Lessons on the limits of ecosystem restoration from the Everglades

Short Wave

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🗓️ 27 January 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

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Summary

When the U.S. government and state of Florida unveiled a new plan to save the Everglades in 2000, the sprawling blueprint to restore the wetlands became the largest hydrological restoration effort in the nation's history. Two decades later, only one project is complete, the effort is $15 billion over budget and the Everglades is still dying. The new podcast Bright Lit Place from WLRN and NPR heads into the swamp to meet its first inhabitants, the scientists who study it and the warring sides struggling to find a way out of the muck. Today, we hear an excerpt as environment reporter Jenny Staletovich tags along with wetlands ecologist Evelyn Gaiser to the remotest part of the swamp.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Support for NPR and the following message come from SAP Concur, a leading brand for integrated travel expense and invoice management solutions.
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0:16.0	Hey short waivers, Regina Barber here. Today we're heading south, into the swamps of South Florida. Think mosquitoes the size of a quarter, alligators, and sawgrass lined with
0:26.4	tiny razor sharp teeth. But also think of seagrass meadows, cathedrals of mangrove forests and clean water.
0:33.2	That's because the thing that made South Florida's Everglades so inhospitable before it was drained
0:38.0	also made it stunningly beautiful and livable. Only half the Everglades remain and that could be a problem
0:48.0	for drinking water supplies for about 9 million people as sea levels rise.
0:52.3	Florida is now trying to save what's left of
0:55.6	the swamp with one of the largest ecosystem restoration projects in the nation's
0:59.6	history. That work could have given Florida a head start fighting climate change, but it's not going so well.
1:06.0	It's way behind schedule and over budget by about $15 billion.
1:11.0	In the new podcast Bright Litt Place from WLrN and NPR,
1:18.0	Environment reporter Jenny Stilettovich explains why.
1:22.0	We hear an excerpt as she tags along with wetlands ecologist Evelyn Geiser to the most remote part of the swamp. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Wies, the account that helps you manage your money all around the world.
1:48.5	You want your money to move fast, especially across borders. That's why Wies built the best way to send, spend and
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2:00.1	WISE account could work for you by downloading the app.
2:03.7	This message comes from NPR sponsor, SAP Concur.
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