WEBVTT

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The serene beauty of Florida\'s Everglades
and ecosystem unique in all the world.

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We need

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a fragile living membrane

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of freshwater supporting
a diverse wildlife.

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A flowing river of grass 50 miles
wide yet only inches deep.

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On the surface it seems unspoiled.

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Bulldozers and registers have drained the
Everglades for farmers in towns for board.

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The River of Grass that once
supported a delicate wetland has

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been replaced by a plumbing system
network of highways subdivisions

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A bustling metropolis right he\'s been a
commodity that we have used with abandoned.

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And with too often the attitude that
it was indestructible. And unlimited.

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Over 7 million acres have been
reduced to a tiny remnant 1.

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Fifth that\'s original size.

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Everglades National Park.

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The park allows 1 million people a year
to see the wonders of the Everglades.

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The code over there.

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This park is dying as we sit here today.

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I think what you\'re looking at in South
Florida as maybe a glimpse of the future

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Rapid population growth
excessive population growth.

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In competition with
natural resource values.

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In fact most critically
endangered of all national parks.

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The Everglades can be seen as

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the Earth\'s environment in microcosm
an ecosystem threatened by

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the full environmental alphabet of

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modern industrial society development
pollution stress they are all here.

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Lengthen the Everglades survives

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precariously and its fate and that
of Miami are ultimately intertwined

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Florida is one of the fastest
growing places on the globe.

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Miami is a city of 4 million people
growing by 100 thousand every year.

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More than 10 million people vacation
in South Florida every year.

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Tourism is its most profitable industry

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Few of Miami is resonance realized
that as the city grows it actually

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devours and paves over the only source
of its most vital resource for life.

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Water fresh clean water florida uses
3 billion gallons of water a day.

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That\'s 200 gallons per person every day.

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All that freshwater comes
from just one place.

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South Florida is entirely dependent on the
Everglades as it\'s only source of freshwater.

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The Everglades soak up rainwater
and purify it naturally.

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In the 19 sixties flood
control projects for

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a developing population altered the natural
flow of water through levees and dams.

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Engineering with unforeseen
environmental consequences.

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Now some 200 structures
control 200 miles of canal.

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And computer models control
water distribution

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With people as their priority.

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What is our life blood in the realm
of quantity of water that we

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receive of a critical point with the
Everglades is we\'re running out of time.

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We\'re in competition for water
depending on the season during

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the dry season Miami and the suburbs
along the east coast draw down

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their wealth fields before what did wash
their cars drinking water water to water

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their lawns it\'s also the time that the
farmers irrigate in the agricultural areas.

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Agriculture alone uses 2
billion gallons of water a day

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When you lower that canal to benefit field
preparation on the outside of the park.

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You drain the water out of
Everglades National Park for

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up to two miles of park wilderness.

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So that we\'re in competition
with the urban areas and

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the agricultural areas for that
precious dry season resource.

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Dale Mason has been
working in the Everglades

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operating air boat tours
for the last 25 years

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Water levels are his business

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that water up area had gone I guess
for the farmers and the water mining.

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The water normally about a foot
David dropped and bank care.

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Within a matter of weeks if it
doesn\'t rain out of facial day.

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Just 100 meters from where Dale stands
looking out over the parched Earth.

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A canal is carrying all this water
into the heart of Miami is Metropolis.

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The canal has almost. dash from go and

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buried into water and I\'ll come back at it
would be out of business and doing that.

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All of the wildlife and
the Everglades depends on

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natural cycles of wet and dry
for feeding and reproduction.

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Annual floods build up fish stocks and dry
seasons concentrate them for food. Timing

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Water levels are everybody

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erratic human engineered floods and
droughts to meet urban water demands.

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Play havoc with Everglades ecology.

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The wildlife phosphate now hinges on
decisions made hundreds of miles away.

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There hasn\'t been a tremendous
impact on our wildlife.

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Since the 19 thirties we\'d
lost 90% of our wading birds.

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Last year or the Woodstock
and endangered species

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All of our nestling starboard their
nests we lost all of our reproduction.

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Two years ago we lost 50% of
our alligator reproduction.

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Last year we lost 72% years of drought.

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It I\'ve left the Everglades parched and
as dry as straw with fish not spawning.

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The normally well-fed alligators
are struggling for food.

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Wading birds including the endangered
Woodstock have flown beyond the Everglades

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A mass exodus to less familiar nesting areas
where reproduction is further endangers.

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Meanwhile remaining Everglades water
continues to be pumped to farms and cities.

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The spiraling decline of our wildlife is
precipitous and without immediate action.

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The long-term future is bleak

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A human hand that the control
can have unforeseen effects.

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Water quantity is one threat water quantity
another polluted by the fertilizers

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Used in the agricultural paradise
reclaimed from former Everglades.

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Phosphate is added to
seasonal vegetable crops as

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a fertilizer phosphate has been shown to be

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destructive to native
ecosystems in the Everglades.

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Agriculture is considered to be the major
threat because water quality is degraded by

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agricultural practices nitrates in the soil
in the Everglades Agricultural area to

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the north of us during the rainy season is put
into solution and then pumped off the land

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It damages the crops thereby
carrying that nitrate to the park.

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Runoff from 100 thousand tons of

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fertilizer a year forms and advancing
front of pollution flowing into

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the park creeping nutrient death that kills
four acres of a diverse ecosystem every day.

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Upstream in Lake Okeechobee
the northernmost source of

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Everglades water nitrates and
phosphates are poised and overloaded

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concentration 2700 parts per billion

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two hundred and seventy times
the amount that will kill us

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27 times the amount that
will destroy the ecosystem.

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All of this is upstream

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With gravity will find its way and is finding
its way in Everglades National Park.

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While water quantity
issues are severe as I\'ve

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indicated water quality issues
will destroy this park.

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Surely.

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If the lifeblood

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of the Everglades is poisoned and

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mercury levels in Everglades fish
are now the highest ever recorded.

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The question then is how rapidly
is this toxicity moving up

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the food chain for Mike Finley

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any solutions to the complex problems in
the Everglades will be political ones.

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It\'s settled in the
Congress it\'s settled in

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the state legislature has said it
before the County Commissioners.

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It\'s a active political participation
that saves these national parks.

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More than anything else and
aware and a motivated public.

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The Everglades are dying.

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But is it lost no no we can
save everybody\'s national park.

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We need to do several things.

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One we made to ensure our water
quality that those who are degrading

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the water north of the park that we have a
statutory right to by law clean up that water.

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And we\'re not asking too much there\'s not

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a city or an Air Force base or a
national park in this country

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Can degrade public waters
and get away with it.

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The federal government is currently
in litigation trying to force

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South Florida Water Management District
to enforce its own clean water standards.

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The obstacle lies in the economic
weight of the agricultural polluters.

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Sugarcane alone covers 11000
square miles of southern Florida.

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State agencies have not been

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effective in regulating these
discharges because within the state of

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Florida agricultural industry is a major
political force and major force in the economy.

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Therefore there\'s great reluctance to properly
regulate in the manner that we believe

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is provided by law.

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Both agriculture and development remove
habitat probably the greatest threat

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to the long-term survival
the Everglades it\'s

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urban development and an
expanding population.

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This is a fundamental difference
between the impact of agriculture in

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the 18 hundreds and the current urban
and suburbanization phenomenon.

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Once agriculture was abandoned.

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Land was able to revert naturally.

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The problem I see is that we are
basically changing the face of

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the earth forever by by paving by building.

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And when we do that it\'s impossible to

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say in a 100 years that we\'ve gone too
far we want the natural areas back.

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Once we lose these areas
and the area that is

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suburbanites AND urbanized.
They\'re going to be gone.

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The delicate balance between the
growth and development of Florida and

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the preservation of
Everglades is great tension.

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I think the only way you can
maintain that balance is through

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strict zoning comprehensive
land use plans and laws.

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And also start designing
in conservation measures.

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One legislative solution being
pioneered in Florida to maintain

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the balance and minimize further wetland
lost to development is mitigation.

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Mitigation regulation requires that
whenever a wetland is developed

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over a new one must be created
elsewhere by the developer.

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Approximately 50% of all the wetlands

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that were in the United States
when the pilgrims landed

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have disappeared to agriculture were
silviculture development and use by me in.

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These areas were reclaimed
from the African language.

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Development pressure in Florida is
so great to ensure that we have

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no net loss and wetlands acres to

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compensate for those wetlands
impacts mitigation is required

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We are currently in the process
of planting to reestablish

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a wetland area to compensate for the
area that was field for the development.

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And he has a new science.

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The problem with the current
legislation however is that

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a variety of loopholes allow
developers away around the rules.

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The loopholes allow land
to be legally cleared for

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agricultural activities once drain
for farming the land is no longer

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classified as wetland and can
then be sold to developers

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four subdivisions and grow pantries on

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your property for a few years and
then somebody comes and offers you.

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$30 thousand an acre for
it to build housing ohm.

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And that\'s a lot more than you\'ll ever get out
of a crop a pine tree and after 20 years.

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And so it is economically driven.

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The driving force for wetland
protection boils down to economics.

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The financial incentives for wetland
preservation simply do not exist.

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The IRS gives no tax break on wetlands
donated for permanent preservation.

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Meanwhile a landowner can make at
least $100 an acre just for selling

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his wetland trees do a paper mill apart

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from financial incentives for
giving up development rights.

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Another solution is to completely remove
wetlands valuable to the Everglades

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The pool of developable
land we need to expand

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the boundary taken those additional wetlands
that were inadvertently left out years ago.

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The slew the Marvel slew that feeds
this park the river of grass as

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described by martyrs dome and

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Douglas half of what was in the
park and half of it was put out

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Those are the lands that
need to be acquired.

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The real problem is is we\'re getting to

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the point of having too many
people for the space that we got.

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All of our environmental problems are

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not related to a developer
wanted to build a house in

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the shopping center it related to serve
in the population match that we have.

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Maybe we should concentrate our efforts in
preservation of land that currently is adding

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the boondocks where nobody
wants to do anything or

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these lands will be converted into
subdivisions and shopping centers

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What you\'re looking at in
South Florida as a warning.

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Because of the rapid rapid population
growth growth without a lot of planning.

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You just can\'t keep expanding the earth\'s
population beyond a carrying capacity and

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we know and natural resources management
that every species has a carrying capacity.

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And we may be reaching way beyond
what our carrying capacity is.

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What we believe will happen
within Everglades National Park.

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As the only remaining natural
Everglades and the system

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It will be to the people of Florida
what Central Park is to New York City.

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If you want to contrast to urban
development growth and industry it will

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be the only contrast remaining in South Florida
from concrete condominiums and cement.

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You will see severe competition for water.

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It\'s still not viewed as a finite resource.

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Right now in Dade County

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50% of the water used during the
winter is used to water lawns.

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So they\'re gonna have to be
a change and conservation

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ethic kinda like the 197374 fuel
conservation efforts in this country.

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We could do it but it\'s gonna
take a change in lifestyle.

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Ultimately the fate of the Everglades and

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other endangered ecosystems may
depend on an enlightened view of how

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wildlife and human life are linked together

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in a common environment and
are linked together here.

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By the flow of water.

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If those public policy issues fails then
Everglades National Park will cease.

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Functioning ecosystem.

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You will no longer have the biological
diversity represented this part.

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You will no longer have Panthers.

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You can no longer have manatees.

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You will see the tremendous floral distribution
reduced to a monoculture of cat tails.

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Blowing gently in the
subtropical breeze with very

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few to any sounds of accompanying
wildlife within that ecosystem.

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Over the long-term in

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the day-to-day bustle our lives and
with a technological improvements.

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We may face the same ecological collapse
that I fear will happen in the Everglades.

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For online as society we\'re bound by

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the same natural laws as every other
plant and animal on the planet.

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And I think without increased awareness
and public education were bound to crash