Miami, FL

A coalition of environmental groups filed suit recently against water managers in Florida to try to force them to restore natural water flows in the fragile Everglades. Eight conservation groups led by the Natural Resources Defence Council sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District in U.S. District Court in Miami in a bid to prevent the extinction of the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow.

The sparrow has been declared in serious danger of extinction by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Experts say that half the population has disappeared since the 1980s, leaving only about 3,500. Scientists call the sparrow an indicator species for the health of the Everglades, a shallow, slow-moving river over a sawgrass prairie that covers some two million acres (809,400 hectares) at the southern end of Florida.

``This isn't about just one bird. Since the sparrow is an indicator species, it means when they are on the verge of extinction, other species are in big trouble too,'' said Natural Resources Defence Council attorney Brad Sewell.

In July, a $7.8 billion blueprint to restore the Everglades by replumbing the drainage system was presented to the U.S. Congress, but funding for the project remains in doubt. Environmentalists say an extensive system of canals, levees and pumps diverts water in portions of Everglades National Park, leaving a key sparrow habitat, the West Shark Slough, flooded and another, the East Everglades, dehydrated.

Sewell said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has told the Army Corps of Engineers to even out the water flows during the next four years but the corps has refused. ``We just want the corps to implement fish and wildlife's recommendations,'' Sewell said. ``We just want to ensure the bird stays alive and to get some help on this restoration.''

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit in addition to the Natural Resources Defence Council were: the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Florida Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Everglades, Izaak Walton League of America, National Parks and Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation and the Sierra Club.