End of the Year Donation

Click to make a tax-deductible donation to the Marshall Foundation

Have you made your year-end, tax-deductible donation? You can double the value of your donation through a matching grant from the Batchelor Foundation to help support our Everglades education programs in 2012!

The additional funds will allow us to increase the reach of our school in-class programs to 40,000 students, plant 5,000 native trees in the Everglades, implement the new Water Ambassadors program in 10 schools, provide five paid college summer internships, and offer Everglades field trips.

This is a great opportunity to have your financial support go twice as far as we work together to protect our environment and develop its future stewards.

3rd graders get a close look at a sunning anhinga!

 

2011 River of Grass Gala a success!

 FROM A RECENT PRESS RELEASE...
Nancy Marshall, president of the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation, which champions the restoration and preservation of the greater Everglades ecosystem, today announced that the nonprofit organization raised more than $100,000 at the recent sixth annual River of Grass Gala.

More than 200 people attended the gala, which was co-chaired by Bob & Michelle Diffendorfer and Harvey Oyer III & Monique McCall, with Joyce McLendon of Palm Beach serving as Honorary Chair.

With a “Back to Nature” theme, the fundraising event included the presentation of the Marshall Foundation’s fourth annual Champion of the Everglades Awards to individuals and organizations that have made an outstanding contribution toward Everglades restoration over many years. The 2011 recipients were Palm Beach County Commissioner Karen Marcus (elected official), Charlie Pelizza of the US. Fish and Wildlife Service (individual) and the National Wildlife Refuge Association (organization).

Additional highlights of the gala included one-of-a-kind centerpiece-sculptures (“Let the Dance Begin”) by renowned artist Norman Gitzen and high tech, pro-green, virtually paperless silent auction.

centerpiece sculptures by Norman Gitzen

 “As always, I am humbled by the number of people who tirelessly volunteer, sponsor and support our annual River of Grass Gala that funds 100 percent of our grassroots environmental projects throughout the year,” said Nancy Marshall. “In fact, 100 percent of all funds raised at the Gala goes directly toward educating the next generation about the critical importance of the Everglades, our national treasure, on the entire state of Florida.”

Click to see a photo gallery from the 2011 River of Grass Gala

Everglades Legislative Caucus--public comments

Your may have read about the formation of an Everglades Legislative Caucus last week.  The group met for some fact finding at the Refuge, followed by a press conference nearby...

They were kind enough to allow the Marshall Foundation to say a few words.  Along with our public comments, I also delivered the following written statement...
 

Public Comment to Everglades Legislative Caucus, November 28, 2011

Bedner’s near the Entrance to the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge

On behalf of the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation, thanks for the time to say a few words in support of Everglades Restoration at the upstart of the Everglades Legislative Caucus.   We very much appreciate Representative Steve Perman for spearheading the genesis of the Caucus.

We see a significant increase in potential of achieving my Late Uncle’s Everglades repair objectives, as outlined in the Marshall Plan, issued as a Friends of the Everglades Newsletter, published by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, in 1981. To repair the Everglades, Uncle Art saw as Job 1, the Restoration of the Kissimmee Basin, i.e., the Everglades Headwaters.

Our organization is very glad to add our support to the proposed Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge.  As this project goes forward, it will make a huge difference by preserving vast acres of wetlands to provide water storage and treatment with positive economic impacts.

In executing another key part of the Marshall Plan, the full restoration of sheet flow, we are glad to share that our organization is also highly pleased that a Central Everglades Project and a streamlined federal-state implementation is being added to the  Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan or CERP(+) to do what Uncle Art Outlined in 1981;  kudo’s for an equally robust approach to involve all stakeholders, including small grass-roots organizations like ours.

These two projects are essential elements of the greater Everglades Ecosystem restoration.  There is some back-channel conversation that there may not be enough money to do both of them, suggesting we should pick one or the other.  This would be an incredible mistake.  We cannot do without either of them to fully restore the greater Everglades ecosystem.  We ask the Everglades Legislative Caucus to support both to ensure a fully successful Everglades restoration outcome.

In previous comment, the ArtMarshall.org has provided Ecosystem Services Valuation (ESV) analysis based on peer-reviewed literature, to show that a restored River of Grass, the apparent objective of the Central Everglades Project, would provide a 10 to 1 return on investment (ROI). 

We view our ESV demonstration as a challenge to the Federal agencies to act on recommendations in the White House Report:  Sustaining Natural Capital – Protecting Society and the Economy, for use in ROI Decision-Support in projects like the proposed EH NWR.

Of these two initiatives discussed, nothing could have pleased Uncle Art more.  As Senator Bob Graham noted on these grounds in 2006, Art Marshall was the quintessential example that one man could make a difference. 

We look forward to working with the Everglades Legislative Caucus, CERP implementers, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, and other NGO’s, to see to fruition, the legacy of an extraordinary plan and the man who wrote it. Also that a small grass roots organization can make a big difference.   Thanks for the opportunity to make these comments.

For the Art Marshall approach, Semper Fi,

John Arthur Marshall, Chairman of the board.

International Volunteer Day

This fall, the Marshall Foundation has had several enthusiastic young people at the office on a regular basis, benefitting both the Foundation and the students.

Carissa Iverson, a senior at Palm Beach Atlantic University, is the Foundation’s 2011-2012 PBAU Science Club Scholarship Recipient. She will continue working once a week with the education department at the Foundation until she graduates in May.

The Foundation and Dr. Wendy Hinshaw, Assistant Professor of English at Florida Atlantic University, partnered on a service learning project to provide “real world” experience for three students through writing and research tasks. The FAU team includes Adrienne DeCramer of Boynton Beach, Kirsta Lamm of Boca Raton and Sean Chesal from Deerfield Beach.

The Foundation was also selected as a mentoring site for high school students during the 2011-2012 school year by the Gale Academy of Environmental Science and Technology at Forest Hill High School. Katherine Brown, the student assigned to the Marshall Foundation, will continue her work with us until the spring.

Chelsea Jones, a Juris Doctor candidate at St. Thomas University School of Law (class of 2013), takes a twice-weekly break from her studies to be an invaluable volunteer at the Foundation office.

 

A big THANK YOU to the many volunteers who are such a vital part of the Arthur R. Marshall Foundation “team” throughout the year!

River of Grass Gala

Click here to learn more about the River of Grass Gala

ESV (Ecological Services Valuation) for Dummies

ON THE VALUE TO SOCIETY OF ECOSYSTEMS SERVICES VALUATION (A SHORT TUTORIAL)

Introduction by Arthur R. Marshall to an AIAA Conference, 1972:  I have to believe, as all scientists should, that the more exactly we define realities, the closer society will adhere to them.  If this is not true, many of our careers are personal opiates rather than contributions to hope for the world.

Here is a brief and simplified case for incorporating realistic  Ecosystem Service Valuation (ESV) as policy for Federal-State-Local environmental decision-support, CERP(+) being one example. The (+) after CERP(+) is notation that total ecosystem valuation should include adds to CERP 1999 such as the Central Everglades project, Everglades Headwaters NWR, non-CERP projects, etc. Reasons for ESV policy follow:

·         A Report to the President – Sustaining National Capital – Protecting Society and the Economy – Tells the Federal Govt to go in this direction for projects like CERP(+); the title implies the level of need.

·         In the Water Resources Advisory Commission meeting 3 Nov 11, there was much rumination about the value of various ecosystems and water delivery to sustain same, as well as water availability value in terms of benefits and costs for urban systems; however there was no specific methodology referenced to get to benefits in terms of a dollar value, such that it can be related to costs.  ESV is it.

·         Per the Costanza Synthesis [Google Nature 387 for the 8 page paper], the 17 characteristics of 18 Planetary Biomes (Ecosystems) have much greater value than is widely understood and measured for society’s benefit; for example the value of wetlands exceed $10,000 per acre per year in 2011 dollars; estuaries are declared to have the highest value owing to their diversity of flora and fauna.

1.       The Costanza Synthesis is the most wildly referenced peer reviewed paper in the environmental economics literature.  Since all local ecosystems are unique relative to the Costanza Synthesis, detailed ESV of the local ecosystem provides a more accurate picture than using the Benefits Transfer Approach (BTA) of the local ecosystem based on the Costanza Synthesis.  

2.      Critics also note that unique ESV analysis can take one to three years of intense data gathering and analysis, which can cost 10 to 20 times more than a quick BTA calculation using the Costanza Synthesis equivalent biomes, which is usually within 10%-20% of an on-site analysis. 

3.      Whatever approach is taken, most agree that ESV is usually underestimated due to complexities; the real value of ESV is its use in an analysis of alternatives as the resulting Benefit-to-cost (B/C = B:C) ratio provides a clear and convincing basis for evaluating return on investment (ROI)

4.      For the usually unachievable quicker, better, cheaper approach, BTA using the Costanza Synthesis should be a primary preference as an environmental decision-making tool.

5.      Point 4 is especially true when a number of alternatives are presented  to decision-makers, necessitating less than a life-long study on the relative merit of alternatives providing the best ROI.

6.      Footnotes:  The Costanza Synthesis serves as a reality check when other approaches are taken.  When other approaches are taken,  modeling to get there may use more BTA than suggested above

·         Total Economic Valuation (TEV) of CERP(+) benefits forces long-term strategic thinking in terms of life-cycle benefits and costs; note that CERP(+) is a 40-50 year life cycle.

o   The notional benefits equation is:  ESV =  $$$     per Acre    per Year                                                                                                            

                                                       ESV = $10,000 x Acres x   40 yrs

o   Note that when acres restored/conserved are big, ESV is big, e.g., benefits are BIG relative to costs; B:C provides a realistic, understandable ROI, and that this is a selling point for program.

·         Many involved in CERP(+) are calling for synthesis.

o   The quintessential synthesis is given by the B:C ratio; TEV puts a dollar value on the benefits, which can then be compared with the costs of restoration/conservation.

o   References indicate the Benefits:Costs (B/C = B:C) are most always greater than 10:1.

o   The B:C = 10:1, i.e., $10 of benefits for every $1 dollar invested becomes a great way to sell a program, in a manner understandable by Congress, OMB and the pubic

·         CERP(+) Applications that demonstrate the value of ESV:

o   Everglades Foundation – Measuring the Economic Benefits of Everglades Restoration, with a result that B:C = 4:1, i.e., $4 returned for every $1 invested, and this is conservative

o   Arthur Marshall Foundation:  Valuing Ecosystem Services of a Restored River of Grass, with a result of B:C ranging from 6:1 to 26:1:  See http://www.conference.ifas.ufl.edu/GEER2010/Poster%20PDFs/Marshall.pdf

o   Arthur R. Marshall Foundation:  Valuing Ecosystem Services of the proposed Everglades Headwaters NWR placed in public comment:  B:C could exceed 100:1.  For non-believers see:  http://www.uvm.edu/research/?Page=news&storyID=1153&category=uvmresearch

o   Florida Ranchlands Payment For Ecosystem Services – More of a market based approach, with PES for a specific service of one of the 17 services called out in the Costanza Synthesis.

·         Potential General Applications in the form of tradeoffs that consider all positive and negative externalities:

o   Development of Regional Impact (DRI) when destruction of wetlands are proposed

o   Benefits and costs of mitigation of destroyed wetlands, rivers estuaries to ensure the national policy of no net loss of wetlands and the ESV of same.

o   Benefits and Costs of EPA/FDEP pollution rule-making

·         Failure to place a value on wetlands results in a default value of zero; one result appears to be a failure of the national policy of “no net loss of wetlands”.

o   The National Research Council 2005 Study – Valuing Ecosystem Services – Towards better Environmental Decision Making – Tells us to go in this direction.

·         The NRC Study makes a big point that when no value is placed on an ecosystem, the ecosystem is given a default value of zero.

·          A Report to the President – Sustaining National Capital – Protecting Society and the Economy – Tells the Federal Govt to go in this direction for projects like CERP(+)

·         The recommendations herein amount to the needed paradigm shift required to move bureaucracy to better environmental decision making.

·         This is the way for selling CERP(+) to Congress, OMB and the Public.

·         Two page letter to the President and four page executive summary amplifies; See http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/pcast_sustaining_environmental_capital_report.pdf

·         There is an annual conference called ACES (A Conference on Ecosystem Services) sponsored by Federal-State-Local govt and non-profit entities that address going in this direction.  It is a waste of money not to move in this direction.

·         Using ESV as a means to calculate the benefits & costs to counter sea level rise, global warming, and drought management provide an economic basis for taking action, or not.

·         It is fairly clear that all that are pushing CERP(+) intuitively recognize the intrinsic value of restoring and preserving wetlands.   Who are we if we can’t or won’t put a dollar value on our work?

Conclusions:

·         The 18 biomes called out in the Costanza Synthesis represent our planetary total national capital

·         The best road to sustainability is to use the ESV approach to  put an economic value on natural capital and related ecosystem services.

·         Failure to put an economic value on ecosystems services results in a default value of zero, leading to loss of natural capital in an unsustainable manner.  Biomes (ecosystems) are victims of the current paradigm of zeroing out ecosystems for the sake of growth and development.

·         Use of the Costanza Synthesis and benefits transfer approach provides the cheaper-quicker-better approach for understandable return on investment analysis of alternatives and a means to sell billion dollar restoration programs to Congress, Office of Management & Budget, and the public.

·         CERP(+) implementers have the opportunity to set the example in a paradigm shift toward better environmental decision making by using ESV in CERP(+) analysis of alternatives.

“If you don’t synthesize knowledge, scientific journals become spare-parts catalogues for machines that are never built. Until isolated and separated pieces of information are assimilated by the human mind, we will continue to rattle around aimlessly.” ---  Arthur R. Marshall, quoted in ”Anatomy of a Man-made Drought,” Sports Illustrated, March 15, 1982