Essay On Florida Everglades

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The Florida Everglades have been slowly and steadily diminishing in size for over many decades. Throughout the years, the Everglades have had an abundant, healthy environment. The massive swamps were once rich with marshland, and had ecosystems chock-full of wildlife. However, due to large corporations, natural disasters and most importantly, the growth of the human population, the Everglades are 50% smaller than they were hundreds of years ago. The destruction of the Florida Everglades includes not only a diminishing number of the marshland, but also the lessening of wild life, such as alligators, herons, and exotic plants. While there is a government plan set for the restoration of the everglades, it will take many years to make up for the …show more content…

Due to the climate change during the Late Archaic period, the water levels rose and the large area became marshland. They once ran from the Kissimmee River in Orlando all the way down to Southern Florida, in the bay (ok 2002). Before development due to the increase in the Florida population, the Everglades were around 5,000,000 acres and covered a third of the state. (ok 2002). However, there are 3,000,000 acres expanding from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay, that are called the ‘Historic Everglades.’ The Everglades are full of fresh water, that moves over blades of sawgrass. Sawgrass is a sedge with spiny-edged leaves (dict. 2002). This gives the large wetlands a ripple effect from far away. Sawgrass is not the only kind of life in the Everglades. The ‘old’ Everglades had an abundance of freshwater sloughs, mangrove swamps, pine rock lands and hardwood hammocks (ok 2002). In figure one, it is shown …show more content…

If there were about one million visitors this year, the park would make at least $8,000,000. Every dollar goes back to the park and its rangers. While that may be a nice stream of revenue, it does not even cover a fourth of the cost to restore the Everglades. The estimated cost of fully restoring the Everglades will total to around $10 to $14 billion and could take upwards of 15 years starting from the year 2015.
The national park also employs hundreds of Floridians. Because Florida relies so heavily on the tourism industry, there are also many different activities offered around the Everglades area. Many tourists can enjoy airboat rides into the wetlands or alligator and crocodile sight-seeing boat tours. Within the last five years, tourists have collectively spent over $500,000,000 in the areas surrounding the Everglades National Park. The money spent contributes to local businesses in the counties surrounding the Everglades. Just a few of the counties are Collier, Broward, and

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