30 Facts About Everglades

Everglades is a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U S state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm.

Portions of the Everglades were transformed into farmland, where the primary crop was sugarcane.

The deterioration of the Everglades, including poor water quality in Lake Okeechobee, was linked to the diminishing quality of life in South Florida's urban areas.

The name "Everglades" first appeared on a map in 1823, although it was spelled as "Ever Glades" as late as 1851.

The properties of the rock underneath the Everglades can be explained by the geologic history of the state.

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Geologic formations that have the most influence on the Everglades are the Miami Limestone and the Fort Thompson Formation.

Consistent Everglades flooding is fed by the extensive Kissimmee, Caloosahatchee, Miami, Myakka, and Peace Rivers in central Florida.

Soil deposits in the Everglades basin indicate that peat is deposited where the land is flooded consistently throughout the year.

Water is the dominant force in the Everglades, shaping the land, vegetation, and animal life in South Florida.

Fresh water saturated the limestone that underlies the Everglades, eroding some of it away, and created springs and sinkholes.

Layers of charcoal have been detected in the peat in portions of the Everglades that indicate the region endured severe fires for years at a time, although this trend seems to have abated since the last occurrence in 940 BC.

Major sloughs in the Everglades system include the Shark River Slough flowing out to Florida Bay, Lostmans River Slough bordering The Big Cypress, and Taylor Slough in the eastern Everglades.

Some driest land in the Everglades is pineland ecosystem, located in the highest part of the Everglades with little to no hydroperiod.

Everglades mangroves serve as nurseries for crustaceans and fish, and rookeries for birds.

The fresh water coming into Florida Bay from the Everglades creates perfect conditions for vast beds of turtle grass and algae formations that are the foundation for animal life in the bay.

An 1840 expedition into the Everglades offered the first printed account for the general public to read about the Everglades.

Everglades called the future of South Florida the "Empire of the Everglades".

Land in the Everglades was being sold for $15 an acre a month after Broward died.

Plumes from Everglades wading birds could be found in Havana, New York City, London, and Paris.

Salt ocean water intruded into Miami's wells; when the city brought in an expert to explain why, he discovered that the water in the Everglades was the area's groundwater—here, it appeared on the surface.

In 1939, a million acres of Everglades burned, and the black clouds of peat and sawgrass fires hung over Miami.

Scientists who took soil samples before draining did not take into account that the organic composition of peat and muck in the Everglades make it prone to soil subsidence when it becomes dry.

Idea of a national park for the Everglades was pitched in 1928, when a Miami land developer named Ernest F Coe established the Everglades Tropical National Park Association.

Everglades's characterized the Everglades as a river instead of a stagnant swamp.

One of the defining characteristics of natural Everglades ecology is its ability to support itself in a nutrient-poor environment, and the introduction of fertilizers began to alter the plant life in the region.

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Graham announced that by 2000 the Everglades would be restored as closely as possible to its pre-drainage state.

The naturally occurring bacteria that reduce sulfur in the Everglades ecosystem were transforming the mercury into methylmercury, and it was bioaccumulating through the food chain.

Everglades Forever Act, introduced by Governor Lawton Chiles in 1994, was an attempt to legislate the lowering of phosphorus in Everglades waterways.

Brazilian pepper, or Florida holly, has wreaked havoc on the Everglades, exhibiting a tendency to spread rapidly and to crowd out native species of plants as well as to create inhospitable environments for native animals.

Bodies of water including Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee River, St Lucie estuary, Lake Worth Lagoon, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay and the Everglades reflected drastic water level changes, hypersalinity, and dramatic changes in marine and freshwater ecosystems.