A White House budget issued Monday contains nearly $232 million for Everglades restoration efforts in 2012-13 but some projects deemed critical to Florida Bay remain on the wish list.</p><p>The federal budget drafted by President Obama's administration includes money to finish a one-mile Tamiami Trail bridge now under construction, and funding that should complete a C-111 Canal project at the border of Everglades National Park in south Miami-Dade County.</p><p>Not listed is money for additional Tamiami Trail bridges to improve water flow, or for a C-111 spreader canal system.</p><p>"We wish we had made better progress" on the spreader canal, said Tom Van Lent, a Key Largo resident who is chief scientist for the Everglades Foundation. The spreader canal would direct water from the canal into wetlands flanking the 18-Mile Stretch.</p><p>"But there is progress," Van Lent said. "The projects they're talking about are good for [Everglades National] Park, good for Florida Bay and good for Monroe County."</p><p>The one-mile bridge on Tamiami Trail (U.S. 41), a three-year project costing $81 million, is scheduled to open in 2013.</p><p>Another 5.5 miles bridges on the highway have been approved by the U.S. Department of the Interior to increase the natural water flow to the south Everglades and Florida Bay, but money has not been appropriated.</p><p>"Other than the one-mile bridge, nothing further on the bridges is mentioned specifically," said Julie Hill Gabriel, Everglades specialist for Florida Audubon. "We're not sure yet where that money is going to come from."</p><p>The White House budget -- which must be approved by Congress -- does include $20 million to finish the C-111 South Dade Project, intended to keep water inside Everglades National Park and out of the C-111 Canal that would dump it into the ocean.</p><p>"It does not create any new water but it keeps water from leaving the park," van Lent said. "The park needs water to raise spoonbills and fish."</p><p>Ideally, that water will flow south toward the bay, he said.</p><p>"It does not create any new water and eventually we will need projects that do create new water," Van Lent said. "But it is a piece of the puzzle."</p><p>The proposed federal Everglades budget also allocates money for restoration of the ecosystem at Picayune Strand, an undeveloped but subdivided area east of Naples.</p><p>Also on the work list is money for the Site 1 Impoundment/Fran Reich Preserve, a 1,700-acre water storage area in Palm Beach County "to reduce seepage from adjacent natural areas, prevent saltwater intrusion and reduce demands on the natural system in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge."</p><p>"President Obama has known from the start that the Everglades is not only critical to the Florida environment but for creating jobs," said John Adornato, regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association.</p><p>The fate of Everglades money in the Florida state budget now being hammered out in Tallahassee remains uncertain. Gov. Rick Scott proposed $40 million for Everglades restoration, and the Florida House agreed to a similar figure.</p><p>However, a Florida Senate budget proposal included no money directed for the Everglades. The Senate passed its budget Friday afternoon. Whether Everglades money was added could not be determined at press time.</p><p>Since the House budget differs markedly from the Senate version in other respects, a conference committee will be called to negotiate compromises.