1. The Everglades National Park
Terra Environmental Research Institute
Environmental Research and Field Studies Academy

2. Introduction
Water in south Florida once flowed freely from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee and southward over low-lying lands to the estuaries of Biscayne Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands, and Florida Bay. This shallow, slow-moving sheet of water created a mosaic of ponds, sloughs, sawgrass marshes, hardwood hammock, and forested uplands. For thousands of years this intricate system evolved into a finely balanced ecosystem that formed the biological infrastructure for the southern half of the state. However, by the early 1900s, the drainage process to transform wetland to land ready to be developed was underway. The results would be severely damaging to the ecosystem and the species it supported. 

4. Former Florida Shorelines (Pamlico Terrace, about 125,000 years ago and the last glacial stage low, about 20,000 years ago)

5. History: Native People
Emerging around 1000 B.C., the Calusa maintained a highly organized society, and left behind many traces of their civilization, including large scale architectural shell works, shell tools, carved wood, and long distance canoe trails. By the 1700s most of the Calusa population had been decimated by the incoming disease brought by settlers. With the demise of indigenous people in south Florida, and white settlement occurring to the north, increasing migrations of Creek peoples were forced southward for hunting and settling. The Seminole and Miccosukee, tribes affiliated with the Creek federation, were in the area as early as the eighteenth century.

6. History: Native People
Seminole Indians south of the Tamiami Trail

7. History: Developers
Early colonial settlers and land developers viewed the Everglades as a worthless swamp in need of reclamation. The dream of draining the swampland took hold in the first half of the 1800s. By the 1880s developers started digging drainage canals, which took place without an understanding of the dynamics of the ecosystem and were generally inadequate for the task. They caused localized silting problems, but overall the ecosystem was resilient enough to sustain itself.

8. History:
Developers
Draining the Everglades

9. History: Early Communities
At the end of the nineteenth century the south Florida coast was still largely wilderness, one of the last coastal regions east of the Mississippi to be settled. Only three small communities -- Chokoloskee, Cape Sable and Flamingo -- existed along the coast of what is now Everglades National Park. These isolated locations, far removed from large developed centers, attracted those adjusted to independently living off of the land. The only way to arrive at Flamingo or Chokoloskee was by boat. Supplies were shipped from Key West, Fort Meyers or Tampa and cane syrup, fish, and produce were traded in return.

10. History: Early Communities
A typical home in a coastal communities

11. Conservation Efforts
Guy Bradley was a bird warden for the area surrounding the Everglades. Bradley was well known for his love of nature and never responded kindly to poachers and hunters in the area. Taking his job very seriously, Bradley’s enforcement of the law would eventually bring a conflict that ended in his murder in 1905.

12. Conservation Efforts
In 1928 landscape architect Ernest Coe began a concentrated effort to designate a "Tropical Everglades National Park." His persistence paid off when he and others persuaded Congress to designate the Everglades as a national park in It took park supporters another 13 years to acquire land and secure funding. 

13. Conservation Efforts
In 1947, Marjory Stoneman Douglas published The Everglades: River of Grass, a work that would come to greatly influence the public perception of the oft-misunderstood region. That same year, Everglades National Park officially opened, marking the first large-scale attempt to protect the area's unique biology. Today, the park comprises a vast wetland wilderness unlike any other in the world.

14. Restoring the Waterflow: Historic Flow

15. Restoring the Waterflow: Current Flow

16. Restoring the Waterflow: Future Flow

17. Ecosystems: Hardwood Hammock
Hardwood hammocks are dense stands of broad-leafed trees that grow on natural rises of only a few inches in elevation. Hammocks can be found nestled in most all other Everglades ecosystems. In the deeper sloughs and marshes, the seasonal flow of water helps give these hammocks a distinct aerial "tear drop" shape.

18. Ecosystems: Hardwood Hammock
Many tropical species such as mahogany (Swietenia mahogoni), gumbo limbo (Bursera simaruba), and cocoplum (Chrysobalanus icaco) grow alongside the more familiar temperate species of live oak (Quercus virginiana), red maple (Acer rubum), and hackberry (Celtis laevigata). This diverse assemblage of plant life supports an equally diverse array of wildlife.

19. Ecosystems: Pine Rocklands
Otherwise known as "pine rocklands," these forests often take root in the exposed limestone substrate of south Florida. Though the rugged terrain is canopied almost entirely by slash pine (Pinus elliottii var. densa), the understory boasts an amazingly diverse assemblage of flora, such as Saw Palmetto (Serenoa repens), Jacquemontia (Jacquemontia curtisii) and Coontie (Zamia pumila)

20. Ecosystems: Pine Rocklands
Fire is an essential condition for survival of the pine community, clearing out the faster-growing hardwoods that would block light to the pine seedlings. Many of the plants found here are well adapted to a life of frequent fires.

21. Ecosystems: Mangrove Forests
Mangrove forests are found in the coastal channels and winding rivers around the tip of south Florida. Red mangroves (Rhizophora mangle), identified by their stilt-like roots, and the black (Avicennia germinans) and white mangroves (Laguncularia racemosa) thrive in tidal waters, where freshwater from the Everglades mixes with saltwater. Owing to these conditions, Everglades National Park boasts the largest contiguous stand of protected mangrove forest in the hemisphere.

22. Ecosystems: Mangrove Forests
This ecosystem is a valuable nursery for a variety of recreationally and commercially important marine species. During the dry months, wading birds congregate here to feed and nest. And during the summer months, these mangrove forests provide the first line of defense against the howling winds and storm surge of hurricanes.

23. Ecosystems: Coastal Lowlands
Located between the tidal mud flats of Florida Bay and dry land, the coastal lowlands are an arid region of shrubby, salt-tolerant vegetation.  These areas are markedly devoid of mangroves, owing to periodic flooding by hurricanes and the onslaught of heavy winds.

24. Ecosystems: Coastal Lowlands
Salinity levels vary greatly among the lowlands, yielding a variety of salt-tolerant plants communities such as Sea Oats (Uniola paniculata), Beach Morning Glory (Ipomoea stolonifera) and Sea Grape (Coccobola uvifera) thrive here.  These communities can withstand the harsh growing conditions of the coast.

25. Ecosystems: Freshwater Sloughs
"Sloughs" are low-lying areas of land that serve to channel water through the Everglades. These marshy rivers are relatively deep and remain flooded almost year-round.  Though they are the main avenue of waterflow, the current remains leisurely. Dotted with tree-islands, this vast landscape channels life-giving waters from Lake Okeechobee southward. Everglades National Park contains two distinct sloughs. On the west is the larger Shark River Slough, also known as the "River of Grass." The smaller, narrower Taylor Slough lies to the east of Shark River Slough. Both sloughs discharge into Florida Bay.

26. Ecosystems: Freshwater Sloughs
A series of other sloughs that flow through the Big Cypress Swamp supply freshwater to western Florida Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands.

27. Ecosystems: Freshwater Marl Prairie
Large areas of freshwater marl prairie border the deeper sloughs of the Everglades. These relatively short-hydroperiod marshes are typified by a diverse assemblage of low-growing vegetation. Periphyton, a complex association of various algae, is conspicuous and is the basis for the marl soils present. 

28. Ecosystems: Freshwater Marl Prairie
The marl allows slow seepage of the water but not rapid drainage. Though the Sawgrass (Cladium jamaicense), is not as tall and the water is not as deep, freshwater marl prairies look a lot like freshwater sloughs.

29. Ecosystems: Cypress Swamps, Domes, Strands
The Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) and the Pond Cypress (Taxodium ascendens) are deciduous conifer that can survive in standing water. In the Florida Everglades these trees are often found growing in one of three distinct formations. Where the limestone substrate has given way to circular solution holes, it is common to find a cypress growing in the shape of a "dome", with larger trees in the middle and smaller all around.

30. Ecosystems: Cypress Swamps, Domes, Strands
"Strands" can be found where cypress dominate swamps over elongate, linear areas.  And in areas of less favorable growing conditions, stunted cypress trees, called dwarf cypress, grow thinly-distributed in poor soil on drier land.

31. Ecosystems: Marine and Estuaries
Florida Bay, the largest body of water within Everglades National Park, contains over 800 square miles of marine bottom, much of which is covered by submerged vegetation. Seagrass and algae provide shelter and sustenance to numerous marine organisms, which in turn sustain the food chain that supports all higher vertebrates in the bay. The hard bottom areas of the bay are home to corals and sponges, and lure anglers from around the world to try their luck with rod and reel. In fact, a wide variety of commercially and recreationally important fish, crustaceans, and mollusks thrive within the estuarine environments of the Everglades.

32. Ecosystems: Marine and Estuaries
A wide variety of commercially and recreationally important fish, crustaceans, and mollusks thrive within the estuarine environments of the Everglades. The continued health of these marine environments is important in sustaining productive fisheries outside park boundaries. 

33. Everglades Plant Communities