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Most of your listeners will be familiar with the Florida everglades. It's just a critically
important eco-system, not only to Florida and to the United States but the world and
for a long time it has been under stress. The Army Corps of Engineers re-engineered
it. There are pressures from urban development, from agricultural practices but over the last
number of years there has been a coalition of dedicated private landowners, environmental
groups, state and local groups as well as federal players
who had been looking at innovative ways to protect the Florida everglades using science
to more effectively target where we invest these permit easement dollars and in the last
two years we've been able to invest over two hundred million dollars to protect over twenty
thousand hectors. I've had the great opportunity to actually go down and visit this area and
visit some of the ranchers who came to us and they said we very much want to keep our
ranching lands as ranches but we want to protect them and by doing
this, not only will these ranchers help improve water quality but they will also provide in
very, very important habitat for of variety of different species including and especially
endangered species like the famous Florida panther. It's a wonderful example of how this
voluntary conservation works in the United States where we achieve our end-goal but we
do it in partnership through voluntary programs.