MIAMI — South Florida water managers approved a breeding program for an endangered Everglades sparrow that for decades has fluttered at the center of debate over how to move water into parched marshes to restore the wetlands.

The pilot program for the Cape Sable seaside sparrow will now likely change seasonal flood control for sparrow habitat that managers say could stymie future restoration work.

“ We can’t wait and build all of this infrastructure associated with [the Central Everglades] and then be in a place where we can’t move water south because we haven’t figured out how to conserve the bird,” Jennifer Reynolds, director of ecosystem restoration for the South Florida Water Management District, told the governing board Thursday. ”This is a half a million-dollar investment to protect billions of dollars of infrastructure investment.”

Added to the endangered species list in 1967, the sparrow population hovered near 7,000 in the 1980s at just six locations in Everglades National Park. Its survival was considered a feathery measure of Everglades health. But by last year, the population had plummeted to the lowest on record, Reynolds said.

That’s despite years of trying to protect a critical nesting area that had also become a battleground that pitted the bird against restoration.

Located just west of Shark River, the area once drew the largest number of birds and offered better protection from storms and sea level rise. But during breeding season, flood gates to the north were closed to protect nests the birds build in tall grasses just inches from the ground. That led to high water in the conservation area to the north, drowning tree islands used by Miccosukee Tribe in their ancestral homeland. The islands also shelter wildlife.

With the captive breeding program, wildlife officials say they will likely end seasonal flood gate closures and instead determine operations on conditions.

”A captive breeding program or a conservation breeding program, whichever we want to call it definitely gives us more flexibility in what can be done there,” said Larry Williams, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Florida supervisor for ecological services.

On Thursday, water managers also approved taking over construction of a project that had been managed by the U.S. Army Corps to speed up restoration. The project north of sparrow habitat would start next year and move more water south.

The spillway is part of restoration work for a Central Everglades flow-way that would also help relieve high water in the conservation area to move more water into Shark River.

Conservationists who long fought to keep the gates closed rallied around the breeding program as a way to help the ailing birds, saying broader restoration efforts will ultimately help with the long-term survival of the sparrows.

“ The prognosis for both the bird and its habitat is grim without intervention,” said Audubon Florida executive director Julie Wraithmell, who pointed to a grasshopper sparrow breeding program in Central Florida as a measure of success. Grasshoppers sparrows had dwindled to about 100 when a breeding program was started in 2015. This year, the 1,000 captive-bred sparrow was released into the wild.

The 5-year pilot program is expected to cost just over $584,000 and be overseen by White Oak Conservation, the same wildlife facility north of Jacksonville that managed grasshopper sparrow breeding. Like the grasshopper program, seaside sparrow breeding would likely continue for years.

This story was produced in partnership with the Florida Climate Reporting Network, a multi-newsroom initiative founded by the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun Sentinel, The Palm Beach Post, the Orlando Sentinel, WLRN Public Media and the Tampa Bay Times.

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