what's been called the largest restoration project in human history billions of dollars of work across millions of acres in the Florida Everglades when I last visited the Everglades for report in 2016 many of the ideas people had to fix a broken system were just pipe dreams today while a lot of work remains real work is getting done and the once Unthinkable promise of restoring the Everglades no longer seems Out Of Reach the largest restoration project in human history is that right yes uh we're we're talking about uh 68 major infrastructure projects totaling more than 25 billion $25 billion is the kind of investment Steven Davis says is needed to fix Decades of damage to one of the world's great wonders the liquid heart of this area is Lake Kobi the big water damage caused in part by a well-meaning operation intended to relieve repeated flooding of Rich Florida Farmland this is a project of Mammoth proportions one that calls for more than 700 mil of new levies throughout the Central and Southern Florida area but it was really the Central and Southern Florida project that just had devastating impacts on this ecos system Davis is the chief science officer of the Everglades Foundation what happened to the Everglades they basically disconnected Lake okachobee from the Everglades ecosystem and so this part of the ecosystem is deprived of that fresh water so for decades South Florida just hasn't gotten enough water exactly and with each Water Crisis we have whether it's blue green algae exacerbation of red tide fires out in the Everglades seagrass die off in Florida Bay and around the keys there's a growing awareness of the need toplum South Florida re-plumbing south Florida includes building a reservoir that's costing about $4 billion just by itself that is the entire footprint of this project we got a bird's eye view thanks to the nonprofit group lighthawk you described the reservoir as heart bypass surgery exactly it's it's the means of reconnecting Lake of Kobi which is really described by many as the Beating Heart of this ecosystem it reconnects the heart back to the body which is the Everglades the River of Grass work is also moving along on a project to raise the Tamiami Trail Road built in 1928 the road cut off almost all waterf flow into the southern Everglades perhaps the biggest impediment the Everglades remain a boon for big business most people are surprised to hear drilling still takes place in the Everglades and it's long been a hugely produc Ive spot for the sugar industry how big of a problem does the sugar industry remain when it comes to the Everglades and a healthy Everglades really through a variety of means one they're a source of pollution to the Everglades and uh the state has had to respond by building tens of thousands of wetlands treatment marshes to clean up the pollution that run off those fields before it gets into the Everglades that's where a project overseen by Lawrence Glenn of the South Florida Water Management District comes in we're standing in the middle of the cleansing yes what's really cool about this there's so much science going on in here to understand how we Cleanse This water that you don't normally think of plants like this are pulling out phosphorus from billions of gallons of water helping to make sure what flows South is safe to drink and healthy enough to feed this enormous ecosystem this is what's doing the work yes 63,000 Acres of man-made Wetlands largest constructed wetland in the world doesn't smell the best no it doesn't but this is great stuff and uh when we were planning this project no one had built constructed Wetlands on this size we didn't know if it was going to work this treatment Marsh is being paid for by the state with a portion covered by attacks on polluters like big sugar overall on the larger project all of us are contributing a lot of the money coming in is federal money why should someone in Iowa care about the health of the Everglades thousands of miles away well for a variety of reasons um this is a biodiversity hotspot it's also uh carbon sponge the this ecosystem 3 million Acres uh takes up greenhouse gases from the atmos spere when it's hydrated when it's kept wet which is what Everglades restoration does sequestering carbon is an important functional value of the Everglades it's the water supply for more than 9 million Americans uh and it's also a place that people from all across the world like to visit there are so many stakeholders involved here including the native people who were here before anyone else Talbert Cyprus is Chairman of the mikasuki tribe the mikasuki hid in the Everglades when the US Army tried to move them to Oklahoma in the 1800s he considers himself a steward of the land that protected his ancestors when I look out at this it looks natural is is it no right now this water is very high for this time of year this is the dry season right now so you can imagine if it starts raining a lot like during the summer this tree island would get flooded once rainy season comes along and and that also affects the wildlife too when the water gets high the wildlife can move to Higher Ground MH but when this water in the way they can't do that and so a lot of wildlife will drown or you know they can't get access to food MH and the quality of water coming through is very poor as well that may change soon obstacles remain but infrastructure work is well underway Lawrence Glenn says the reservoir for example is scheduled to be done by 2030 how long do you think it will take for the Everglades to be in a place where you want it to be and I'm saying probably 2040 you start to see an everglaze that really looks like the Everglades did historically took a hundred years to really mess it up so they're hoping a few decades and they can fix it we did want to speak to the sugar industry we reached out to them to ask them some questions they did not want to talk to us so uh we didn't hear from them but this is a massive amount of money and the reason why it's happening is because it has bipartisan support well the fact that it you can turn it around in a few decades on the federal and state level when people eventually that's huge come together there it is yeah
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