Get to Know a Key Everglades Restoration Project that Will Improve Wetlands and Estuaries

Preserving this nation’s wetlands is so very important. Here at Harvester, we believe in conservation of the great outdoors. Read this article from the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership to see what they’re doing in their restoration projects.

“What is the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir and why is it important to hunters and anglers?

The iconic Everglades ecosystem contains some of America’s largest estuaries, which provide essential habitat to important sportfish and game species. In celebration of National Estuaries Week, we wanted to highlight a key project that will help restore and conserve America’s Everglades: the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir.

The EAA Reservoir has two primary features—a treatment wetland that will clean the water from Lake Okeechobee and a reservoir that will store excess water from the lake. The wetland will be built by the state-run South Florida Water Management District, and the reservoir will be built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

This project is necessary to restore the natural north-to-south water flows that once sustained the ecosystem. Before the watershed was reshaped by development in the last century, water flows created a “river of grass” throughout south Florida that extended to both the east and west coasts. Most of the historic Everglades now lays dry, as farmland and housing developments have taken the place of functional wetlands.

These days, water is transported from Lake Okeechobee to the coasts and southern Everglades through a complex system of pumps, levees, and canals. This water is rich in phosphorus from fertilizer and manure runoff, which leads to massive algae blooms.”

To read the full article and to find out how you can help, click here.

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