Biscayne Bay is the great marine “front yard” of Miami. But the Bay’s health is in decline and needs restored freshwater flows from the Everglades to recover.
Biscayne Bay Point of Clarity
Historically, Biscayne Bay was a unique, clear-water tidal estuary fringed by extensive mangroves that received massive amounts of pure fresh water filtered through the Everglades.
Today, much of the fresh water that does reach the bay flows through 13 human-made canals.
This fresh water from the canals isn’t clear or clean. It’s no longer naturally filtered through wetlands. Instead, the canals let bursts of dirty, unfiltered fresh water flow straight into the bay.
Biscayne Bay is experiencing death by a thousand cuts.
Kelly Cox, General Counsel for Miami Waterkeeper
But hope is not lost. We can heal Biscayne Bay if we restore the Everglades and the natural freshwater flows the bay depends on. And major efforts are underway to do just that.
Everglades restoration includes the “Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands Project,” an effort to redirect fresh water out of canals and back into coastal wetlands around the bay.
Explore one of those restoration projects, the Deering Estate flow-way, with Kelly Cox of the Miami Waterkeeper…
Biscayne Bay’s restoration projects have only just begun, and we need to invest far more to restore Biscayne Bay wetlands on a much larger scale.
The future is rosy. If we spend the dollars to make sure that we don’t repeat the mistakes of the past and that we educate the next generation on how to take care of it – it costs a lot of money – that’s the only way we’re going to get a rosy picture.
Former Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
In the bigger picture, we need to move far more water from Lake Okeechobee southward into the entire Everglades system – including Biscayne Bay.
One thing is clear: Helping Biscayne Bay means restoring the Everglades.
Biscayne Bay’s future depends on it.