Speak up at a public hearing in Miami with the National Park Service this week to support an additional 5.5 miles of bridging for Tamiami Trail and restore vital wading bird habitat.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. on Thursday, June 24, 2010 at the South Dade Regional Library, 10750 Southwest 211th Street, in Cutler Bay, Florida. Your support for raising the Trail is needed.

For the better part of a century, Tamiami Trail has cut off the natural Everglades water flows that made it one of the richest ecosystems on Earth.  Altering Tamiami Trail has long been recognized as one of the central needs in Everglades restoration.  With this understanding, the National Park Service studied six different plans for bridging the Trail to let the water flow, and their preferred plan has the most ecological benefits of the six and is cost effective.

This is a huge step forward for a project that has been mired in decades of delay and disputes, but your help is needed to ensure that the recommendation becomes a reality.  Please join us on Thursday and express your support for bridging Tamiami Trail.

Important Facts

•    An additional 5.5 miles of bridging will not only allow more water to flow into Everglades National Park, but will reconnect habitat for fish, birds and other wildlife.

•    Flows into Northeast Shark River Slough, which historically made up 65 percent of flows into the southern Everglades, will be greatly increased.

•    Bridging Tamiami Trail to this extent lays the groundwork for and will enhance the benefits of future Everglades restoration projects.