Stock Photo - Naples, Florida - The Merritt Canal Pump Station in the Picayune Strand State Forest near Everglades National Park, where the Army Corps of Engineers is in the midst of a wetlands restoration project that is part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Projected to take three decades, the CERP is intended to restore and protect south Florida´s ecosystem. The Corps of Engineers is removing drainage canals and roads that were constructed for Golden Gate Estates, a failed 57,000-acre housing development. It is also building several pump stations to restore the flow of fresh water to the project area and to provide flood protection for residential areas to the north.