In 2016, the state agency responsible for managing South Florida’s waterways dismissed us for demanding more. Ten years later, many of the restoration projects we were fighting for are well underway, have been built, or are moving closer to completion.
In July 2016, we were still a brand-new organization of fishing guides trying to draw attention to a broken water-management system and push for meaningful Everglades restoration. We weren’t shy about what we wanted to see change, and we didn’t sugar-coat our demands.
The response from the South Florida Water Management District at the time was not subtle.
In an official “Get the Facts” document, the agency referred to us and others calling for more action as “career pessimists.” It accused critics of pushing a “government-isn’t-doing-enough narrative” and defended the approach being taken at the time.
They were talking about us.
We were demanding more because we had seen what the status quo meant for our waters, our communities, and our livelihoods. We were pushing for the state to stop accepting damaging coastal discharges as inevitable, move more clean water south through the Everglades, and actually build the restoration projects Florida had been talking about for years.
Name calling was the response back then. Ten years later, the contrast is hard to ignore.
A very different picture today
This month, the South Florida Water Management District, which has been a critical, committed extension of the clean-water movement since a major agency overhaul in 2019, released a new four-page progress report detailing the status of major Everglades restoration projects across South Florida.
Put the two documents side by side and the difference is striking.
The 2016 document was basically a propaganda piece designed to deflect responsibility and divert attention from the inadequacies of the effort at the time. The 2026 report, on the other hand, is filled with meaningful projects under construction, projects approaching completion and major pieces of restoration infrastructure that didn’t exist a decade ago.
That doesn’t mean Everglades restoration is finished. Far from it.
But it does mean the conversation, the expectations and, most importantly, the physical water-management system have changed.
Among the major projects detailed in the new report, here are a few highlights:
- EAA Reservoir: The centerpiece project south of Lake Okeechobee that will store, clean and send more water south to the Everglades while helping reduce damaging discharges to the coasts. While the stormwater treatment area component was completed in 2024, the actual storage reservoir is currently targeted for functional completion in 2029.
- Southern Everglades flow improvements: Multiple projects are removing barriers and improving the system’s ability to move more clean water south into Everglades National Park, including work around Tamiami Trail and the Blue Shanty Flow Way, which have historically been bottlenecks in the system.
- Indian River Lagoon restoration: Major projects are advancing to store, treat and redirect water before it reaches the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon. The C-23/C-24 Stormwater Treatment Area is now approximately 98% physically complete.
Recent state and federal agreements have also helped move portions of the EAA Reservoir and southern Everglades work forward several years on accelerated schedules.
And those are only the projects still underway.
Since 2019, construction has been completed on several other pieces of restoration critical to ensuring more clean water flowing south, including the EAA Reservoir Stormwater Treatment Area, C-43 Reservoir on the Caloosahatchee, C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area on the St. Lucie, and removal of the Old Tamiami Trail.
Progress you can see in the water
And the visible difference isn’t limited to construction sites.
Last week, we looked back at water conditions from 2016 compared with what we’ve experienced more recently. The contrast is another reminder of how much has changed.
New infrastructure, different water-management decisions and changes to Lake Okeechobee operations have helped reduce many of the damaging discharges that defined some of the worst years for Florida’s estuaries.
There will always be year-to-year differences in rainfall, lake levels and conditions across the system, so no single comparison tells the entire story. But taken together with the restoration work now on the ground, as well as major operational improvements through LOSOM, which reduces damaging discharges to both coasts by about 37%, and the direction of travel is clear.
Demanding more was never pessimism
Like we said, there’s still a long way to go.
Major projects remain unfinished. Some are still years from completion. Funding, operations and policy decisions will continue to determine whether the benefits envisioned by these projects actually reach the Everglades and our coastal estuaries. And there’s always special interests, like Big Sugar, waiting around every turn, ready to manipulate progress or reverse gains if doing so benefits their bottom line.
We know better than to declare victory early, but we also know better than to pretend nothing has changed.
Ten years ago, we were called “career pessimists” for refusing to accept the status quo. Today, many of the projects we spent years fighting for are rising out of the ground, removing barriers to the natural flow of water, and changing how Florida manages one of the most important ecosystems on the planet.
That progress didn’t happen because people stayed quiet. It happened because people stood up for their waters, demanded better from the agencies and elected officials responsible for them, and kept demanding it year after year. Now, the conversation has shifted and the tide is turning.
We weren’t pessimists, we just knew Florida could do better.
In 2016, the state agency responsible for managing South Florida’s waterways dismissed us for demanding more. Ten years later, many of the restoration projects we were fighting for are well underway, have been built, or are moving closer to completion.
In July 2016, we were still a brand-new organization of fishing guides trying to draw attention to a broken water-management system and push for meaningful Everglades restoration. We weren’t shy about what we wanted to see change, and we didn’t sugar-coat our demands.
The response from the South Florida Water Management District at the time was not subtle.
In an official “Get the Facts” document, the agency referred to us and others calling for more action as “career pessimists.” It accused critics of pushing a “government-isn’t-doing-enough narrative” and defended the approach being taken at the time.
They were talking about us.
We were demanding more because we had seen what the status quo meant for our waters, our communities, and our livelihoods. We were pushing for the state to stop accepting damaging coastal discharges as inevitable, move more clean water south through the Everglades, and actually build the restoration projects Florida had been talking about for years.
Name calling was the response back then. Ten years later, the contrast is hard to ignore.
A very different picture today
This month, the South Florida Water Management District, which has been a critical, committed extension of the clean-water movement since a major agency overhaul in 2019, released a new four-page progress report detailing the status of major Everglades restoration projects across South Florida.
Put the two documents side by side and the difference is striking.
The 2016 document was basically a propaganda piece designed to deflect responsibility and divert attention from the inadequacies of the effort at the time. The 2026 report, on the other hand, is filled with meaningful projects under construction, projects approaching completion and major pieces of restoration infrastructure that didn’t exist a decade ago.
That doesn’t mean Everglades restoration is finished. Far from it.
But it does mean the conversation, the expectations and, most importantly, the physical water-management system have changed.
Among the major projects detailed in the new report, here are a few highlights:
- EAA Reservoir: The centerpiece project south of Lake Okeechobee that will store, clean and send more water south to the Everglades while helping reduce damaging discharges to the coasts. While the stormwater treatment area component was completed in 2024, the actual storage reservoir is currently targeted for functional completion in 2029.
- Southern Everglades flow improvements: Multiple projects are removing barriers and improving the system’s ability to move more clean water south into Everglades National Park, including work around Tamiami Trail and the Blue Shanty Flow Way, which have historically been bottlenecks in the system.
- Indian River Lagoon restoration: Major projects are advancing to store, treat and redirect water before it reaches the St. Lucie Estuary and Indian River Lagoon. The C-23/C-24 Stormwater Treatment Area is now approximately 98% physically complete.
Recent state and federal agreements have also helped move portions of the EAA Reservoir and southern Everglades work forward several years on accelerated schedules.
And those are only the projects still underway.
Since 2019, construction has been completed on several other pieces of restoration critical to ensuring more clean water flowing south, including the EAA Reservoir Stormwater Treatment Area, C-43 Reservoir on the Caloosahatchee, C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area on the St. Lucie, and removal of the Old Tamiami Trail.
Progress you can see in the water
And the visible difference isn’t limited to construction sites.
Last week, we looked back at water conditions from 2016 compared with what we’ve experienced more recently. The contrast is another reminder of how much has changed.
New infrastructure, different water-management decisions and changes to Lake Okeechobee operations have helped reduce many of the damaging discharges that defined some of the worst years for Florida’s estuaries.
There will always be year-to-year differences in rainfall, lake levels and conditions across the system, so no single comparison tells the entire story. But taken together with the restoration work now on the ground, as well as major operational improvements through LOSOM, which reduces damaging discharges to both coasts by about 37%, and the direction of travel is clear.
Demanding more was never pessimism
Like we said, there’s still a long way to go.
Major projects remain unfinished. Some are still years from completion. Funding, operations and policy decisions will continue to determine whether the benefits envisioned by these projects actually reach the Everglades and our coastal estuaries. And there’s always special interests, like Big Sugar, waiting around every turn, ready to manipulate progress or reverse gains if doing so benefits their bottom line.
We know better than to declare victory early, but we also know better than to pretend nothing has changed.
Ten years ago, we were called “career pessimists” for refusing to accept the status quo. Today, many of the projects we spent years fighting for are rising out of the ground, removing barriers to the natural flow of water, and changing how Florida manages one of the most important ecosystems on the planet.
That progress didn’t happen because people stayed quiet. It happened because people stood up for their waters, demanded better from the agencies and elected officials responsible for them, and kept demanding it year after year. Now, the conversation has shifted and the tide is turning.
We weren’t pessimists, we just knew Florida could do better.