Ten Times the Water: Florida Bay Is Getting Its Freshwater Back

Here's some genuinely good water news from the bottom of the state. Everglades restoration is delivering measurable benefits for Florida Bay, even during a severe drought — that's the word from the Everglades Foundation, shared in mid-September via the Florida Keys Free Press, and the numbers behind it are the kind you want to read twice.

What happened

On September 10, Everglades Foundation Chief Science Officer Dr. Steve Davis spoke to the Islamorada Village Council about how Everglades restoration is delivering measurable benefits for Florida Bay. The short version: the plumbing is finally working. Infrastructure and operational improvements along the Tamiami Trail are allowing more freshwater to reach Shark River Slough and flow south through Everglades National Park.

And here's the number that matters. From January through July 2026, approximately 24.1 billion gallons of water flowed beneath the Tamiami Trail, compared with only 2.2 billion gallons during the same period in 2015. That's more than a tenfold jump. As Davis put it, "As a result of 10 times more water going under those bridges of Tamiami Trail this year, we're seeing the benefits of Everglades restoration."

Why it matters

If you were around South Florida in 2015, you remember what happens when the Bay runs too salty. When freshwater stops flowing south, salinity spikes and the seagrass — the base of the whole food web down there — starts dying. This time, the system held. The increased flow is helping protect Florida Bay from the extreme salinity conditions that contributed to widespread seagrass die-offs in 2015.

What makes this year's result especially encouraging is the conditions it happened under. Although the Everglades is experiencing a more severe drought in 2026 than it did in 2015, significantly more freshwater is reaching the ecosystem. A drier year, a wetter bay. That's not luck — that's decades of unglamorous engineering work finally paying off.

The bigger picture

Florida Bay is the end of the line for one of the great American watersheds — water that starts near Orlando and works its way south through the Kissimmee, Lake Okeechobee, and the River of Grass before it ever touches the Keys. The wins are stacking up along that whole route. A substantial restoration of the Kissimmee River is complete, and an area of wetlands the size of the District of Columbia, called the Picayune Strand, has been rehydrated, as Inside Climate News reported earlier this year.

And there's more on the way. The progress offers encouraging evidence that restoration is already working, even before the completion of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir — expected in 2029, it will store, clean, and send more freshwater south to the Everglades and Florida Bay while supporting South Florida's drinking water supply.

Go see it

This is the rare environmental story you can witness in person. Drive the Tamiami Trail between Miami and Naples and you'll pass under-celebrated bridges doing exactly the work described above. Rent a kayak in Flamingo, book a flats guide out of Islamorada, or just pull over at an overlook in Everglades National Park and watch the water move the way it's supposed to. If you're planning the trip, our Florida collection was made for exactly this kind of outing — and the Welcome to Florida Tee is a fitting thing to wear while standing somewhere the state is actively getting better.

Healthy seagrass means healthy bonefish, tarpon, wading birds, and all the small-town fishing economies of the Keys that depend on them. Good water is good news for everybody downstream — which, in Florida, is everybody.

Common questions

Why does Florida Bay need freshwater if it's part of the ocean?

Florida Bay is an estuary — it needs a steady mix of fresh and salt water to stay healthy. When freshwater flow from the Everglades gets cut off, salinity climbs past what seagrass can tolerate. Extreme salinity conditions contributed to widespread seagrass die-offs in 2015, which is exactly what the restored flow is helping prevent.

What changed to allow more water through?

Infrastructure and operational improvements along the Tamiami Trail now allow more freshwater to reach Shark River Slough and flow south through Everglades National Park. In plain terms: sections of the old roadbed that used to act like a dam have been bridged, and the water is moving again.

Is the restoration finished?

Not yet — but it's working ahead of schedule in meaningful ways. The current progress comes even before completion of the EAA Reservoir, expected in 2029, which will store, clean, and send more freshwater south. The ten-times-more-water milestone is a strong sign the finished system will deliver.

Reported by The Everglades Foundation (via Florida Keys Free Press). Details as published at the time of writing.