In the 1940's and 1950's, southern Florida was still very much uninhabited. With the realization of the air conditioner, European Americans began to move to Florida in droves. Rapidly, the lower east coast turned from a barrier ridge of sub-tropical forest and estuaries into a sprawling urban landcape.
In order to accomodate the quicky growing population in southern Florida, provide them with freshwater, provide flood protection, and dry up that nasty old swamp, the US Army Corps of Engineers dug hundreds of miles of canals and levees. This successfully accomplished all three goals, and bifurcated and imperiled the Everglades in the process. Luckily there are people such as the famous Marj. D. who's input changed the public perspective of the Everglades. Don't get me wrong, the Everglades are not a nice place to live, or even to work. It's hot, wet, squishy, smelly, and is full of sawgrass, which can deliver very nasty cuts. There's not much to eat and there's little protection from the sun, or the mosquitos. But it's still a pretty neat place to visit, and a beautiful thing to behold and comprehend.
Another blow to the natural Everglades ecology was that of the establishment of a massive agricultural zone in the northern-most Everglades, direclty south of Lake Okeechobee. Not only does this agricultural zone consume everglades water, but it uses soluble chemical fertilizers which wash into the historically oligotrophic wetlands. The excess phosphorous from the Everglades flows through out the wetland, changing ecological dynamics greatly, and allowing for invasive exotic plant species to take over the historical sawgrass ridges.
I worked as a very very small part of the multibillion dollar ecological restoration project that continues to this day. |
