Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades The First Biennial Review, 2006 (2007) / Chapter Skim
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6 An Alternative Approach to Advancing Natural System Restoration
6 An Alternative Approach to Advancing Natural System Restoration
Pages 163-179
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From page 163... ...
and Everglades National Park (WCA 3 Decompartmentalization and Sheet Flow -- Part 1 or Decomp) , are far behind the original schedule.
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From page 164... ...
Although early Acceler8 efforts have the potential to produce substantial benefits to Lake Okeechobee and the estu aries, the Yellow Book's philosophy for CERP project sequencing suggests that several supporting projects will need to be in place before subsequent restoration efforts in the central and southern Everglades can proceed. If the public and its elected representatives in Congress and the administration are to continue to be willing to provide financial support for projects in the Everglades, they must believe that CERP expenditures are contributing to the restoration of the central and southern parts of the Everglades ecosys tem, which include such iconic areas as Everglades National Park.
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From page 165... ...
, conceiving and implementing IAR differs in important ways from the Master Implementation Sequencing Plan (MISP)
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From page 166... ...
Although an IAR approach may lead to increased up-front project planning costs, the enhanced scientific understanding generated should improve the likelihood of restoration success, thereby reducing costs over the long term. Although this committee does not presume that IAR will solve all sources of delay in the progress of natural system restoration, it encourages the IAR approach to help accelerate restoration progress and overcome the techni cal, budgetary, and political difficulties that now accompany restoration planning.
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From page 167... ...
Curve B represents the case in which changes in hydrologic improvements cause an initial negative response, followed by recovery. A possible example of curve B noted in the Yellow Book might occur after small increases in flows to the estuaries below Shark River Slough that may initially cause reduced densities of the large-sized fishes favored by foraging wood storks.
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. Responses of wetland systems are likely to lag behind alterations of hydro logic patterns, but the committee believes, based on results of ecosystem restoration efforts elsewhere, that curve C is unduly pessimistic (see below)
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From page 169... ...
report used formal risk-analysis and decision-analysis frameworks to understand and address problems of restoring declining Atlantic salmon populations in Maine (NRC, 2004b) , an approach likely to be very useful in restoring the Everglades watershed.
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APPLYING THE IAR FRAMEWORK The goal of IAR is to create progress in natural system restoration while improving the understanding of the form of the responses of various ecosys tem components to incremental changes in some drivers (e.g., Figure 6-1) , thereby informing future restoration planning and decision making.
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From page 171... ...
However, decision-critical uncertainties need to be resolved to make sound restoration planning decisions, even considering the adaptive management framework in which the CERP operates. Decision-critical uncertainties have delayed progress in restoration planning with Decomp (see Chapter 5)
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From page 172... ...
. Example hypotheses related to the sheet-flow restoration in the ridge and slough include the following: • What are the ecological consequences from incremental increases in flows through the WCAs and into Everglades National Park?
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In this section, four of these key constraints are described along with ways that the IAR process can address them. Protecting Urban Areas from Flooding: Meeting the Savings Clause The Savings Clause in the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 mandates that existing levels of flood protection not be reduced through CERP implementation.
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From page 174... ...
have been achieved by the STAs, or by other means yet to be employed, some parts of the WCAs could temporarily receive water with somewhat higher phosphorus concen trations to allow restoration of flows and the associated substantial benefits that might be realized elsewhere in the Everglades ecosystem. Recognition that this action would expand the range of cattails, alter periphyton commu nities, increase soil phosphorus, and make these areas exceedingly difficult to restore once phosphorus loading is stopped demands a detailed evalua tion of the trade-offs between water quality in the affected portions of the ecosystem and increased water flow in other areas of the ecosystem.
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. An IAR approach could help facilitate dealing with these competing views of preferred future states of the South Florida ecosystem.
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AUTHORIZATION AND BUDGETING TO SUPPORT AN IAR APPROACH The planning and budgeting requirements for IAR are the same ones that accompany any robust and ongoing adaptive management program. Accelerating progress in restoring the South Florida ecosystem through an IAR approach would, therefore, need to be accompanied by an authoriza tion and budgeting process designed to facilitate incremental improvements and learning while doing, recognizing that elements of major projects would need to be formalized separately and funded as increments.
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From page 177... ...
This conception of the purpose and meaning of adaptive management differs from the logic described here under the IAR framework. There is no federal budget category of activity for the large-scale experiments that are part of the rationale for IAR.
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Experience with restoration projects elsewhere strongly suggests that carefully targeted incremental actions within an active adap tive management framework, supported by appropriate administrative and funding structures, are likely to provide a way to overcome the technical, budgetary, and political difficulties that currently are delaying some restora tion efforts in the Everglades. To accelerate restoration of the natural system and break through current constraints on restoration progress, many future investments in restoration in the South Florida ecosystem could profitably employ an incremental adaptive restoration approach.
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From page 179... ...
This would constitute a variant of the current CERP programmatic authorization of groups of projects, where a project implementation report is required before the final authorization of a project is secured and funding can be requested.
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