THE FLORIDA
EVERGLADES
Introduction
From:
FICUS
Network - USF University of South Florida
The Everglades is Florida's most famous
natural area. On their maps, the early Spaniards called
it "El Laguno del Espiritu Sanctu"-the Lake of
the Holy Spirit-a worthy name for such an extraordinary
place. Said Marjory Stoneman Douglas in her book, The
Everglades: River of Grass:
"There are no other Everglades in
the world. They are, they have always been, one of the
unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known.
Nothing anywhere else is like them: their vast
glittering openness, wider than the enormous visible
round of the horizon, the racing free saltness and
sweetness of their massive winds, under the dazzling
blue heights of space. They are unique also in the
simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the
forms of life they enclose. The miracle of the light
pours over the green and brown expanse of saw grass and
of water, shining and slow-moving below, the grass and
water that is the meaning and the central fact of the
Everglades of Florida. It is a river of grass."
The Everglades Basin contains many
kinds of native ecosystems: rivers; lakes; open ponds;
sawgrass marshes; small tree islands of bald cypresses,
willows, and slash pines; large hardwood hammocks of
bays and other trees; sloughs; and mangrove swamps. All
are acted on by the powerful natural forces of sun,
water, wind, and fire. Subtle changes in elevation
create the right conditions for the various plant
communities and the animals that inhabit these areas.
The River of Grass, the best-known
natural feature of the Everglades, is sawgrass. The long
leaves of sawgrass, pointed with silica and as sharp as
a saw blade, can grow to six feet or higher. Frequent
fires hold back shrubs and favor the sawgrass and other
marsh vegetation that grows around the ponds and
sloughs.
The flat Everglades Basin is sometimes
flooded and, at other times, completely dry. Species in
the Everglades have adapted to seasonal and long-term
fluctuations in water levels and, in some parts of the
system, to varying salinity levels. Alligators and other
species, for example, have evolved so that they engineer
their nesting areas instinctively depending on water
levels. Birds fly from one area to another as their food
sources shift. (See Chapter 5 on Florida's Wetland and
Freshwater Ecosystems, as well as Chapter 7 on Florida's
Coastal and Marine Ecosystems, for more information on
how these natural areas function.)
This amazing region, once home to vast
quantities of life and still an important biological
resource, has been designated an International Biosphere
Reserve, a Wetland of International Significance, and a
National Wilderness Area. Everglades National Park has
been called the crown jewel of the National Park
system-a major treasure.
The Original
Everglades
The Everglades watershed once covered
almost a third of Florida, beginning just south of
Orlando and ending more than 200 miles farther south in
Florida Bay. Upstream from Lake Okeechobee, natural
drainage created the channels of the Kissimmee River,
Taylor Creek, and Fisheating Creek. Lake Okeechobee was
a shallow depression about halfway down the watershed
that collected water and passed much of it on to the
Everglades. The lake and its tributaries comprised more
than 4,500 square miles of upstream watershed for the
Everglades.
In the original Everglades marsh
(about 3,600 square miles), the slope was so gradual and
water moved so slowly that no channel formed. Instead,
the flow was conducted by a wide, shallow marsh about
110 miles wide at its maximum-the River of Grass. It
took almost a year for Lake Okeechobee's water to flow
south to Florida Bay.
The Atlantic Coastal Ridge runs
parallel to, and between, the east coast of southern
Florida and the River of Grass. Rain on the western
slope of this ridge drained west into the Everglades.
The River of Grass rose and fell along the west slope of
the coastal ridge, creating vast wetlands and important
feeding, nesting, and migratory resting areas for
millions of wading birds. On high ground, the panther
roamed, as did the deer and smaller land mammals that
provided its food. At breaks in the ridge, some water
drained from the River of Grass to the sea. Most went
south to Florida Bay.
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For information on the
Everglades and the Florida panther, contact the
following agencies (see the listing of governmental
agencies in the back of the guide):
