Everglades National Park in Florida encompasses a combination of habitats that together make up an extraordinary and valuable ecosystem. The park is a Biosphere Reserve, an Outstanding Florida Water and a World Heritage Site, providing visitors glimpses of endangered and threatened species, miles of paddling trails and remarkable photography opportunities.
"Largest" is the superlative most often used for the Everglades. The region is the largest subtropical wetland ecosystem in North America, the largest wilderness in the Southeast and the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere. The Everglades contain the largest stand of sawgrass prairie in North America and are the most important breeding ground for tropical wading birds on the continent. Originally 11,000 square miles in size, the section of the Everglades designated a national park now covers 1.5 million acres.
The Everglades, called the River of Grass because the area is largely a river sometimes 60 miles wide, is not a marsh or swamp. Native Americans called it pahayokee, or the grassy waters. The ecosystem protects 14 endangered and nine threatened species, including the Florida panther, the Atlantic Ridley turtle and the American crocodile. Plants from both tropical and temperate climates thrive in nine distinct habitats in the Everglades. The dominant life form in the national park is periphyton, a combination of algae and microbes that floats on the surface of most of the bodies of water.
Calusa Indians inhabited South Florida as early as 1000 B.C. The highly developed culture traveled long canoe trails and left artifacts such as shell tools and carved wood. The Calusa declined with the introduction of disease by European settlers and were replaced by tribes from the Creek nation. Gladesmen, the Florida equivalent of the American West's mountain man, survived off the land, hunting, trapping and staying in camps up until the creation of the national park. Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the “Lady of the Everglades,” was among the first to recognize the ecosystem's importance to human and animal life. She authored five books on the Everglades, including “Everglades: River of Grass.”
Airboats, shallow-draft craft with a large propeller in the rear that uses air to propel the boat, are a classic form of transportation in the Everglades. Several Florida old-timers claim to have invented the cross between an airplane and a boat, but the airboat was perfected in Nova Scotia in 1905. Built to test airplane engines and propellers rather than transport humans across the water, the invention was one among many built by Alexander Graham Bell. Airboats weren't a common Everglades mode of transportation until the 1950s, after the establishment of the national park in 1947.
- National Park Service: Everglades National Park
- National Park Service: Everglades National Park: Quick Facts
- Florida Department of Environmental Protection: Brief History of the Everglades
- National Park Service: Everglades National Park: Inventory of Endangered and Threatened Species
- National Park Service: Everglades National Park: Natural Features and Ecosystems
- Everglades Foundation: Quick Facts
- National Park Service: Everglades National Park: People
- University of Miami Libraries: Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Writer & Conservationist
- University of Miami Libraries: Marjory Stoneman Douglas: River of Grass
- Gaineville.com: Lars Anderson: Talking Airboats: Can You Hear Me Now?
- Gary Faber/Photodisc/Getty Images