by Citation News Editor
30. September 2011
In the largest annual watershed funding the state has ever received, US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced $100 million in assistance to acquire permanent easements from eligible landowners in Glades, Hendry, Highlands and Okeechobee Counties, Florida. As part of the Wetlands Restoration Project, the easements will form a conservation corridor from the Kissimmee River to Everglades National Park. This will reduce the amount of surface water leaving the land and slow the concentration of nutrients entering the public water management system, Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades. Easements provide the open spaces, food resources and connectivity needed to sustain wide-ranging animals like the federally endangered Florida panther. Other species found on these lands include the crested caracara, Florida black bear, red-cockaded woodpecker and the whooping crane.
