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Florida's Natural Filter: National Park

By CAITIE SWITALSKI • AUG 24, 2016

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 (http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/les/styles/x_large/public/201608/IMG_6970.JPG) Seagrass is one of the key secrets to ltering the pure water in the Everglades.

CAITIE SWITALSKI / WLRN

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WLRN Interns Explore South Florida's National Parks Inside of The - deep into the Gumbo Limbo Trail - the namesake trees are jokingly referred to as "tourist trees" because the Gumbo Limbo is red and has peeling bark, like a sunburn.

It's a hot August day - 91 degrees - and the humidity is palpable. More than one million people visit the Everglades every year, but silence is still a distinctive feature of this 1.5 million acres of protected wetlands.

What else stands out along the hiking destination? The water here.

(http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/les/styles/x_large/public/201608/IMG_6966.JPG) A small bug’s wings ripple the still water.

CREDIT CAITIE SWITALSKI / WLRN

Quietly, water throughout the national park here lters its way from down to through nutrient-rich soil and becomes some of the most pure that nature can make.

Cara Capp, the Everglades restoration program manager at the National Parks Conservation Association, said even the water you buy at the grocery store would contaminate phosphorus levels. “If you poured out a bottle of bottled drinking water, it would be a violation,” Capp said. “It’s nature’s perfect ltration system.”

The , which provides municipal drinking water for many Floridians, sits directly underneath the Everglades. So whether you know it or not, Capp said, you likely consume Everglades water every single time you turn on your tap.

“Two-thirds of Floridians get their drinking water from areas of the Everglades,” she said.

Over the last 100 years, urban development and sea level rise have changed this park’s natural ltration system. Now, there’s less of this very pure (http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/les/stylwesa/txe_rl atrhgaen/ pthuebrliec /u2s0e1d6 t0o8 b/eIM...aGs _m69u7ch1 .aJsP G50) percent A close up of the seagrass just under the surface of the clear water less, according to the Everglades Foundation. along the beginning of the Anhinga Trail.

CREDIT CAITIE SWITALSKI / WLRN There’s also saltwater intrusion in the Biscayne Aquifer now because of sea-level rise. That’s where restoring the Everglades’ natural ow can be a solution, Capp said.

“As we’re restoring the Everglades and stacking more fresh water on the land, it pushes back against that salt water intrusion,” she said. A Visit to Everglades National Park

Map data ©2016 Google, INEGI Terms 5 mi

Restoring the more natural ow of fresh water in the Everglades system will ultimately cut down on costs to desalinate drinking water, according to It's nature's perfect ltration Everglades Foundation information. system.

The Everglades National Park was ofcially created in 1947 and it is the largest protected wilderness east of the Mississippi. Long before that, specically since 1916, it had been the Royal Palm State Park. But there was little or no control of the water entering from the agricultural areas north of the park.

Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg said that the restoration efforts got a major victory back in the 1980's from a lawsuit over polluted water entering the Everglades, long before the year 2000 when the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was passed in Congress.

Another historic moment for supporting the Everglades, Eikenberg said, was the 2014 passage of Florida Amendment One, which provides more money for Everglades restoration.

Eikenberg said everyday people should be more invested in seeing the protected wetlands restored, "If they don't want to lose the quality of life here in Florida." He went on to say that this restoration plan has an overall goal:

"To x the sins of previous generations," he said. The actual restoration in that process comes from moving more water in Lake Okeechobee from its current ow out through estuaries east and west- to go south towards Florida Bay like it historically used to, before urban development.

Eikenberg said the damage started back in 1906 with plans to drain the wetlands in order to build on Florida land.

"Ultimately Everglades is storage," he said. "It's the lifeblood of South Florida and the South Florida (http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/les/styleecso/xn_olamryg."e/public/201608/IMG_6962.JPG) The algae here, unlike the algae blooms from Lake Okeechobee, are natural and non-toxic. Making the ow of water more natural means

CREDIT CAITIE SWITALSKI / WLRN removing man-made dams and levees under Lake

Okeechobee as well as focusing on keeping water inside the peninsula. Projects like bridging and building a reservoir to purify water from the lake help to do that, according to the Everglades Foundation.

So after it's 100th birthday, what's next for the Everglades?

The Central Everglades Planning Project, to approve directing more water south, is expected to be voted on by Congress after the August recess is over.

(http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/les/styles/x_large/public/201608/North- vs-South-Storage-Fact-Sheet1.gif)

CREDIT EVERGLADES FOUNDATION (http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net/p/wlrn/les/styles/x_large/public/201608/IMG_6975.JPG) Overlooking the end of Florida, into the much saltier Florida Bay.

CREDIT CAITIE SWITALSKI / WLRN

TAGS: EVERGLADES RESTORATION (/TERM/EVERGLADES-RESTORATION)

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK (/TERM/EVERGLADES-NATIONAL-PARK)

EVERGLADES PRESERVATION (/TERM/EVERGLADES-PRESERVATION)

NATIONAL PARKS CENTENNIAL (/TERM/NATIONAL-PARKS-CENTENNIAL) NEWS (/TERM/NEWS-0)

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DrBillLemoine • an hour ago Anybody with half a brain can see from this article suggestions of several state policies. 1. No drillers in the Everglades; 2. No diversion of surface water to canals or other drainage outlets; 3. constant attention to Biscayne Aquafer levels and related water quality. Everyone in Florida, not just in the southern counties, must pay attention to political and business moves that impact water. Our state vitality and livability demand it. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

Pretty Hips McGee • a day ago I pray that our electorate wakes up to the animosity to nature presently percolating in Tallahassee. △ ▽ • Reply • Share ›

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