Interagency Synthesis of Scientific Information, South Florida

Scientific information is being generated in south Florida to meet broad political interests and goals for protection and restoration of the Everglades and the south Florida environment. The State of Florida passed the Everglades Forever Act in 1994, thereby establishing a comprehensive program to restore portions of the Everglades. A major plan is being developed by the Corp of Engineers in cooperation with the State (The Restudy) to alter patterns of water flow in the region as part of restoration. A coalition of Federal and State agencies and Indian tribes, the South Florida Ecological Restoration Task Force, was established to guide the protection and restoration effort. The Task Force has a local Working Group that deals with management issues. The Working Group is advised by the recently established Science Coordination Team (SCT), formerly the Science Sub-group. The SCT promotes interactions of scientists and managers in the planning and evaluation of projects related to restoration. The SCT is developing a peer reviewed Science Plan for south Florida.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is beginning synthesis for its South Florida Ecosystem Program. The approach adopted by the USGS could serve as a guide or prototype for interagency synthesis. The schedule for the USGS Ecosystem Program is ideal for developing and testing an approach and implementation plan for interagency synthesis. The approach for the USGS synthesis will be to summarize each of the approximately 70 Ecosystem projects into 70 short, 2-page reports that contain the main findings of each project and to distribute these reports at a symposium in the winter of 1999. Review and discussion of these short reports and presentations will serve as the basis for topical synthesis of critical resource issues and will summarize the USGS Ecosystem Program from 1996 through 1998. The topical synthesis reports will be drafted for review in early 2000. Interagency synthesis would follow and be completed in 2001.