WASHINGTON, D.C.  — The Biden Administration’s plan to invest $1.1 billion in Everglades restoration projects will help this vital landscape and wildlife habitat endure for future generations. The investment, part of more than $22.8 billion in investments announced today, is a historic down-payment on a decades-long, bipartisan effort to restore America’s Everglades.

“America’s Everglades is a national treasure that is also a hard-working landscape: It provides clean water for millions, supports countless local jobs, creates recreation opportunities and protects communities from climate-fueled disasters,” said Jessie Ritter, senior director of water resources and coastal policy for the National Wildlife Federation. “This bold down payment will help bring key projects across the finish line and sustain this iconic ecosystem and the clean water, wildlife and way of life that it supports.”

The Everglades restoration investment is the result of the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The National Wildlife Federation also heralded a series of other investments the Corps announced for vital ecosystem restoration efforts, including $225.8 million for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Illinois to help prevent the spread of invasive carp throughout the Great Lakes and $163.2 million for the Caño Martín Peña Ecosystem Restoration in Puerto Rico to help improve water quality for and increase the resilience of communities vulnerable to climate-fueled storms and flooding.