May 17th Public Comments to CISRERP

Arthur R. Marshall Foundation & FL Environmental Institute, Inc.
Public Comment [paraphrased+] May 17, 2011 at the 23rd Meeting of the
Committee on Independent Scientific Review of
Everglades Restoration Progress (CISRERP)

This public comment should well be called: What’s the real BASELINE to which restoration, preservation, protection, enhancement should be applied and assessed [measured]?

Here are three baselines that have a lot in common. Let me challenge the audience by stating that: Adaptive management is mission impossible without a baseline. [It’s hard to tell where you have been if you don’t know where you started!]

BASELINE 1: Key elements of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan = CERP [1999], vis-à-vis, CERP Sections 2, 5, 7, especially 2.3.1 dynamic storage and sheet flow.

BASELINE 2: Hit the streets 5/4/2011: Landscapes and Hydrology of the Predrainage Everglades by McVoy, VanArman, et al. This is the long-awaited expanded picture of the historic Everglades as outline in CERP 1999, Section 2.

BASELINE 3: The Marshall Plan, 1981, for repairing the Everglades, if you are an Art Marshall disciple. [The ArtMarhall.org is happy to see Arthur R. Marshall’s work again referenced in baseline 2, pages 310, 335. For additional information, same as referenced on page 310, in Predrainage Everglades, see: http://everglades.fiu.edu/marshall/index.htm .

All three BASELINES have the common element of restoring natural flow on a vast scale. [As Art Marshall put it in the Marshall Plan: Effect repair requires restoration of sheet flow to the greatest possible extent from the Kissimmee Lakes to Florida Bay.]

So with the near simultaneous events of a new SFWMD Governing Board and the McVoy Report, we have reissued [are reissuing] our condensed version of CERP 1999 and the Marshall Plan to get everybody on the same page.

For the uninitiated the 4033 Page CERP has been reduced to 11 pages for an E-Z read. This also provides a BASELINE for our 10th Annual Summer Intern Program, whereby we are training your replacements. Hard copy for the record and e-copy of CERP 11 page excerpt to Stephanie for distribution to the Committee.

Since there has been a lot of talk about technologies for attaining water quality phosphorous (P) standards of P = 10 ppb, let me close with an anecdote. There is an apparent error of omission in all these presentations by not considering the nutrient uptake of the pond apple forest south of Lake Okeechobee. We go with the Committee regarding avoiding high-cost engineering solutions, when there are low-cost, low-tech, low-risk natural solutions available. The pond apple forest is not a cure-all but it is one aspect that needs further consideration. Thanks for considering the trees. FOOTNOTE: LILA (Lox Impoundment Landscape Assessment) findings indicate this is even a better idea. More on that later.

Respectfully submitted,
John
John Arthur Marshall, Chairman of the Board,
Arthur R. Marshall Foundation & Florida Environmental Institute, Inc.