Everglades Restoration Bogged Down By Politics

"Seven years into what was supposed to be a four-decade, $8 billion effort to reverse generations of destruction, federal financing has slowed to a trickle. Projects are already years behind schedule. Thousands of acres of wetlands and wildlife habitat continue to disappear, paved by developers or blasted by rock miners to feed the hungry construction industry."

"The product of a striking bipartisan agreement just before the 2000 presidential election, the plan aims to restore the gentle, shallow flow of water from Lake Okeechobee, in south-central Florida, into the Everglades, a vast subtropical marshland at the state's southern tip."

"While the Bush administration says it remains committed to the restoration, critics say its actions suggest otherwise...[Florida] continues to permit development in environmentally sensitive areas - sometimes even in the restoration footprint."