Site Map. Entire populations of animals are in danger of disappearing. Exotic pest plants have invaded natural areas. Losses of seagrass beds in Florida Bay have been followed by losses of wildlife. In Mrs. The soil will shrink and burn and be wasted and destroyed, in a continuing ruin. Perhaps even in this last hour, in a new relation of usefulness and beauty, the vast, magnificent, subtle and unique region of the Everglades may not be utterly lost. In wintertime, when the temperatures and swarms of mosquitoes have decreased, Everglades National Park draws large numbers of visitors.
They include kayak and canoe campers, along with birders, hikers, and fishermen. This system includes more than 2, kilometers of levees and canals, gates and other water-control structures, and 16 major pump stations. This engineering success altered the quantity, distribution, and timing of fresh water entering the Everglades. Beginning in the s and continuing through the s, an increased awareness of the importance of wetlands fostered a movement to protect and preserve this unique ecosystem.
In , Florida Governor Layton Chiles signed the Everglades Forever Act, which ended a 6-year lawsuit brought by the federal government against the State of Florida for failing to protect the Everglades. This act addressed the issue of fertilizer runoff from sugar and vegetable farms by creating filter marshes to absorb fertilizers, particularly phosphorous. In July , the U. If implemented, CERP will rework the massive Everglades drainage system to mimic natural functions of the system.
Only time will tell whether these efforts will be successful in rescuing the Everglades, one of the most threatened ecosystems in the United States. Lodge, Thomas E. The Everglades Handbook, Understanding the Ecosystem. DelrayBeach, FL: St.
Lucie Press, Caulfield, Patricia. Davis, Steven M. Ogden, eds. Everglades: The Ecosystem and Its Restoration. Delray Beach, FL: St. Fernald, Edward A. Water Atlas of Florida. Tallahassee, FL: University Press, Milon, J.
Walter et al. Mangroves are groups of salt-tolerant, partially submerged trees with sturdy root systems. Everglades National Park is home to the largest contiguous stand of protected mangroves in the western hemisphere. Mangroves are valuable to the ecosystem because their strong root-like structures help absorb strong wave energy from incoming storms and act as a carbon sink, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Salt-tolerant communities thrive in the varying salinity levels of the lowlands with a large number of succulents and other low-growing, desert-like plants. Freshwater Marl Prairies are characterized by diverse low-growing vegetation and look very similar to freshwater sloughs although the sawgrass is not as tall and the water not as deep. Cypress trees are deciduous conifers that can survive in standing water.
In the Florida Everglades, it is common to find the trees clustered in the shape of a dome with larger trees in the middle and smaller trees around, growing in linear shapes parallel with water flow, or thinly distributed on drier land in poor soil dwarf cypresses. Marine and estuarine places where freshwater meets the sea habitats contain the largest body of water within Everglades National Park is Florida Bay, an area square miles wide with submerged vegetation.
Here, seagrass and algae form the base of the food chain. Within the estuarine environment of the Everglades are commercially and recreationally important fish, crustaceans, and mollusks that impact the health of the national park and beyond.
Everglades National Park is known for its great animal biodiversity, including endemic species, meaning species not found anywhere else. Animal species in the park range include a large number of federally endangered, threatened, and invasive species. Due to the aquatic environment of the Everglades, the park is the ideal habitat for many amphibious species.
The songs of frogs and toads can be heard around the landscape. Many unique reptiles inhabit the park, including a variety of turtles, snakes, alligators, crocodiles, and lizards. Water levels are critical to the life cycle of alligators. The marshes and prairies, in turn, give way to mangrove swamps, a critical zone for generating microorganisms and providing shelter for larger species. The Everglades remains a symbol of a wilder, untamed Florida despite decades of draining, development and degradation.
Learn more about the Everglades Ecosystem:. When Florida became a state in , the nine million acre expanse of interconnected wetlands known as the Everglades was viewed as a major obstacle to settlement.
By , five major canals were carrying water from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean. To prevent future flooding in the area, a foot levee was constructed in around the south shore of Lake Okeechobee.
These attempts at draining the Everglades and controlling water flow unintentionally resulted in problems with over-drainage during dry periods. This set the stage for damaging peat fires, saltwater intrusion along the east coast and major flooding following heavy rains in The U. Army Corps of Engineers attempted to correct these problems by dividing the Everglades into drained and un-drained portions.
Levees in the un-drained central third, known as the Water Conservation Area, could impound water from, or release water into, the drained Everglades Agricultural Area bordering Lake Okeechobee.
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