June 25, 2009, 2:20 pm
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today announced he is taking steps to have Everglades National Park added again to the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger by the United Nation’s World Heritage Committee.The Everglades was hastily removed from the list in 2007 at the request of the previous Administration without adequate consultations with the National Park Service, the state of Florida and other stakeholders and without appropriate measures in place to evaluate the progress of on-going efforts to restore the South Florida ecosystem, Salazar said.
“The Everglades remains one of our world’s most treasured – and most threatened – places,” Salazar said at a meeting of the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force in the department’s Sydney Yates Auditorium. “The federal government must once again stand up and meet its responsibilities to Everglades restoration so that one day, when we achieve restoration, we can remove the park from the list of sites that in danger. President Obama has already made a major commitment to Everglades restoration in the budget and through the Recovery Act; we will stay focused on this high priority for our nation and the world.”
President Obama has increased federal support for Everglades restoration, the largest watershed restoration project in history.
The Omnibus Appropriation Act for fiscal year 2009, signed by the President early this year, provides a total of $241 million for Everglades’ projects, including $118 million from the Department of the Interior and $123 million from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
