Millions of dollars in federal money will flow this year to help restore the water flow through the Everglades to Florida Bay. Now conservation groups and government supporters want to maintain the momentum, primarily to add more bridges to U.S. 41, better known as the Tamiami Trail.</p><p>"Once we get that water flowing through Tamiami Trail, it will be so much better for everybody," said Mark Perry, president of the Florida Oceanographic Society and a board member of the Everglades Coalition. "It's important to get and keep that water moving in that direction."</p><p>The Everglades Coalition holds its annual convention this week in Stuart with U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar among those expected to attend. Author and columnist Carl Hiaasen, a former Islamorada resident, will be the keynote speaker at the three-day event opening Thursday.</p><p>And on Jan. 17 and 18 in Tallahassee, Florida Keys residents will be featured in presentations made to Florida legislators at the first Everglades Water Summit hosted by the Everglades Foundation.</p><p>"There is a whole new generation of lawmakers who don't have the institutional memory from when [former] Gov. Jeb Bush made Everglades funding and restoration such a centerpiece of his legacy," said Jerry Karnas, spokesman for the Everglades Foundation.</p><p>"It's important for them to understand how critical Everglades restoration is to the economy, our water supply and the health of Florida Bay," Karnas said.</p><p>The 2012 federal budget approved in December secures more than $142 million for a range of Everglades restoration projects ranging from the Kissimmee River to South Florida.</p><p>"That money will put people to work and start moving dirt," Karnas said. "If Washington can get together to forge bipartisan legislation for the Everglades, we're very hopeful that the state can."</p><p>Congress also has passed formal authorization of a key $324 million project to build an additional 5.5 miles of bridges on U.S. 41 to replace pavement and restore natural water flow to the southern Everglades and Florida Bay.</p><p>A one-mile bridge now under construction on Tamiami Trail, scheduled for completion in 2013, cannot provide enough flow to achieve the restoration goals, experts say.</p><p>Money for the additional bridges has not been appropriated but getting authorization is a critical step. "I think we're on the way," Nelson told reporters.</p><p>"This still has to go through everybody on Capitol Hill but we need to make it work," Perry said.</p><p>The road now known as the Tamiami Trail was completed in 1928 to link Miami with Tampa. An unintended effect was that it created a dam that blocks the natural sheet flow of fresh water through the Everglades and into Florida Bay.</p><p>In addition to depriving the Everglades and Florida Bay of needed fresh water, the highway causes massive fresh-water buildup in Central Florida. With no way to store the water, it must be flushed into the ocean.</p><p>"When they make those discharges to the east and west coasts because there's no other outlet, it destroys natural estuaries that provide a huge habitat for shellfish and a lot of other species," Perry said.</p><p>Gov. Rick Scott said in his recommended budget that state Everglades funding should be increased to $40 million this fiscal year. Last year, Scott recommended $17 million but the Legislature increased the amount to nearly $30 million.</p><p>"The fact that Gov. Scott is willing to more than double his previous request for Everglades funding demonstrates his understanding that protecting the Everglades and our water supply is a necessary ingredient to growing our state's economy," said Everglades Foundation Chief Executive Kirk Fordham.