"There are no other Everglades in the world."

This is the beginning sentence of the classic ecology book by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas entitled The Everglades: River of Grass. With this sentence, Stoneman Douglas wished to convey not only the uniqueness of the Everglades ecosystem, but also its fragility. 

The Everglades are a series of tropical wetlands that are located in the southern portion of Florida.


The sawgrass marshes, patches of cypress tree, and mangrove forests of the Everglades are unlike any other ecosystem on this planet.

Everglades National Park protects a good portion of this landscape, creating the largest subtropical wilderness area in the United States. This national park is home to over 1,000 different species of plants. It provides a critical breeding ground for many birds, and it is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles can be found living in the same environment. Everglades National Park includes some 1.5 million acres of wet sawgrass prairies, dry tropical hardwood hammocks and pinelands, mangrove swamps, Gulf Coast estuaries, and sections of the Florida Bay.

Within the park, ecologists recognize two distinct seasons - dry season and wet season. The dry season is the park's busiest in terms of wildlife - and thus also visitors. It generally runs from November to March and coincides with the warm winters that bring migratory birds (and their predators) in for a visit.

During the wet season - from April to October - the hot, muggy temperatures keep many wildlife - and tourists - away.

The list of threatened, endangered, and critically endangered species that make their home in the Everglades is pages long. It includes the Florida panther, the Hawksbill turtle, the ivory-billed woodpecker, the West Indian manatee, the American alligator, the American crocodile, and the roseate tern. You can check out the full list, here.

Of the many factors that threaten the delicate ecosystem of the Everglades, water pollution, poaching, and climate change are some of the most destruction. Continued population growth and urban sprawl has greatly altered the Everglades landscape over the years. In fact, it was a miracle that the area even became a national park in the first place.

In the 1920s, Everglades faced the dual threats of poaching - primarily for the long white egret feathers that had become popular on ladies' hats - and habitat destruction. Much of southern Florida was being converted into sugar cane plantations, vegetable fields, and cattle ranches.

Fortunately, the area had some dedicated advocates that fought to preserve this unique ecosystem. One such advocate was Ernest Coe, a landscape architect who immediately recognized the need to protect the Everglades and the rare plants and animals that called it home. Another early friend of the Everglades was Marjory Stoneman Douglas, a journalist, feminist and environmentalist who - though not known to be much of an outdoor enthusiast - became the movement's most vocal advocate with the release of The River of Grass.

Stoneman Douglas' book described the Everglades as the living, breathing ecosystem that it was, changing the opinion of the public who previously considered the area worthless. The River of Grass described the river that flowed through the Everglades and allowed people to see it not as a stagnant swamp but as a unique and critical environment.

In 1934, thanks to the efforts of Stoneman Douglas and Coe and many others, a bill to create Everglades National Park passed Congress by a slim margin. For the first time in American history, a national park had been created solely for the preservation of a unique ecosystem and the animals and plants that called it home.