The Everglades River of Grass
Summary
TLDRThe Everglades, often seen as a stagnant swamp, is actually a vast, slow-moving river known as the River of Grass, essential for Florida’s ecosystem. Covering 1.5 million acres, it supports diverse wildlife and replenishes freshwater supplies. However, human interference, like the construction of dams and the diversion of water for agriculture, has disrupted its natural flow. This has led to ecological disasters such as algae blooms, fish kills, and the decline of seagrass. Everglades restoration efforts aim to restore water flow, protect wildlife, and support local economies.
Takeaways
- 🌿 The Everglades is often seen as a vast wilderness with swamps, reptiles, and insects, but it's actually a slow-moving river system.
- 📖 In 1947, Marjory Stoneman Douglas' book 'The Everglades: River of Grass' redefined how people view this unique ecosystem.
- 🌧️ The Everglades relies on water from central Florida, particularly from rainfall in lakes south of Orlando, which feeds into the Kissimmee River and then Lake Okeechobee.
- 🏞️ The Everglades' river flows slowly, about half a mile per day, through a wide, flat limestone bed, forming a process called 'sheet-flow'.
- 🌳 The region is dominated by sawgrass marshes, tree islands, cypress domes, and mangrove estuaries as it moves toward Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.
- 🌊 Water management has disrupted the Everglades, leading to severe consequences like extreme salinity in Florida Bay and the destruction of 50,000 acres of seagrass in 2015.
- 🐟 Poor water flow and pollution have caused algae blooms, dead fish, and a crisis in the fishing industry due to mismanagement of Lake Okeechobee's water release.
- 🚜 Over a century ago, large-scale draining efforts led to the creation of the Everglades Agricultural Area, halting the natural flow of water to the Everglades.
- 🛑 The construction of the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee is essential for flood control but cuts off the natural water supply to the Everglades.
- 💧 Everglades restoration aims to restore fresh water flow, helping to preserve the ecosystem, protect the aquifer that supplies millions, and support local economies reliant on tourism and fishing.
Q & A
What is the Everglades known for?
-The Everglades is known for being a vast, untamed wilderness full of stagnant swamps, slithering reptiles, and stinging insects.
How large is the Everglades?
-The Everglades covers about 1.5 million acres.
What does the Everglades ecosystem consist of?
-The Everglades ecosystem consists of watery landscapes teeming with critters, reptiles, insects, fish, birds, and other wildlife.
What is unique about the Everglades' water system?
-The Everglades is considered to be an enormous, slow-moving river, with a wide, relatively flat bed of limestone rock covered with a layer of peat or organic soil.
How does the water flow in the Everglades?
-The water in the Everglades flows slowly, at a rate of about half a mile per day, in a process called 'sheet-flow'.
What is the significance of the book 'The Everglades: River of Grass' by Marjory Stoneman Douglas?
-The book changed the perception of the Everglades, describing it as an incredibly unique ecosystem full of toothy sawgrass and nurtured by a slow-moving river.
How does the natural water flow in Florida begin?
-During the rainy season, rainfall in the higher central part of Florida fills a chain of lakes just south of Orlando, which feed into the Kissimmee River.
What is the role of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades' water system?
-In its natural state, Lake Okeechobee would brim over during the rainy season, spilling excess water over its southern rim and giving birth to the River of Grass.
What is the Herbert Hoover dike and why was it built?
-The Herbert Hoover dike is a massive wall that almost completely surrounds Lake Okeechobee, built for flood control to protect residents from deadly storm surges.
What are the consequences of altering the Everglades' natural water flow?
-Altering the water flow has led to Florida Bay becoming saltier than the sea, causing seagrass die-offs, algae blooms, dead fish, and a crisis in the fishing industry.
What is the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and how did it affect the Everglades?
-The EAA is a large area of dry fertile ground created by draining water from the Everglades, which is now used for growing crops like sugarcane. This has disrupted the natural flow of water to the River of Grass.
What is the goal of Everglades restoration?
-Everglades restoration aims to restore fresh water flow to the River of Grass, relieving pressure from Lake Okeechobee and reducing the need to pump nutrient-rich water out to sea.
Outlines
🌿 The Everglades: A Slow-Moving River of Grass
The Everglades is a vast wetland ecosystem covering 1.5 million acres, teeming with wildlife. Despite common perceptions of it being stagnant, it is actually a slow-moving river. The ecosystem was brought to light by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in her book 'The Everglades: River of Grass'. The water flow begins in the central part of Florida, where rain fills lakes that feed into the Kissimmee River, leading to Lake Okeechobee. In its natural state, the lake would overflow, creating the Everglades' flow. The Everglades' limestone bed, covered with a peat layer, slopes gently southward, creating a 'sheet-flow' that's imperceptibly slow. This flow shapes the Everglades' landscape, including watery prairies, sawgrass marshes, tree islands, and mangrove estuaries. The system ends at Florida Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. However, human intervention has disrupted this natural flow, leading to ecological crises such as seagrass die-offs and algal blooms.
🌱 The Everglades Agricultural Area and Restoration Efforts
The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) was created by diverting water away from the Everglades, leaving behind fertile land for crops like sugarcane. This area was once the beginning of the River of Grass. The construction of the Herbert Hoover dike around Lake Okeechobee provides flood control but also disrupts the Everglades' water supply. Restoration efforts aim to restore the natural water flow to the Everglades, which would alleviate pressure on the dammed lake and reduce the need for water discharges that harm coastal estuaries. This could be achieved by repurposing parts of the EAA for water storage and filtration. The Everglades is crucial for replenishing the aquifer for over four million people and supports a significant recreational fishing industry, attracting over a million visitors annually. These factors underscore the necessity of Everglades restoration.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Everglades
💡River of Grass
💡Marjory Stoneman Douglas
💡Sheet-flow
💡Limestone
💡Peat
💡Lake Okeechobee
💡Herbert Hoover Dike
💡Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA)
💡Restoration
💡Algae Blooms
Highlights
The Everglades is often thought of as a vast, untamed wilderness full of stagnant swamps and slithering reptiles, but it is actually a dynamic ecosystem.
The Everglades spans about 1.5 million acres and is home to millions of fish, birds, reptiles, and other wildlife.
Contrary to common belief, the Everglades is not stagnant but a slow-moving river about 40 miles wide and over 100 miles long.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas’ 1947 book, 'The Everglades: River of Grass,' revolutionized the perception of the Everglades by describing it as a slow-moving river ecosystem.
In its natural state, Lake Okeechobee would overflow in the rainy season, creating the River of Grass, a slow-moving river that flows at about half a mile per day.
The Everglades system is built on a limestone foundation with a layer of peat, which creates a gradual slope from north to south.
The River of Grass is a phenomenon called 'sheet-flow,' where water moves so slowly that it is almost unobservable.
The Everglades features diverse landscapes, including sawgrass marshes, tree islands, cypress domes, ponds, and sloughs.
Water flow in the Everglades is now altered, disrupting the ecosystem and causing severe damage such as seagrass die-offs and algae blooms.
Florida Bay, a crucial part of the Everglades, has faced saltwater intrusion due to reduced freshwater flow, affecting its ecosystem.
In 2015, a drought led to extreme salt levels in Florida Bay, killing over 50,000 acres of seagrass and triggering ecosystem collapse.
Efforts to drain the Everglades began over 100 years ago, leading to the creation of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), which diverts water from the ecosystem.
The Herbert Hoover Dike, built for flood control, now prevents Lake Okeechobee from overflowing and feeding the Everglades, further disrupting water flow.
Everglades restoration efforts aim to restore water flow, reduce pressure on Lake Okeechobee, and support the ecosystem and economy.
The Everglades is critical for recharging Florida's aquifer, providing fresh water for over 4 million people, and supporting a billion-dollar recreational fishing industry.
Transcripts
When you think of the Everglades, you probably think of a vast, untamed
wilderness full of stagnant swamps, slithering reptiles, and stinging insects.
For the most part, that's an accurate description. Covering about 1.5 million
acres, the Everglades is enormous. The watery landscapes teem with critters.
Reptiles and insects are plentiful as well as millions of fish, birds, and other
wildlife. But the subtropical wetlands that define the Everglades bio-region
are anything but stagnant. In fact most people would be surprised to learn that
the Everglades is actually considered to be an enormous, slow-moving river. In 1947
writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas wrote a book that forever changed how we look at
the Everglades. "The Everglades: River of Grass" described
an incredibly unique ecosystem full of toothy sawgrass and nurtured by a
slow-moving river 40 miles wide and over 100 miles long. But as Mrs. Douglas was
writing her famous book, the Everglades was changing. Today we are dealing with
the effects of an altered, unnatural system, but more on that in a
minute. To understand how the River of Grass should work we need a head way
north. During the rainy season, rainfall in the higher central part of Florida
fills a chain of lakes just south of Orlando. These lakes feed into the
Kissimmee River which flows south, dumping into the great Lake Okeechobee.
In its natural state Lake Okeechobee would brim over during the rainy season
spilling the excess water over its southern rim. Now instead of a deep
narrow channel like most river beds, the floor of the Everglades is a wide
relatively flat bed of limestone rock. We can see this most clearly during the dry
season. This limestone foundation is covered with a layer of
peat, or organic soil. This peat layer is thickest at the southern rim of Lake
Okeechobee and it thins out as it moves south, creating a gentle slope - dropping
in elevation about two inches for every mile. Because of this gradual slope, the
Everglades, the wide, flowing River of Grass, flows too slowly for us to even
observe with our eyes - about half of a mile per day. We call this "sheet-flow."
From an airplane or satellite image, however, we can see how this slow, steady
movement of water has shaped the hammock islands that dot the Everglades into a
flowing pattern of teardrop shapes. The Everglades is dominated by watery
prairies and Sawgrass Marsh about ankle to knee deep during the rainy season.
Here and there we see tree islands on high ground, cypress domes in deeper
areas, and ponds or sloughs where the water is deepest. As it nears its final
destination, the Everglades becomes a maze of mangrove estuaries. The water
here should be brackish, or a mixture of salt water from the sea and fresh water
from the land. At last the Everglades dumps its contents into Florida Bay and
the Gulf of Mexico and this is where the long journey ends
for the Everglades: River of Grass.
At least that's the way it's supposed to work. But as I mentioned
earlier, the Everglades has been tampered with. Water, its lifeblood, no longer flows
the way it should and the Everglades is dying of thirst. This spells catastrophe
for a place like Florida Bay which is naturally a brackish estuary, a nursery
ground for fish, and home to the largest meadows of seagrass in the world.
Today, during periods of drought, Florida Bay can actually become saltier than the sea.
This is exactly what happened in the summer of 2015
sending the system into shock and killing more than 50,000 acres of
seagrass. What's next? Algae blooms. Dead fish. And a fishing industry in crisis.
No more than eight months later, Florida experienced an unusually rainy winter.
Lake Okeechobee filled to dangerously high levels and billions of gallons of
nutrient-rich water were dumped out to sea. This water didn't flow and filter
through the River Grass as it did for eons of time. Instead it was pumped west
through the Caloosahatchee River and east through the St. Lucie River.
Dirty plumes of lake water now polluted the brackish estuaries of the west and east coasts.
The result? Algae blooms, fish kills, and a fishing industry in crisis.
So why is the plumbing all messed up? Well, over a hundred years ago an effort
began to drain the water from the Everglades. Today a vast network of
canals, pumps, and locks are used to divert water away from the Glades,
leaving behind a huge area of dry fertile ground perfect for growing crops
like sugarcane all year round. The Everglades Agricultural Area, or EAA as
it is called, sits on what used to be the marshy beginning of the River of Grass.
You'll remember that historically, Lake Okeechobee would overflow its southern
rim right where the Everglades Agricultural Area is today, giving birth
to the River of Grass. That all stopped in the early 1900's with the
construction of an earthen dam, later replaced by a massive wall that now
almost completely surrounds the lake. The Herbert Hoover dike is important for
flood control. It protects thousands of residents in
surrounding towns from deadly storm surges.
Unfortunately, however, it also cuts off the main water supply to the River of
Grass. Through Everglades restoration, fresh water flow can be restored to the
River of Grass. This would relieve pressure from a dammed and swollen Lake
Okeechobee, removing the need to pump that dark water out to sea. This would be
accomplished in part by buying back portions of the Everglades Agricultural
Area to create water storage and filter marshes south of Lake Okeechobee.
The Everglades is a shadow of what it used to be, but it's incredibly important
to us. The River of Grass recharges our aquifer, providing fresh water for more
than four million people. It's also really important for our economy,
attracting over a million visitors each year and supporting a billion dollar
recreational fishing industry. These are just a few reasons why Everglades
restoration has to happen
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