Everglades gets another 6,000 acres of filter marshes

Water managers and environmentalists gathered in southwestern Palm Beach County to celebrate a key step on the path to recovering the vastly polluted Everglades. They have planned to convert another 6,000 acres of former farmland into man-made wetlands to filter pollutants out of water headed for the Everglades.

Phosphorus-infused fertilizers that wash off sugar cane and other agricultural fields pollute the Everglades by overloading its waters with nutrients that fuel the growth of cattails, squeezing out sawgrass and other habitat vital to preserving what remains of the River of Grass.

To decrease that infusion of phosphorus, the newly expanded Stormwater Treatment Areas help capture water flowing off agricultural land and use cattails and submerged plants to create a natural filter — absorbing the nutrients before they wash into the Everglades.

--> This was a nice bit of news to read this morning. At a time when you're reading about the biggest ice sheet on Earth melting and arson suspicions circulating about the California wildfires, it's great to see some people focusing on preservation.

(Via Sun Sentinel)