WLRN, November 9, 2023
It used to be the water spilled over Lake Okeechobee’s southern shore, flowing eventually into the sawgrass prairies of the Florida Everglades. For thousands of years the marsh vegetation flourished and died here in an endless cycle, the plant remains falling beneath the slow-coursing water to form a rich layer of organic soil called peat.
Over time the fertile soil, along with the subtropical climate and abundance of water, drew the attention of farmers, who as far back as the 1880s began digging canals to drain away the water and expose the peat for planting.
Today this region, known as the Everglades Agricultural Area, is among the nation’s most bountiful, raising rice, sod, vegetables like lettuce, celery and corn and most notably sugar cane, making Florida the country’s top producer of the crop.
Growing evidence suggests that draining the water and exposing the peat also has made the region a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, which are warming the global climate and contributing to impacts like hotter temperatures, rising seas and more damaging hurricanes.
The Everglades represent Florida’s most important freshwater resource. The watershed spans much of the peninsula, encompassing the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, sawgrass prairies to the south and Florida Bay. Various efforts over the last century to drain the Everglades, the largest steered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, have made modern Florida possible and left the river of grass drastically altered. A $21 billion federal and state effort to restore the Everglades is among the most ambitious of its kind in human history.
The Everglades Agricultural Area hugs the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee, the state’s largest lake. Emissions here especially are a concern because, although vast swaths throughout the watershed have been drained, this region historically harbored the greatest deposits of peat, said Meenakshi Chabba, ecosystem and resilience scientist at the Everglades Foundation, an advocacy group that commissioned one recent study on the emissions.
“This is one little spot nestled in a highly conserved area that is really a global emissions hotspot,” she said. “Right here is the Everglades Agricultural Area, which is bleeding greenhouse gas emissions and leading to global heating.”