Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
THE EVERGLADES: AN OVERVIEW
It's tempting to think of the Everglades as a swamp, but 'prairie' may be a more apt de-
scription. The Glades, at the end of the day, are grasslands that happen to be flooded for
most of the year: visit during the dry season (winter) and you'd be forgiven for thinking
the Everglades was the Everfields.
So where's the water coming from? Look north on a map of Florida, all the way to Lake
Okeechobee and the small lakes and rivers that band together around Kissimmee. Florida
dips into the Gulf of Mexico at its below-sea-level tip, which happens to be the lowest part
of the state geographically and topographically. Run-off water from central Florida flows
down the peninsula via streams and rivers, over and through the Glades, and into Florida
Bay. The glacial pace of the flood means this seemingly stillest of landscapes is actually in
constant motion. Small wonder the Calusa Indians called the area Pa-hay-okee (grassy
water). Famous conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) called it the
River of Grass; in her famous book of the same title, she revealed that Gerard de Brahm, a
colonial cartographer, named the region the River Glades, which became Ever Glades on
later English maps.
So what happens when nutrient-rich water creeps over a limestone shelf? The ecolo-
gical equivalent of a sweaty orgy. Beginning at the cellular level, organic material blooms
in surprising ways, clumping and forming into algal beds, nutrient blooms and the ubi-
quitous periphyton, which are basically clusters of algae, bacteria and detritus (ie stuff).
Periphyton ain't pretty: in the water they resemble puke streaks and the dried version
looks like hippo turds. But you should kiss them when you see them (well, maybe not),
because in the great chain of the Everglades, this slop forms the base of a very tall organ-
ic totem pole. The smallest tilt in elevation alters the flow of water and hence the content
of this nutrient soup, and thus the landscape itself: all those patches of cypress and hard-
wood hammock (not a bed for backpackers; in this case, hammock is a fancy Floridian
way of saying a forest of broadleaf trees, mainly tropical or subtropical) are areas where a
few inches of altitude create a world of difference between biosystems.
FIGHT FOR THE GREEN GRASSY WATERS
The Everglades were utter wilderness for thousands of years. Even Native Americans
avoided the Glades; the 'native' Seminole and Miccosukee actually settled here as exiles
escaping war and displacement from other parts of the country. But following European
settlement of Florida, some pioneers saw the potential for economic development of the
Grassy Waters.
