Reply #2: that approach KILLED the Kissimmee River in Florida -- and damn near finished off the Everglades [View All]

[nashville_brook]

In the 1960s, the Kissimmee River was cut and dredged into a 30-feet-deep straightaway: the C-38 canal. Before channelization was complete, biologists suspected the project would have devastating ecological consequences. While the project delivered on the promise of flood protection, it also destroyed a floodplain-dependent ecosystem that nurtured threatened and endangered species, as well as hundreds of other fish and wetland-dependent animals. More than 90 percent of the waterfowl that once graced this wetland disappeared. The number of bald eagle nesting territories decreased by 70 percent. Ultimately, the waterway was transformed into a straight, deep, oxygen-depleted canal – no longer capable of supporting a healthy fish community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kissimmee_River

http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/levelthree/kissimmee%20river

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_of_the_Everglades