One of the country's most significant environmental initiatives is the restoration of the Everglades and the South Florida ecosystem. This vast region, which is home to more than six million Americans, seven of the ten fastest growing cities in the country, a huge tourism industry, and a large agricultural economy, also encompasses one of the world's unique environmental resources. Over the past 100 years, manmade changes to the region’s water flow have provided important economic benefits to the region, but have also had deteriorating effects on the environment. Biological indicators in the form of native flora and fauna have shown severe damage throughout south Florida.

To address this problem, the Departments of the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Army, Justice, and, the Environmental Protection Agency signed an interagency agreement in September of 1993 creating the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force. The group has worked to integrate federal plans, policies, and programs in the Everglades ecosystem. In May 1995, the Task Force was expanded to include the Florida Lieutenant Governor and the Chairmen of the Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes.

In October of 1996, the President signed the Water Resources Development Act (PL104-303), which included provisions to expand the membership and scope of duties of the Task Force and designated the Secretary of Interior as the group’s Chairperson. WRDA directly addresses the efforts of the Task Force in South Florida. That legislation specifies responsibilities, time frames, and cost-sharing for the Army Corps of Engineers and its non-Federal sponsor regarding "restoring, preserving, and protecting" the ecosystem served by the Central and Southern Florida Project. (A more detailed discussion of the WRDA is included in appendix A.)

The mission of the Task Force is to restore, preserve and protect the South Florida ecosystem while maintaining a sustainable South Florida economy.

For over a decade, the State of Florida has systematically pursued restoration of the Everglades. The State's 1983 "Save Our Everglades" program was intended to restore, to the extent feasible, key hydrologic functions of the original natural system. In May 1994, Governor Chiles signed the landmark Everglades Forever Act into law, which set into action a plan to restore a significant portion of the remaining Everglades ecosystem through a program of construction projects, research, and regulation.

The Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida, established by Executive Order 94-54, was created to recommend ways in which the South Florida ecosystem including the Everglades and a healthy South Florida economy can co-exist and be mutually supportive. The Governor’s Commission and the Task Force closely and consistently coordinate their work. The Governor's Commission's final recommendations contained in its initial report to the Governor October 1, 1995, and in the report entitled "Conceptual Plan for the Central and Southern Florida Project Restudy" will be considered by Task Force members as they complete their work. The Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida was formally designated an official advisory body to the Task Force in August 1997.

The following restoration goals represent the scope of the Task Force's legislative mandate and charter. They were developed by incorporating the extensive work already accomplished by the Task Force and the Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida. These goals articulate the desired future conditions the Task Force is striving to attain.

The Task Force is guided by the following principles:

A master plan for re-plumbing South Florida’s 1,800-mile system of canals and levees is underway, and will be completed by July 1999

• The Administration has furthered its commitment to cost-sharing on restoration projects with the State of Florida through enactment of the Water Resources Development Act of 1996, which provides for a 50/50 cost share for all restoration projects.

Construction has already begun to improve water delivery to the Everglades and other areas

• Modification of Canal 111 began in 1996, and will maintain flood protection and restore more natural flows into the Everglades.

Land purchases and better farming practices will restore water delivery and ecosystem health

• 61,000 acres have been added to Everglades National Park and an additional 48,000 acres will be acquired to help restore the natural flow of water to the Everglades’ "river of grass."

• Nutrient runoff from the Everglades Agricultural Area was reduced significantly between 1995 and 1997.

• The State/Federal Management Plan for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary was adopted in January 1996 to protect and restore Florida Bay and Florida’s coral reefs.

• 90,000 acres were cleared of introduced melaleuca plants as part of the expansion of the exotic species control program in order to restore the natural balance between flora and fauna in the region.

• A multi-species recovery plan is being developed for threatened and endangered species in the region.

• Seven sub-regional project teams have been established to improve the coordination and management of area restoration activities and support critical restoration projects that are essential components to the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Plan.

• Acquisition of a buffer area between the Everglades and developed areas.

• Studies are ongoing to help communities make wise land-use decisions that protect water quality in the Florida Keys.

• Monitoring in coastal waters is ongoing to assess water quality, and seagrass and coral reef health in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

As mentioned above, one of the guiding principles for achieving the Task Force’s goals is to rely on sound science for making restoration decisions. The issues associated with restoration of South Florida's natural systems are so large in scale and geographically, ecologically, and socio-economically complex that a broadly integrated planning and coordinating process is needed to address them.

Natural and social scientists must pursue innovative approaches that will concurrently strengthen both human and environmental goals, rather than force choices from among the interest groups. With so many issues, scientific disciplines, and stakeholders involved, a detailed science plan is required.

This Integrated Science Plan is based on the view that restoration goals can best be met when a multi-disciplinary and multi-agency approach is used to identify and resolve the complex technical issues. The scientific community will make its strongest contributions by employing inclusive processes to create consensus positions on the major issues. The Science Coordination Team has the lead responsibility for encouraging and coordinating this integration of scientific effort.

Roles of Science: The Integrated Science Plan describes the primary processes and products which support the two major goals of science: (1) the acquisition of new information required to fill gaps in scientific knowledge critical to meeting the restoration goals, and (2) the creation of real-time processes by which scientists support managers and policy-makers in planning and evaluating restoration programs. While strong attention continues to be given to meeting the first of their goals (i.e. research), major new initiatives are being developed to substantially improve the ways that science is applied to South Florida issues. These new initiatives include:

(1) An applied science strategy and (2) a multi-species recovery plan.

A science-based strategic process has been designed to provide a comprehensive framework for organizing existing scientific knowledge about the natural systems in South Florida into formats which are most applicable to the planning, implementation and evaluation of restoration projects at local and regional scales

The Applied Science Strategy includes three major steps, (1) the development of the conceptual models, (2) development of performance measures for key stressors and attributes identified by the models, and (3) the design of a comprehensive monitoring program based on the attributes and performance measures. Each step depends on the creation of scientific consensus, achieved through a series of technical workshops organized across multi-agency and multi-disciplinary lines.

Conceptual Models: The core of this process is a set of conceptual ecological models that propose the major causal relationships in the stressed ecosystems of south Florida. The conceptual models identify the societal drivers, resulting ecological stressors, and their effects on ecological systems. Each model identifies the principal ecological attributes (e.g., endpoints, and indicators) that characterize the "health" of each landscape/system and reflect the important ecological and societal values of the system.

The ultimate intent of the conceptual models is to (1) convert the broad, policy-level objectives that have been established for each restoration program into specific, measurable ecological indicators and (2) develop a suite of testable hypotheses that describe the major ecological responses to the restoration projects. These hypotheses become the basis for the restoration plans by identifying the ecological and physical modifications of the system that are necessary to achieve the restoration objectives. The conceptual models identify the major stressors and ecological attributes (e.g., indicators) that should best characterize how the system will respond to specific restoration actions. Hydrologic and biologic performance measures and a comprehensive ecological monitoring program will be based on the relationships expressed in these conceptual models. These performance measures become the key tools for evaluating alternative plans during the design of restoration projects.

As restoration programs are planned and implemented, simulation models and a well-focused monitoring program will show how the key attributes in each system respond relative to the performance measures. The simulation modeling and the monitoring provide an objective means of testing the validity of the conceptual models and hypotheses, reducing scientific uncertainty, identifying new research priorities, and modifying restoration actions (i.e., adaptive assessment).

Comprehensive Ecological Monitoring Program: The Science Coordination Team will take the lead in coordinating the development and implementation of a regional, comprehensive monitoring program for the restoration projects. A comprehensive monitoring program is defined as one, (1) which uses a regionally standardized set of monitoring protocols, and, (2) which is designed to establish base-line and trend data for a common set of ecological parameters, at regional or system-wide spatial scales, and over time periods that are consistent with the temporal scales of restoration projects and ecological cycles. Additionally, such a monitoring program becomes comprehensive when it measures responses by the full set of hydrological and biological performance measures established for the restoration projects.

The comprehensive monitoring program will build on current hydrological and ecological monitoring programs being conducted by federal and state agencies in south Florida. Existing programs will be reviewed for compatibility of protocols, completeness of spatial and temporal coverage's, and the adequacy of the current programs relative to the proposed set of performance measures. An integration of the current monitoring programs likely will reveal the need to initiate new monitoring projects, expand some existing projects, and terminate lower priority projects. By focusing the new monitoring program on the performance measures for the restoration projects, the observed responses are expected to much better reflect the affects that these projects have on the systems.

One of the most challenging aspects of the ecosystem restoration program for South Florida, and one of the most important science application issues, is the question of "how to protect and enhance the status of over 60 federal and state listed species, while making major alterations to regional hydropatterns in order to achieve landscape scale recovery of natural systems?" Population declines in most listed species are thought to have occurred due to loss or degradation of essential habitat. Some listed species have changed their range and habitat substantially in order to compensate for effects that urban, agriculture and water management practices have had on their original habitat. Responding to changes in water depth and distribution patterns, these species have come to depend on different areas of the managed system than they used in the natural system. Although the overall expectation is that system restoration will improve habitat conditions for all listed species, the restoration implementation period may create short term stresses on those species that may have to relocate again to adjust to restored hydropatterns.

As a means for anticipating, and planning for the potential responses by listed species in the overall ecosystem restoration program, the Fish and Wildlife Service is leading the development of an integrated, comprehensive, multi-species recovery plan for the entire Kissimmee to Florida Bay basin. Overall, the multi-species plan will identify the strategies and thresholds which will best protect listed species in south Florida as we move forward with regional, ecosystem restoration programs. The plan will contain two sections. Part I will consist of species accounts for all listed species, describing biology and status and establishing the recovery goals and environmental compliance guidelines for each species. Part II will relate the habitat requirements of the listed species to the landscape characteristics of South Florida, identify specific land management actions necessary to recover listed species, identify jeopardy thresholds, and propose multi-species recovery strategies in the context of long-term objectives.

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