Florida Everglades: November 2011

Map of Everglades

http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/florida/map-of-everglades

Present Pictures of Everglades

http://www.everglades-fishingguide.com/content/633/Flamingo-Fishing

http://www.usastatestravel.com/everglades.html

http://centurydirectgroupscamreviews.com/century-direct-group-reports-on-the-mysterious-everglades/66

Historic Pictures of Everglades

These two satellite images demonstrate the decrease in the size of Everglades

Left: Original Size

Right: Current Size

http://dels-old.nas.edu/climatechange/southeast.shtml

http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/media_detail/520/

http://everglades.fiu.edu/reclaim/

Historical State of Everglades

Florida Everglades is subtropical wetland in the Southern Florida which is composed of sawgrass marshes, mangroves, wet prairie, tropical hardwood hammock, and fresh water swamp. Florida Everglades covered 11,000 square miles of South Florida before it was damaged and degraded by human impacts. It used to be twice as big as its current size. As one of the 18^th century explorer Hugh Willoughby described, the water of Everglades was ‘healthy and wholesome’ and nutrient poor, as it was not yet impacted by the agricultural and urban runoffs. In addition, the Everglades used to experience frequent large-scale floods. Also, the depth of water was much higher than current depth, the ecosystem was able to operate its natural water filtration system with its decomposing bacteria.

Current Human Impact

Everglades is one of the ecosystems that have been damaged the most due to human activities. The covered 11,000 sq mi of Florida. Since around 1900, people began to drain the Everglades to convert the wetlands into agricultural land. Also, flood-prevent projects such as the “Central and South Florida Project” built canals to transport water from the Everglades into the ocean. Currently, this project’s canals divert nearly 2 billion gallons of water daily from the Everglades into the ocean. As the water quantity decreased significantly, the ecosystem was deteriorated, suppressed the growth of native plants, and promoted growth of algae. Most importantly, due to lack of water, more than half of its original wetland became dry land. Also, as the freshwater is diverted directly into the ocean from the lake, the process of hypersalinity (natural water filtering system) is suppressed, promoting occurrence of soil fires and saltwater backflow from the ocean. This resulted in decrease in number of mangroves, seagrass beds, fish and other native organisms.

Conversion of everglades into residential land and agricultural land is still an ongoing problem as the population of Florida is rapidly growing. Increase in residential and agricultural land destroyed wildlife habitat. In addition, as the number of residents increase, more freshwater is needed. To fulfill the needs, the ground water and surface water are diverted, consequently draining out Everglade ecosystem. The water flowing from agricultural land and urban areas into the Everglades has been polluted with pesticides and fertilizers- mostly nitrogen and phosphorus.

Future Prospects for the Everglades

I believe that the Everglades’ condition would continue to improve, though the process would be very slow and will take a very long time. In some of cases, most effective plans to restore the Everglades are often being amended, making the plan smaller in scale. For example, a plan to stop the U.S. Sugar plantations in six years was amended to allow some mills to continue its production. In addition, parts of wetlands are still being converted into residential land. These factors delay the process of restoration. However, as seen in numerous plans, many people are working to recover the Everglades. The major plan, called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, was created to bring back water into the Everglades and to improve the water quality of the ecosystem. Over last thirty years, scientists have proposed more than sixty restoration plans, one of which passed through the Congress and allowed Florida to spend billions of dollars on numerous projects. Continuously, Stormwater Treatment Areas have been built to filter phosphorus out of the water and construct manmade wetlands. Furthermore, Florida purchased more than half of the land for restoration and is now waiting for more federal funds to continue its projects. The scientists are researching to minimize the plantations’ runoff and to restore the Everglades wetlands. Supporters of Everglades restoration are working to pass acts like the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which diverts water back into Everglades. Although there are some obstacles and hindrances, the Everglades restoration is going towards meeting its goal. With more support from the citizens, I believe that the Everglades restoration project would get more attention, eventually helping the beautiful ecosystem to refurbish faster in the future.

What Can be Done to Improve Human Impacts on the Everglades

The Everglades is now fifty percent of its original size. In order to stop further decrease in its size, converting the wetlands into agricultural and residential land should be strictly inhibited by the state and federal government. Big government projects supported by billions of dollars can help restore the damaged environment and protect it, but the citizens’ support and care keep the projects going. Small actions such as using less amount of water can even make a difference. The water quality of Everglades would be heavily influenced by the actions of farmers. The farmers can improve the water quality by using less pesticides and fertilizers. Also, if the government rewards farmers for making less runoff, they would be more willing to change their methods. Not only the farmers, but also the citizens can make a difference by remembering that the water we use eventually flows into the ecosystem. Pesticides and fertilizers used in our backyard, polluted water from car washing, and cleaning materials and chemicals dumped will pollute the water of the Everglades.

Everglades Water Quality Data

Due to the efforts of numerous scientists, water filtration systems and stricter regulations on agricultural runoff, the annual average concentration of phosphorus is decreasing.

"The Everglades: Farms, Fuel and the Future of America's Wetland -- An E&E Special Report." E&E Publishing -- The Premier Information Source for Professionals Who Track Environmental and Energy Policy. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://www.eenews.net/special_reports/everglades/next_frontier/>.

Reference List

Dovell, J. E. "A History of the Everglades of Florida." THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY. Web. 30 Nov. 2011. <http://fulltext6.fcla.edu/DLData/CF/FullText/fhq_26_1.txt>.

Davis, Steven M., and John C. Ogden. "Everglades: The Ecosystem and Its Restoration." University of California Press on Behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/1312568>.

Harris, Larry D. "Redefining the Everglades." American Association for the University of California Press on Behalf of the American Institute of Biological Sciences. Web. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2887775>.

Reddy, K R, R H. Kadlec, and M J. Chimney. "The Everglades Nutrient Removal Project." Ecological Engineering. 27.4 (2006): 265-267. Print.