The Everglades

I had never visited the Everglades, and since we had come this far we decided we had to make the trip. The road down to Flamingo is a dead end at the very tip of the mainland. The road seems to go on and on, although it really is only 50 miles from highway 1, which takes you to the keys.

As the elevation changes, from 2 to 3 to 4 feet above sea level, the flora and fauna change dramatically. The picture above is covered with pine trees (quite a bit smaller than our Ponderosa pines, but pines nevertheless).

A few miles down the road the elevation changes a couple of feet to 4 feet above sea level and the pine forests give way to an "African-like" meadow.There are alligators in the Everglades, but there are also the endangered American Crocodile.

The Crocodile is a bluish grey, and their fourth tooth sticks out the side of their mouth (like a fang). This is a 6 foot female sunning herself on the shore. Crocs and Gators spend most of the day lounging in the sun and hunt at night. Not a good place for children to swim at night. We took a boat ride up the canals to view the wildlife. There were Crocs to see and a wide variety of birds. Basically, there are 3 things to do here: Fish, Canoe, and go birding.

Osprey nesting on the top of a "lock"

Man has almost devastated the Everglades. I do not have a lot of knowledge about this topic, but I will share what I know. The Army Corps of Engineers has dug miles of canals throughout the glades and disrupted the natural flow of the "river". Four water management factors are critical to the wildlife here: Quality of water (pollution), Quantity and timing: too much water can flood the gator nests and wading birds cannot find food for their young, Distribution: Too little water and the smallest organisms that form the lowest part of the food chain suffer. Population growth in Florida (900 people move here every DAY!). Man uses about 20 billion gallons of fresh water per day in Florida. In 1960 that number was 7 billion, and in 1950 it was less than 1 billion. Each day this population increase consumes an additional 200,000 gallons of freshwater. Further examples of man's ignorance, and the problems associated with our prolific procreation.