The South Florida ecosystem extends from the Chain of Lakes south of Orlando to the reefs southwest of the Florida Keys. This vast region, which is home to more than 6 million Americans, a huge tourism industry, and a large agricultural economy, also encompasses one of the world’s unique environmental resources—the Everglades. Before human intervention, freshwater moved south from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay in a broad, slow-moving sheet. The quantity and timing of the water’s flow depended on rainfall patterns and natural processes that slowly released stored water. Water stored throughout the vast area of the Everglades supplied water to wetlands and coastal bays and estuaries even during dry seasons. For centuries, the Everglades provided habitat for many species of wading birds and other native wildlife, including the American alligator, which depended on the water flow patterns that existed before human intervention. The vast Everglades wetlands were generally viewed as an unproductive swamp to be drained for more productive uses. By 1927, the Everglades Drainage District had constructed 440 miles of canals, levees, locks, and dams. However, these water management projects were not sufficient to protect over 2,000 people from drowning and many more from being injured when the waters of Lake Okeechobee overflowed during a devastating hurricane in 1928. In 1930, the Army Corps of Engineers began constructing the Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake. A major drought from the early 1930s through the mid-1940s left the booming population of South Florida short of water and threatened by uncontrollable fires in the Everglades. In 1947, torrential rains, coupled with unusually high seasonal water levels and an abnormally wet summer followed by hurricanes in September and October, flooded nearly 2.5 million acres and left 90 percent of southeastern Florida underwater. Floodwaters stood in some areas for 6 months. As a result, in 1948, the Congress authorized the Central and Southern Florida Project—an extensive system of over 1,700 miles of canals and levees and 16 major pump stations—to prevent flooding and saltwater intrusion into the aquifer, as well as to provide drainage and supply water to the residents of South Florida. Areas immediately south of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades Agricultural Area, which was drained by the project, are now farmed—primarily by sugar growers—while the eastern part of the region has become heavily urbanized. Canals carry water away from the Everglades Agricultural Area into levied water conservation areas or directly into the Atlantic Ocean, bypassing much of the former Everglades and dramatically altering the timing, quantity, and quality of the water delivered to coastal estuaries. As figure 1 shows, these engineering changes, coupled with agricultural and industrial activities and urbanization, have reduced the Everglades to about half its original size. These changes have also had a detrimental effect on the environment. Wildlife populations have declined significantly, and some scientists believe that the reduced flow of freshwater into Florida Bay may be hastening its environmental decline. To address the deterioration of the ecosystem, the administration, in 1993, made the restoration of the Everglades and the South Florida ecosystem one of its highest environmental priorities. The South Florida Ecosystem Task Force was established by an interagency agreement to promote and facilitate the development of consistent policies, strategies, priorities, and plans for addressing the environmental concerns of the South Florida ecosystem. The Task Force consisted of assistant secretaries from the Departments of Agriculture, the Army, Commerce, and the Interior; an assistant attorney general from the Department of Justice; and an assistant administrator from the Environmental Protection Agency. The Water Resources Development Act of 1996 formalized the Task Force; expanded its membership to include state, local, and tribal representatives; and designated the Secretary of the Interior as the group’s Chairperson. To accomplish the restoration of the South Florida ecosystem, the Task Force has established the following goals: Get the water right. This means restoring more natural hydrologic functions while providing adequate water supplies and flood control. This goal will be accomplished primarily by modifying the Central and Southern Florida Project to enlarge the region’s freshwater supply and to improve how water is delivered to natural areas using a variety of technologies. More than 500 miles of canals and levees will be removed to reestablish the natural sheet flow of water through the Everglades and restore more natural water flows to South Florida’s coastal bays and estuaries. Restore and enhance the natural system. Restoring lost and altered habitats will involve acquiring land and changing current land uses as well as halting the spread of invasive, exotic species and recovering threatened and endangered species. Transform the built environment. Balancing human needs with those of the natural environment will require developing lifestyles and economies that do not have a negative impact on the natural environment and do not degrade the quality of life. This will involve ensuring that traditional industries, such as agriculture, tourism, development, fishing, and manufacturing, continue to be supported while making sure that these industries are compatible with the goals of the restoration effort and that the quality of life in urban areas is maintained or enhanced. Participants in the restoration effort include 13 federal agencies, 7 Florida agencies and commissions, 2 American Indian tribes, 16 counties, and scores of municipal governments. Representatives from the state’s major industries, the commercial and private sectors, and environmental and other special interest groups also participate in the restoration effort. Appendix II lists the federal, state, tribal, and county participants. Appendix III contains additional details on the South Florida ecosystem and the efforts undertaken to restore it. Federal funding for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative does not come from a single source. In addition to funds appropriated directly by the Congress for projects managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and restoration activities designated in the 1996 Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act (Farm Bill), the federal agencies participating in the initiative determine and allocate funds from their own appropriations. Because the agencies account for these funds independently, no complete and consolidated financial data on the initiative are available. We asked each agency to provide data on the funds provided for the initiative—appropriations from fiscal year 1993 through fiscal year 1999 and obligations and expenditures from fiscal year 1993 through fiscal year 1998 (the latest year for which complete data are available). However, many of the agencies had difficulty providing these data because although they track appropriated dollars allocated for the initiative, they do not separately track the funds obligated and expended for it. On the basis of the financial data provided by the federal agencies, we estimate that from fiscal year 1993 through fiscal year 1999, over $1.2 billion in appropriated funds has been provided to the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative. As figure 2 indicates, the funding for the initiative has increased from about $85 million for fiscal year 1993 to about $238 million for fiscal year 1999. As figure 2 also shows, 1996 was an unusual funding year because the Farm Bill included a specific appropriation of $200 million for restoration activities. Through fiscal year 1998, federal departments and agencies obligated$883 million for various restoration activities. The restoration activities can be grouped into six major categories: (1) land acquisition; (2) the management of federally owned facilities or natural resources, such as national parks, wildlife refuges, and a national marine sanctuary, which may affect or be affected by the restoration initiative; (3) science-related activities, such as mercury contaminant studies; (4) infrastructure, such as the construction of water control structures; (5) water quality and habitat protection, such as the Corps’ wetlands permitting program; and (6) information management and assessment, such as coastal mapping. As figure 3 shows, the major activities being conducted are in area/natural resources management (32 percent), land acquisition (31 percent), science (15 percent), and infrastructure (11 percent). Some of these categories, particularly area/natural resources management and science, include activities that may be considered normal agency operations and would take place with or without the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative. Area/natural resources management ($291 million) Land acquisition ($274 million) Science ($128 million) Of the $883 million obligated, $684 million was spent by the agencies or distributed to the state and other nonfederal entities for restoration activities in South Florida. As figure 4 shows, the Department of the Interior and the Corps of Engineers account for the bulk of the total federal expenditures (75 percent) during this 6-year period. The federal funding provided to date represents only a down payment. While an official cost estimate for the total restoration effort has not been made, the implementation of the Central and Southern Florida Project Comprehensive Review Study, a major component of the restoration initiative referred to as the Restudy, is estimated to cost $7.8 billion. This cost will be shared equally by the federal and state governments. The Restudy, which will propose modifications to the existing Central and Southern Florida Project, is designed to substantially increase the amount of water that is delivered to natural areas while enhancing agricultural and urban water supplies. Additional efforts will be needed to complete the restoration initiative. According to the executive director of the Task Force, at least $2 billion more will be needed to acquire additional lands, construct other infrastructure projects, and eradicate exotic plant species. Consequently, the restoration effort, which is expected to take at least 20 years to complete, could cost at least $11 billion. Appendix IV contains additional details on the federal funds appropriated, obligated, and expended for the restoration of the South Florida ecosystem. Critical to guiding an endeavor as complex as the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative is a strategic plan that outlines how the restoration will occur, identifies the resources needed to achieve it, assigns accountability for accomplishing actions, and links the strategic goals of the initiative to outcome-oriented annual goals. Such a plan for the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative has not yet been developed.