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Article: Render back to nature. (restoring the Kissimmee River)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- December 9, 1989
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Render back to nature GOD made the world in six days, and the Army Corps of Engineers has been tinkering with it ever since. So they say in the countryside of central Florida, where the engineers put a lot of time and effort into shortening and straightening the Kissimmee River, and have now been told to put it all back as they first found it.
Before man got his hands on it, the Kissimmee River meandered for 98 miles from its headwaters below Orlando to Lake Okeechobee, Florida's great freshwater heart. In years of heavy rains, the river overran its banks, creating 45,000 acres of rich marshland that provided an abundant habitat for fish, bald eagles, rare species ...