This is America. Гришенкова Е.Г. - 104 стр.

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104
Everglades Restoration Plan. The project is expected to cost about twelve billion five
hundred million dollars.
Early in 2010, work began on the Picayune Strand Restoration Project. A goal
of the project is to re-establish natural water flow across more than twenty-two
thousand hectares of land.
Workers removed water from that area in the early 1960s.
At the time, the goal was to develop the land of Picayune Strand for homes.
However, the development harmed healthy wetlands.
Project organizers hope to re-create wetlands in Picayune Strand and nearby
lands by redirecting the flow of water in that area. At the same time, they are seeking
to re-establish natural water flow to the Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife
refuge.
Goals of the project are to make major additions to the size and improve
wetland ecosystems in nearby lands. The area includes the Collier Seminole State
Park and the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. If the goals are met, the
project should help threatened and endangered animals.
For example, the population of one big cat has been falling in recent years.
Panthers once existed in much greater numbers. But too much hunting, loss of
panther homelands and vehicle strikes have reduced their population. Fewer than one
hundred of the animals now live in Florida. Earlier this year, however, a mother
panther and her two kittens were seen as they walked along a road.
Wildlife experts are working to increase the number of panthers and other
animals at risk. At the same time, biologists are attempting to remove Burmese
pythons. Officials believe there are as many as one hundred fifty thousand of these
large snakes in the Everglades.
However, the snakes are a foreign species, native to Southeast Asia. Owners of
pythons left their unwanted snakes in the Everglades years ago. Biologists say adult
pythons are able to eat small deer and bobcats. When pythons are found in the
Everglades, they are often killed. In 2008, the National Park Service removed and
destroyed three hundred eleven of the snakes.
Scientists are now experimenting with other ways to remove the snakes,
including use of traps and offering payments to hunters.
The future of the Everglades is not clear. However, efforts to protect the area
are continuing so people from all over the world may continue visiting this biological
treasure.
3 COMPREHENSION CHECK
Decide whether these statements are TRUE or FALSE
1. Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical wilderness in the world.

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