BOOK REVIEW

Landscapes and Hydrology of the PredrainageEvergladesMcVoy, C., W. Park Said, J. Obeysekera, J. VanArman, and T. Dreschel. 2011.Landscapes and Hydrology of the Predrainage Everglades. University Press of Florida,576 pp. US$85.00 (hardcover). ISBN 9780813035352.

Vic Engel

Published online: 13 March 2012

restoration has presented major, unforeseen technical andplanning difficulties that have yet to be overcome. Meetingthe nutrient content and other water quality standards for themassive water discharges needed to fully restore thefederally-protected Everglades has also proven to be excep-tionally difficult and expensive with the recent retraction ofthe public sector and the on-going disputes between thefederal and state agencies, these issues at times appear tohave become even more intractable. One consequence hasbeen a significant decrease in the amount of money spent onbaseline ecological monitoring. And perhaps not surprising-ly, the structural features, implementation sequence and thepace of Everglades restoration have deviated significantlyfrom the original Plan. However, one of the issues that overthe last several years has created significant stumblingblocks for CERP, the selection of restoration targets, shouldbe largely resolved with the publication of Landscapes andHydrology of the Predrainage Everglades. In this sense, theauthors have far exceeded the objectives of their originalinvestigations that led to the publication of this book.

McVoy et al. provide highly detailed descriptions of themajor Everglades communities and their hydrologic charac-teristics (e.g. flooding depth and hydroperiod) prior to theearliest drainage efforts in the 1880s. Importantly, the bookalso provides detailed accounts of the trajectories and suc-cessional patterns that many of these communities haveexhibited with the major phases of Everglades water man-agement, from the initial efforts to lower water levels in theheadwaters (Lake Okeechobee) to the widespread construc-tion of drainage canals for agriculture, and to the morerecent efforts to impound and control water levels in largetracts of the remnant system (the Water ConservationAreas). To accomplish this, the authors assembled a tremen-dous amount of information derived from a variety of

V. Engel (*)Everglades National Park,Florida, USAe-mail: Vic_Engel@nps.gov

Wetlands (2012) 32:589–591DOI 10.1007/s13157-012-0291-y

# US Government 2012

This book represents a remarkable effort to hindcast, orreconstruct, the eco-hydrologic characteristics of the plantcommunities that once dominated the Everglades of southFlorida, USA, one of the most widely recognized and moststudied ecosystems in the world. The book is a valuablecontribution for two primary, related reasons. The first andmost obvious reason lies in its contribution to the science ofEverglades restoration. The second reason is more subtle, butno less significant, and lies in the fact that this book repre-sents absolute, tangible proof of a tenet of nearly all ecolo-gists whether they are involved in Everglades restoration ornot: that long-term, repeated, and synoptic-level monitoringis essential to understanding the evolution of complex social-ecological systems such as the one present in south Florida.These ideas are discussed in more detail below.

The Everglades ecosystem is the focus of one of thelargest, if not the largest, restoration effort ever undertaken,with cost estimates in the tens of billions of dollars. Initiatedin the mid-1990s with an approximate 50 year constructionschedule, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan(CERP) is intended to restore the quantity, quality, timingand distribution of the surface water sheetflow which char-acterized the predrainage system. It has always been ac-knowledged that moving from an official restoration planto actual implementation was going to be a challenge. Overthe past 5 or more years, however, the extent of thesechallenges has become even more apparent. For example,the re-engineering of the south Florida water supply andflood control systems that is necessary to enable sheetflow

sources, including narratives and maps of early expeditions,township surveys, engineering reports for drainage projects,and photographs. Cross-referencing and a thorough knowl-edge of the south Florida environment enable the authors toglean the most information possible from individualaccounts that in some cases are only qualitative in natureand not always accurately georeferenced. Many of the sour-ces dating from the early 1900s however are remarkablyprecise descriptions of landscape features and surface waterhydrology. These accounts are detailed and reliable enoughfor the authors to draw strong conclusions regarding thewidespread impacts that occurred within the first few yearsfollowing even the earliest, small-scale drainage attempts.These observations, in turn, reinforce the point made byMcVoy et al. that all of the historic Everglades communitieswere linked by shared hydrologic connections.

To the authors’ credit, in Landscapes is meticulouslyreferenced throughout the book and many sources are repro-duced on the accompanying CD, providing the interestedreader with ample opportunity to follow-up on a particulartopic or to explore the material collected for specific locales.In fact, if I have one criticism of the book it is in the repeatedand sometimes confusing references to the numerous platesand figures presented throughout each chapter. For example,the legend for figure 1.1 itself references figure I.1, figure1.8, and Plate 4. Some readers may also find a few of themethods used in the landscape reconstructions to be some-what speculative, though I find with few exceptions theinferences are based on sound ecological principals andobvious local knowledge. Despite these potential issues,the book is well-suited for more in-depth investigations.The literature review is so thorough that it is difficult tobelieve any similar endeavor will be attempted or evennecessary within the next 30-40 years. Certainly, this bookwill be a primary reference for any future efforts to quantifythe responses of the Everglades ecosystem to the on-goingrestoration. In this context, the historic perspective providedby Landscapes shows us that the Everglades has beenchanging constantly since the earliest efforts to documentthis system first began. To be sure, even in EvergladesNational Park, whose boundaries have largely been in placesince the 1940s, these wetlands continue to this day toevolve away from their natural condition – a point madeall the more relevant given the delays in implementingCERP.

Some of the most valuable sources used by McVoy et al.are soil surveys, including descriptions of vertical horizonsand depth to bedrock measurements needed to promoteagriculture and to aid in drainage projects. The authors usethese surveys to reproduce topographic maps of the historiclandscape and to identify areas, absent today, which wereonce characterized by peat deposits. The peat in some ofthese regions disappeared so long ago in fact, that the

current condition of exposed bedrock has often been con-sidered as the normal, or natural, condition. For example,the current hydrologic restoration targets for the seasonallydry and frequently burned “Rocky Glades” communitieswere formulated specifically to inhibit long hydroperiodsand peat formation since this was assumed to represent adeviation from the predrainage condition. The detailed syn-thesis of historic soil, hydrology, and plant communityinformation contained in Landscapes now provides a scien-tific basis for adjusting these particular targets. This repre-sents just one of many examples of how this book mayinfluence the overall restoration effort. With this in mind,future restoration ecologists and engineers should consideran investigation like Landscapes to be a requisite first stepin any planning process. Those currently dedicated to eco-system monitoring or who are planning a restoration, in-cluding Everglades restoration, should take note of the valueof the most fundamental products of landscape science andecology as exemplified by the soil maps so heavily reliedupon by McVoy et al. Detailed topographic and vegetationmaps (with unambiguous classification schemes) like thoseutilized in Landscapes should be similarly valued and care-fully preserved. Over time, these products, along with com-plementary process-level investigations, will provide futureecologists with a much-needed empirical basis for recordingthe changes in ecosystem characteristics that occur overtime scales longer than the typical lifespan of individualscientists or our managing institutions.

Forensic ecologists like McVoy et al. play a valuable rolein this period of rapidly changing climate and land usebecause of the baseline, pre-disturbance information theyare capable of generating. McVoy et al. also show that datacollected during or immediately after localized anthropo-genic disturbances are also often proven to be invaluableover the long-term. However, my overall reaction to theinformation contained in Landscapes is probably most accu-rately described as surprised, and I expect this will reflect thereaction of many other scientists involved in Everglades res-toration as I have been over the last 8 years. Without question,the historic Everglades was much, much wetter (i.e. deeperwater and longer hydroperiods) than it is today, with thepossible exception of a few impounded zones, and muchwetter than what is typically envisioned for the restoration.Indeed, the detailed accounts of the vast deposits of deep peatsoils, regional hydrologic connectivity and extensive wetlandcommunities that have been lost, such as the sawgrass plains,the transverse glades, and the pond apple (Annona glabra)forest on the south shore of Lake Okeechobee suggest that“restoration” to be an inaccurate description of what CERPmay one day achieve. Seasonal sheetflow patterns and waterdepth fluctuations in the remaining Everglades marshes cancertainly be modified to more closely mimic the predrainageconditions. These modifications are expected to lead to

590 Wetlands (2012) 32:589–591

dramatic improvements in habitat quality in both the inlandand coastal wetland communities which make up the ecosys-tem. For this reason alone some may consider CERP a worthyendeavor. Recent work also suggests the increase in value ofecosystem services provided by CERPwill outweigh the costsby a factor of 4:1 (McCormick et al. 2010). But given thewidespread changes in land use, altered water quality, peatloss, climate change and sea level rise that have alreadyoccurred and/or are likely to continue into the foreseeablefuture, one is forced to ask whether restoration is the appro-priate term and, if not, than at what target should we beaiming?

Arguing over semantics may not have an obvious impacton societal decisions to preserve and/or enhance the ecolog-ical functioning and cultural heritage of the Everglades, butthe distinction between the terms restoration and for exam-ple, rehabilitation, should be relevant to those ecologists andagencies responsible for assessing the benefits of CERP. Asmentioned above, Landscapes is a clear testimony to thevalue of continuous (or repeated) and synoptic ecologicalmonitoring as the fundamental tool for these types of assess-ments. Long-term datasets collected before and after con-struction will also be required to differentiate the impacts ofrestoration projects such as CERP from the separate

hydrologic impacts of a non-stationary climate and sea levelrise. These data will inevitably lead to more informed man-agement practices. In this respect, Landscapes has obviousvalue as a reference textbook for the Everglades scientificcommunity. McVoy et al. have also extended the effort tomake the book enjoyable for a wider audience. The chaptersare organized to read much like a story that unfolds overtime, and the reader is left with the impression of somethinglike a mystery novel in which they bear witness to theinvestigations needed to reconstruct the scene of a crime.In the process, readers develop a deep appreciation for theuniqueness of the Everglades, the early efforts to map andsettle this region, and the on-going co-evolution of the builtand natural systems of south Florida. For these reasons, Irecommend this book for all wetland scientists.

References

McCormick, B., R. Clement, D. Fischer, M.Lindsay, R. Watson(2010) Measuring the Economic Benefits of Everglades RestorationAn Economic Evaluation of Ecosystem Services Affiliated with theWorld’s Largest Ecosystem Restoration Project. Report to theEverglades Foundation http://everglades.3cdn.net/90fb17eeadba310af8_6tm6barv5.pdf

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