India, Oct. 9 -- Rivers are meant to bend. For decades, one in Florida couldn't. The Kissimmee River once wound its way for about 103 miles through the middle of the state, until it was straightened into a flood-control canal in the 1960s. Then Florida undertook an unusual restoration project to repair the damage. According to a 2007 paper by Bousquin and colleagues, Phase I of the project, finished in 2001, filled about 7.5 miles of the canal and restored flow to about 15 miles of the old river channel. That's how the plan came together and what scientists have found since.

The canal reduced flooding, but it came with a cost that no one planned for. It cut the river off from its floodplain, destroying wetlands and damaging the ecosystem...