The Everglades; a treasured river
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, writer and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Florida Everglades against draining and development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, Douglas became a freelance writer, producing over a hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and continues to remain an influential book on nature conservation as well as a reference for information on South Florida. Its impact has been compared to that of the influential 1962 book Silent Spring. Dougla’s books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, which she used to advance her causes.
Florida became a state in 1845 and almost immediately people began proposing to drain the Everglades. In 1848, a government report said that draining the Everglades would be easy, and there would be no bad effect. Canals and dams were dug to control seasonal flooding. Farmers grew vegetables in the rich soil of the drained land, Ranchers had their cattle graze on the dry land, and new railways lines were constructed to connect communities throughout south Florida; but the ecosystem of the Everglades was not suited for either farming or ranching. The natural cycle of dry and wet seasons brought a devastating series of droughts and floods. These had always been a p...
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...rystal tropical light her ceaseless activism kept clear, to the very way in which generations of Floridians look upon their land, the monument to Mrs. Douglas is all around us.
Reference List
Bryant, Jennifer (1992). Marjory Stoneman Douglas:Voice of the Everglades. (An Earth
Keepers Book). Frederick, MD: Twenty-First Century Books.
Bozeman, MT: Montana State University. The Watercourse and Western Regional
Environmental Education Council. (1995) Project Wet: Water Education for Teachers.
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. The Everglades: River of Grass. Rinehart & Company, Inc.,
1947.
Giles, Norman (1948). "The Everglades: River of Grass. Rivers of America." The Quarterly
Review of Biology; p. 346
Miami Museum of Science (1995). http://falcon.miamisci.org/everglades/animals.html
Stoneman, M. S (1997). Everglades: River of Grass. Sarasota: Pineapple Press.
“Confluences” by Jennifer Sinor, it was first published in the American Scholar (2008), the magazine of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. The story took place Alatna River. The story talks about The death of Sinor’s beloved uncle, and the beginning of a new life; “Once More to The Lake” by E.B. White, it was first published in White’s column for Harper’s Magazine (October 1941). The Story took place in Maine. It talks about a man that understands how the past and the present come together, he realized that the time never stops and it brings so many changes. “Sowers and Reapers” by Jamaica Kincaid, it was first published in The New Yorker Magazine (January 22, 2001), a magazine of literature and the arts. In this essay, the author talks about author admiration of gardens and the stories behind them.
The one feature common to the Hoover Dam, The Mississippi river and the three gorges dam is that they all tried to control nature’s swings, specifically in the form of flooding. Before the Hoover dam was built, the Colorado river “used to flood spectacularly…but after 1900 the Colorado provoked a vehement response” (Pg 177). The response was simple, but large. The U.S. built several large dams, including the Hoover dam, on the Colorado to decrease its flooding and increase power and irrigation. Unfortunately, just as human control of the Colorado’s flooding increased, its organisms and habitats were detrimentally influenced, and the water became more and more salinated.
Hover, John C., Joseph D. Barnes, and Walter D. Jones. Memoirs of the Miami Valley. Chicago: Robert O’Law Company, 1919. Print.
I live in Houma, Louisiana so I have tons of experience with the bayou region of South Louisiana. Everywhere I look in Houma there is a bayou, which is a good and bad thing. With a bayou comes many great things such as Egrets, Spanish Moss, etc. The bad thing about seeing many bayous is that it is a constant reminder that one day, Houma might be a part of the Gulf of Mexico. Also my dad’s side of the family is from Chauvin and Golden Meadow which is not too far from where the real damage of eroding wetlands is. I go down to Chauvin sometimes to visit my Nanny and her husband. I always see houses on stilts because of possible flooding that could come if a hurricane passes through. One of the issues that Mike Tidwell caught my interest was that the wildlife in bayous will one day be diminished into smaller numbers. That is because the eroding land causes brown shrimp, crabs, and other seafood to die out. Many residents in South Louisiana make a living off of seafood so to have most of that industry die out will hurt the economy of South Louisiana. I just found this issue very interesting.
This is a very critical situation that needs to be fixed urgently. The habitats of the Everglades depend on an annual water cycle which has been hindered by the development construction which was imposed on the farmland. Back in the 19th century, developers were keen on draining all the swamps in the Everglades for developmental purposes. Their intention was to grow sugarcane plantations on the land yet sugarcanes are highly destructive to the Everglades. They too disrupt the water cycle to which the wildlife has adapted. The Florida sugar industry built on the southern Shore of Lake Okeechobee directly clocks the water source for the remaining Everglades hence destroying the habitats of the wildlife existing in the affected areas.
Fifty percent of the original wetlands doesn’t even exist today. The water supply in the Everglades is changing and that has affected the Everglades in many ways. For one, population is decreasing and mankind needs to restore it somehow. Next, the Everglades are in need of some money to do that restoration, but where will they get it from? Last, the water supply is poisoning the humanity around it with much bacteria and many bad and dangerous elements. The Everglades water supply affected it in fixing the Everglades and wildlife.
Cashin, Edward J., ed. A wilderness still the cradle of nature: frontier Georgia. Savannah: Beehive, 1994. Print.
In American history the adjective used to describe the 1920s is known as the “Roaring” twenties. During the decade Florida had its own adjective used to describe the real estate market known as the “Land Boom”. The Florida land boom of the 20s was Florida’s first big real estate bubble. During the great land boom of the 20th century Florida saw tens of thousands of Americans flood to the state to move or purchase land. By looking at the how this development of real estate began, who was affected, and how the “Boom” became a soft clap by the end of the decade one can see the immediate impact this event had on the United States.
After the drainage, the Everglades began losing soil at approximately 1 inch per year. Now, however, it is only losing 0.56 inches per year. In the Everglades, there are a variety of different animals and species that seem to be able to thrive in the same habitat. The truth is that due to elevation differences, and therefore differences in the water level, the Everglades is really an area of interconnecting, but different habitats. One of the more important habitat areas is actually created by one of the Everglades most famous inhabitants – the alligator.
Gage, Frances D. "Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage of Sojourner Truth, for May 28-29, 1851." Paul Laufer, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vol 1, 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998.
Maintaining ecological diversity is necessary for the survival of a biological community. In the United States, American citizens are on the verge of irrevocably damaging one of the country's most unique and diverse treasures - the Florida Everglades. This national park is now the only remaining patch of a river that used to span 120 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Dikes and levees created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940's drained this river to reduce flooding and increase useable water for the development of the region. This major diversion of water lead to a trickle down effect causing the continual decline of the environmental state of the Everglades. Since then, debates over the Everglades' future have silently raged on for years about how, why, and when the restoration will begin. This ongoing, but virtually unproductive effort has cost taxpayers a great deal without any apparent benefits. Recently, this debate has been amplified by the voices of the sugar industry in Florida, which was attacked for its major contribution to pollution of the Everglades. Now debates rage on with a new effort called the Restudy. Backed by the Army Corps of Engineers, this effort would change the flow of the Everglades, potentially restoring it into the viable community of life that it used to be. The question now is, will this latest attempt to restore the Everglades ever be realized (thus ending the cyclic Everglades debate) or will it simply add up to one more notch on the bedpost of inadequate and failed attempts to save this national treasure. The world is watching to see how the United States will handle this unprecedented cleanup.
“Thus had died and been laid to rest in the most quiet, unostentatious way the most useful and distinguished woman America had yet produced,” (Wilson, Pg. 342).
During the early 1920s, Florida was flourishing economically. Land sales were reaching planetary heights, tourism was booming, and new residents were coming in every day. By September 1926, the population of Dade County and the new City of Miami had blossomed to more than 100,000 and construction was all over. Although Florida was prosperous that was only on the surface, behind the scenes there existed a widespread of poverty. And things got even worst when the 1926 hurricane hit Florida. The hurricane was described by the U.S. Weather Bureau in Miami as "probably the most destructive hurricane ever to strike the United States." Severe flooding and wind damage weakened communities. Lake Okeechobee flooded and drown over 2,000 people in nearby communities. Many buildings that were a work in progress were damaged and discontinued, tourism was at an all-time low, and also many citizens lost their homes. And The Great Depression didn’t make things any easier. Florida was in trouble and in need of help.
People in the northern United States during the early nineteenth century wanted to rapidly industrialize and increase the amount of money they were making. The Erie Canal they believed was a great way to reduce the distance and time of shipping goods to the west. They also realized that the canal would probably increase their markets, which would mean a larger profit. The problem with all of this was how people had to destroy parts of nature in order for this to happen. Nathaniel Hawthorne, a prominent writer during the time, described the canal as “too rapid, unthinking advance of progress.” (57) Hawthorne and his supporters were very upset to see how forests and swamps were being destroyed and ruined in order t...
As an initial point, Harry T. Moore has greatly partaken in the change of Florida into a place for all men and women to live and live together. He has spread the rights of mankind equally throughout