Florida Everglades Facts and History

Florida Everglades facts and history are quite interesting.  This amazing national park, the third largest in the continental United States, contains an ecosystem not found anywhere else in the world.

.In fact, this area is so important that it has been declared a World Heritage Site, along with a Wetland of International Importance and an International Biosphere Reserve.

Quite some feat for an area that was once declared nothing but a swamp that should be drained.

A Little History

Back in the 1800's, from 1850's through 1890's, the idea was for the Everglades to be drained and then planted with sugar.  The thinking was that sugar would bolster Florida's economy.

Some of this actually happened in the area around Lake Okeechobee in the 1900's.  Land was drained and large sugar corporations moved in, with the blessings of the government.  Naturally the farming not only needed vast amount of water, but since organic farming methods weren't used, pesticides and fertilizer runoff had a bad effect for the ecosystem as a whole.

In the 1930's, the Herbert Hoover Dike was built around Lake Okeechobee, to prevent flooding.  The problem was that while it prevented flooding around the lake itself, this effectively cut off the water supply to the Everglades.

In the 1940's a freelance writer called Marjory Stoneman Douglas started taking a look at the everglades as part of an assignment.  For five years she studied the land and water of this area.

In 1947, she published The Everglades: River of Grass.  The book struck a chord, as she described the Everglades in great detail.  She also included a chapter on the disappearance of the ecosystem.

On December 13, 1989, President George H. W. Bush signed the Everglades National Park Protection and Expansion Act.  In addition ot adding 109,506 acres to the eastern side of the park, it also closed off airboats from the park boundaries.

In 2000, there was a federal mandate to restore the Everglades, called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).  Its mandate is the "restoration, preservation and protection of the south Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region".  There are questions on some of the methods being used, as the technology is uncertain is some areas.  Only time will tell if the Everglades can be revived.

Everglades Facts

Here are some fun Everglades facts.

What plant is so rare that it in only found around the Florida Everglades? This is the land where ghost orchids grow wild.  The ghost orchid is actually found in the Fakahatchee Strand, on the northern boundary of the park.