國家地理:沼澤國家公園

The Florida Everglades are home to alligators, dozens of bird species, beautiful flowers and exotic plants. It's easy to see what attracts people to these places. But Florida's population growth, coupled with farms that require a never-ending supply of pesticides and fertilizers, has put an enormous strain on the Everglades ecosystem. So a restoration plan is underway to stabilize the Everglades and preserve the animals that live there. But the plan has proved to be controversial.
Craig Quirolo runs a nongovernmental organization called Reef Relief in Key West, Florida.
And that’s what really scares me about the Everglades Restoration Plan is that we will be continually inundated, drought or no drought, with a lot of water. And I think if this water were clean, it wouldn't be so much of a problem. But we have a lot of nutrients in that water, a lot of pesticides. And I think there's a lot of stuff that we don't even know within that water. And that's sort of what scares a lot of people who are down there.
This is a sugarcane country. Pesticides and fertilizers from farms in Central Florida flow right through the Everglades and on to the Reef. And according to some critics, they are the principal reason the Everglades Restoration Plan won't work.
Juanita Green is the spokesperson for Friends of the Everglades.
佛羅里達沼澤地是美洲鱷魚，幾十種鳥類，美麗的野花和多種外來植物的家園。很容易看到是什么將人們吸引到這里。但是佛羅里達人口整張，農(nóng)田需要永不休止的施用殺蟲劑和肥料，給沼澤地的生態(tài)環(huán)境造成了巨大的壓力。所以，政府提出了修復計劃，用來穩(wěn)定沼澤地，保護居住在這里的動物。但是這個計劃引發(fā)了一些爭議。
Craig Quirolo在佛羅里達的基韋斯特經(jīng)營一個名叫Reef Relief的非政府組織。
這個計劃讓我感到害怕的地方是，無論我們是否干旱，都要持續(xù)的被許多水灌溉。我認為，如果這些水是清潔的，也不會有那么大的問題。但是，水中含有太多的養(yǎng)分，許多殺蟲劑。而且我認為水里肯定還有很多我們不知道的成分。這也是居住在那里的人擔心的問題。
這是一個生產(chǎn)甘蔗的國家。佛羅里達中部的農(nóng)田流出的殺蟲劑和化肥都流到沼澤地和大堡礁。按照這些批評這是沼澤地回復計劃不能奏效的主要原因。
“沼澤地最大的問題是沼澤地農(nóng)業(yè)區(qū)域。這是水污染的主要來源。在Okeechobee湖和沼澤地的其他自然區(qū)域之間有一個巨大的水壩。”
沼澤地農(nóng)業(yè)區(qū)域，簡稱EAA，占地700，000英畝，其中90%用來種植甘蔗。Okeechobee湖的水用來灌溉農(nóng)田，然后向南流經(jīng)沼澤地到達基韋斯特。
Stuart Stein是第四代佛羅里達農(nóng)民。他強烈反對他的耕作方法毀壞沼澤地和大堡礁的說法。
“我們會盡一切努力來幫助修復和保護沼澤地，你知道。我喜歡去沼澤地，我希望我的孩子們也能去。他們也會喜歡的，也能在這里耕作。”
佛羅里達基韋斯特海軍圣所的Bill Causey起草了沼澤地的修復計劃。他同意，大堡礁現(xiàn)在面臨著巨大的問題，但是說沒有任何因素可以解釋的了為什么情況越來越糟。
“如果我們在佛羅里達花費7到8億美元來改善水質，不會有任何好處。如果沼澤地修復計劃被束之高閣，水仍然會被污染，還是會匯入清潔的佛羅里達基韋斯特水，然后取道大堡礁。”
一些環(huán)境研究小組相信，政府可以購買Belle Glade的農(nóng)場，將農(nóng)場關閉，然后將土地捐贈給公園，這樣就可以拯救沼澤地。但是聯(lián)邦官員說這是不可能的。
我們不能讓時間倒流。我們必須通過修復計劃讓水重新回到生態(tài)系統(tǒng)。
為了每年來大堡礁旅游的數(shù)百萬人，為了以大堡礁為家的數(shù)百萬魚類，為了世世代代在佛羅里達中部種植甘蔗的農(nóng)民，為了每天遷移到這里的人們，這個修復計劃是非常關鍵的。
“This is the biggest problem in the Everglades: the Everglades Agricultural Area. It's the major source of water pollution. It's the, it’s the big... a big dam between Lake Okeechobee and the rest of the natural Everglades.”
The Everglades Agricultural Area, or EAA, covers some 700,000 acres, 90% of it planted in sugarcane. Lake Okeechobee's waters irrigate farm fields here, then flow south through the Everglades and into the Keys.
Stuart Stein is a fourth-generation Florida farmer. And he vehemently rejects the idea that his farming methods damage the Everglades and the Reef.
“We will do everything that we can to help, restore and preserve the Everglades, you know. I enjoy going to the Everglades and I hope my kids have it. They’re gonna enjoy it too, along with agriculture.”
Bill Causey of the Florida Keys Marine Sanctuary helped draft the plan to restore the Everglades. He agrees that the Reef is in trouble, but says no one factor can explain its decline.
“It won't do any good if we spend 7 or 8 hundred million dollars here in Florida Keys to improve our water quality, if in fact the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan has been put on the shelf because the waters coming down are still going to be polluted, and then they will enter our cleaner Florida Keys waters and then make the way to the Reef.”
Some environmental groups believe that the government could save the Everglades and the Coral Reef by buying the farms in Belle Glade, shutting them down and donating the land to the park. But federal officials say that's not going to happen.
What we can't do is go back within time. We have to get the water right back into the system through the Comprehensive Restoration Plan.
For the millions of people each year who flock to the Keys to enjoy the Reef and the millions of fish that call the Reef home, for the farmers who've grown sugarcanes in central Florida for generations, and for the people who move to the state each day. That's exactly what this critical balancing act is all about: getting the water right.