LOXAHATCHEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, Fla.—The state of Florida announced Tuesday it intends to spend $1.75 billion to buy a large chunk of Everglades swampland from U.S. Sugar, one of a number of sugar companies blamed for polluting the precious habitat.
U.S. Sugar Corp., one of the largest privately held U.S. agriculture firms, will abandon its Florida sugar plantations and go out of business in six years, handing over about 187,000 acres of farmland to the state's efforts to restore the Everglades, company and state officials said.
The purchase, lauded by environmentalists as the "missing link" in the restoration of the Everglades, will be paid for with $50 million in cash and $1.7 billion in certificates of participation, similar to bonds, that will be sold in public debt markets, the South Florida Water Management District said.
The land deal would revive an effort to turn sugar cane fields back into marshes and waterways that would help cleanse polluted Everglades water and carry it from Lake Okeechobee to the southern reaches of the Everglades and Florida Bay.
The deal exists only as a signed statement of principles now. State and sugar company officials gave themselves 75 days to wrap up the details.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican sometimes mentioned as a possible running mate for presidential hopeful John McCain, announced the plan at a news conference on the edge of the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
"It is as monumental as the creation of our nation's first national park, Yellowstone," Crist said. "This represents, if we're successful and I believe we will be, the largest conservation purchase in the history of the state of Florida."
The Everglades wetlands, also known as the "River of Grass," is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, and is home to rare and endangered species like the American crocodile and the Florida panther.
More than 35 percent of the original wetlands have been taken over by development or agriculture and the remainder has been starved of water because of the irrigation needs of sugar plantations, vegetable farms and citrus fields. Runoff from farms has also severely polluted the wetlands.
The U.S. federal government and the state of Florida have had a $7.8 billion plan in place since 2000 to try to restore and protect the Everglades, but progress has been slow.
Environmentalists raved about the deal. They envision the sugar fields becoming marshes and ponds to filter and move water between Lake Okeechobee and the southern areas of the Everglades.
"It's spectacular. I don't think any of us could have fathomed it," said Kirk Fordham of the Everglades Foundation. "We really are entering a new chapter in the history of the Everglades."
The land sale will effectively put U.S. Sugar out of business and its 1,800 employees out of jobs.
"Our business will be done in six years," chief executive Robert Buker said.
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