Last month, Florida Governor Rick Scott traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with Department of Interior officials including Secretary Ken Salazar regarding the progress of Everglades restoration. At that meeting, the Governor presented his plan to move restoration forward. After taking time to review Governor Scott's proposal, Secretary Salazar wrote a letter to Governor Scott to thank him for his visit to DC and called his plan "an encouraging step forward" to meet water water quality goals.

Yesterday, after meeting with the Governor once again to discuss the plan in more detail, Secretary Salazar issued the following statement in press release:

"In Florida today, I met with Governor Scott to continue our dialogue on the restoration efforts in the Everglades. Over the last three years, the United States has invested upwards of $600 million towards Everglades restoration. We are hopeful that we can continue to build upon this progress."

The Palm Beach Post reports on yesterday's meeting:

In a hesitant but hopeful voice, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said he was "delighted" with Gov. Rick Scott's recent trip to Washington to unveil the governor's Everglades restoration plan. But as for the plan itself, Salazar questioned its science and how it will take to get the job done.

"It was a thoughtful review but the jury is still out," Salazar said Monday morning, at a meeting with the editorial board of The Palm Beach Post. "If there is a dance going on between the United States of the America and the State of Florida, we hope it's a good dance."

"They're clearly casting some doubt on whether the state's plan can actually do the job," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida. "I think they've got to be skeptical, because eventually this has got to go back to court."

Audubon is encouraged by state and federal officials' agreed-upon water quality goals. We look forward to working with our partners at every level of government to ensure the restoration of the Greater Everglades.