eastcoast ridge is a groundwater recharge area that, prior to drainage, contributed water to the Everglades, as well as coastal estuaries. Not only has much of this important function been destroyed by drainage, but urban water needs increase water consumption. Important restoration objectives are to partially restore recharge function and decrease urban consumptive use by (1) decreasing groundwater recession rates along the coastal ridge caused by drainage to canals, (2) promoting conservation in water consumption, (3) and establishing reliable means of conserving locally generated runoff and improving its water quality.

 A system of buffer zones should be established at the urban east coast-Water Conservation Area interface that extends from the northern boundary of Water Conservation Area 1 southward through southern Dade County. A major role of these buffer zones would be to protect existing natural areas such as the Water Conservation Areas and Everglades National Park from the impacts of urban and agricultural development along the eastcoast ridge. Parts of the buffer strip should be restored as wetlands with natural functions, including water quality improvement. Portions could be water storage reservoirs that would serve to increase water storage capacity in the system and decrease export of wet season excess freshwater to the coast. The buffer area would also serve to recharge the aquifer and urban well fields. 

Incremental

 A flowway from Lake Okeechobee to the Water Conservation Areas has been identified as an option of the minimum plan. A flowway supporting a tall, dense, sawgrass landscape is an ecologically valuable incremental improvement in restoration design. This vital vegatative component of the predrainage landscape was lost to development and drainage. It is important that the flowway mimic the predrainage function of dynamic storage and sheet flow conveyance facilitated by that landscape. Thus the flow way would provide large conveyance capability, sheet flow, dynamic storage, increased areal extent and heterogeneity of wetlands, and wildlife corridors--all of which are vital to restoring wildlife populations and biodiversity.

 A parallel effort should attempt to reduce agricultural runoff and the demand for water from outside the EAA. As part of the "incremental scenario", it is imperative to institute "best management practices" and other agricultural practices in the Everglades Agricultural Area that are compatible with proximity to a large, oligotrophic natural ecosystem. These would include measures that minimize water quality impacts and accommodate the water storage and conveyance needs of the natural system. These include (1) water management practices that retard or halt soil subsidence, (2) development of crops tolerant to extended hydroperiods (elevated water tables), (3) on site detention to reduce both nutrient outflows and water demand, and (4) farming practices that reduce the application and waterborne and airborne export of contaminants and nutrients.

 Several studies have demonstrated that large wetland expanses and heterogeneity in timing and period of water coverage were important characteristics of the South Florida ecosystem that greatly influenced its functioning (Fleming et al., In press; Davis et al. 1994; Loftus et al., 1986). Over half of the original wetlands of South Florida have been eliminated, which impedes the restoration effort. For this reason, restoration should include the purchase and subsequent restoration of critical, strategically located, remaining undeveloped wetlands in South Florida, regardless of present condition and regardless of the presence of introduced, non-native plants. In this context, critical wetlands are defined as those that help meet the six objectives listed in the "Minimum" section above. Although full restoration of the natural plant communities on the eastcoast ridge will not be possible due to urbanization, partial restoration through water management modifications will be attempted. This restoration effort will expand on the ideas presented in the "minimum" scenario above.

 The buffer zone areas addressed in the "minimum" scenario should be expanded in increments to provide the maximum possible--preferably continuous--protection for natural areas, water catchment, storage of urban storm water, and wetland water quality treatment.

Unconstrained

 Unconstrained restoration means return of all former wetlands in current agricultural land uses, including the entire Everglades Agricultural Area, to full wetland ecosystem function. It would mean aquisition or regulatory easements for all remaining undeveloped wetland in South Florida. It suggests no further development of remaining natural lands in South Florida. This is not to discourage new development but rather to redirect urban development efforts to lands within the outer boundaries of currently developed units. Developed lands that are identified through the adaptive process as being critical to restoration would undergo a process that would allow their return to their natural ecosystem function.