by CHRISTINE STAPLETON on 10/27/11The monitoring programs that reveal how Everglades restoration plans are working, or not, will probably be slashed by 60 percent overall, leaving gaping holes in programs that predict algal blooms, monitor pollution, provide real-time water level data and assess the survival rates of endangered species.
Gone are programs that monitor the well-being of alligators, crocodiles and pink shrimp, indicator species that reveal the health of the ecosystem.
Cuts to wading bird monitoring in Lake Okeechobee will leave scientists unable to predict the start, peak and end of nesting season -- benchmarks needed to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between restoration efforts and wildlife.
"The Everglades and Lake Okeechobee are like patients in an emergency room," said Paul Gray, Audubon of Florida's science coordinator for Lake Okeechobee watershed programs. "If you have a patient in the emergency room, the last thing you want to do is shut off all the monitoring equipment."
The proposed cuts by federal, state and other agencies will be discussed today at a meeting of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force.
Monitoring restoration efforts is the keystone of "adaptive management," which governs Everglades restoration projects. "Adaptive management" lets decision-makers customize projects based on what has worked and what did not.
"Adaptive management is totally dependent on data," said John Marshall, chairman of the Florida Environmental Institute.
Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, named for Marshall's uncle, covers 147,000 acres of remnant northern Everglades habitat, west of urban neighborhoods in Palm Beach County. A 56 percent cut in aerial monitoring of Everglades plant growth and water depth will eliminate vegetation sampling in the refuge.
That could cause problems in monitoring the spread of invasive plants, Marshall said. The Old World climbing fern, which smothers native vegetation, infests tens of thousands of acres there.
"Without monitoring, how can you make a decision on what is producing the best results?" Marshall said.
Also hard hit are programs that monitor oysters, barometers of estuary health, in the Lake Worth Lagoon, Loxahatchee River and St. Lucie estuary.
Oysters cannot move out of pollution's way, giving researchers valuable data on water quality. The data are also used to schedule releases of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee.
"Do you do quarterly monitoring? Would that be good enough?" said John Scarpa, research professor at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute at Florida Atlantic University.
He calls oysters the "canary in the coal mine" for gauging the success of restoration programs.
"We still need to do something," Scarpa said. "Is the restoration going to get done if we keep pulling the plug on certain projects?"
~christine_stapleton@pbpost.com
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