By the 1980s, it was clear Florida's effort to bring nature to heel was damaging the very things that drew people to the state in the first place – clear waters, rich soil and the largest lake in the southeast. To reverse course, Florida unrolled an ambitious plan to restore the Everglades and reconnect the river of grass. But that grand bargain came at a cost.<br/><br/>Learn more about sponsor message choices: <a href="https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices">podcastchoices.com/adchoices</a><br/><br/><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>

The Reverse Farm

When the U.S. government and state of Florida unveiled a new plan to save the Everglades in 2000, the sprawling blueprint to restore the wetlands became the largest hydrological restoration effort in the nation's history. Two decades later, only one project is complete, and the Everglades is still dying. Bright Lit Place heads into the swamp to meet its first inhabitants, the scientists who study it and the warring sides struggling to find a way out of the muck.