Floravista is assisting the National Park Service (NPS) with management of the 6,000 acre (10.3 square miles) Hole-in-the-Donut (HID) restoration area of the Everglades National Park by conducting intensive field vegetation monitoring, data analyses, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) spatial and temporal vegetation mapping, and annual report writing. Floravista’s services and support to NPS have been ongoing since September 2009 and are projected to continue beyond 2015 until the completion of monitoring activities. Floravista created an approach that combines plant community ordination and classification methods, GIS, and standard statistical tests to test NPS's Scope of Service hypotheses, to determine and evaluate the functional value of the wetland types occurring within the HID, and provide land management recommendations.
National Park Service produced the following video, that describes the wetland restoration project NPS is sponsoring, in 2011:
This year Floravista will be conducting a Uniform Mitigation Assessment Method (UMAM) analysis to evaluate the wetland functions in the restored HID wetlands. Floravista's long-term vegetation monitoring includes identifying approximately 400 plant species within permanent monitoring plots, quantifying their frequency and coverage, analyzing hydrological, micro-topographical, and plant monitoring data to address HID restoration goals, identifying management/maintenance needs, performing a UMAM, as defined in 63-340, F.A.C., functional analysis of the HID as a whole and on the remaining unmitigated portion of the HID, maintaining and managing the master database, while meeting mitigation goals as determined by federal, state, and local permit regulations.
