The Importance Of Maintaining The Ecosystem

If the madman ever doubted the importance of maintaining the ecosystem with native species, those doubts were erased by our latest road trip. We hopped a plane to Florida just like thousands of winter weary spring breakers. They were looking to party, we wanted to explore. I don’t know how the partying went, but the exploration was great.

First stop on our road trip was the Florida Everglades National Park, an ecosystem that many say man almost destroyed. In his quest to control flooding issues and make south Florida an agricultural area and tourist mecca, man clashed with Mother Nature. To understand the problems, you need to know about the Everglades.

River Of Grass

The Everglades extends far beyond the boundaries of the national park. It stretches from Lake Okeechobee in the north to Florida Bay in the south. This area happens to be flat, with an elevation drop of only 12’ from north to south. During the wet season, freshwater overflows Lake Okeechobee and begins a slow southward trip to Florida Bay. When we say slow, we mean about 100 feet per day. In reality, the Everglades is a river, often called the “river of grass” because it flows over the vast fields of Saw Grass.

To control flooding, man built dykes, dams and canals to channel the water to suit his needs. If this wasn’t bad enough, engineers built a highway from Miami to Tampa effectively cutting the Everglades in half and disrupting the natural flow of water – another blow to maintaining the ecosystem.

CERP To The Rescue

The ecosystem that relied on this slow flow of water was severely damaged as the natural paths were altered. The beauty and diversity of the Everglades began to fade. In 2000, Congress authorized the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), find out more about the plan here.

But, pollution, development and water diversion are not the only problems facing the Everglades. Invasive species also threaten this fragile ecosystem. We have our invasives in Connecticut – they have their invasives. While we struggle with things like Japanese Knotweed (Polygonium cuspididatum); they struggle with the Brazilian Pepper Tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), among others. Luckily, we don’t have the invasive Burmese Python (Python bivittatus), or anything like it. And, fortunately, on our tours and hikes through the Everglades, we were Python-free.

Instead, we saw birds, butterflies, and reptiles, and some pretty cool plants. All nice, but no mammals appeared – apparently since the pythons arrived, the mammals have declined. And no self-respecting Florida Panther would show himself on a hot sunny day. Oh well, we had Big Cypress to explore.

A Real Swamp

While the Everglades is a flowing river over saw grass, Big Cypress National Preserve is a swamp. What’s the difference, you ask? Water in the Everglades is overflow from Lake Okeechobee passing through on its way to the ocean. Water in Big Cypress comes directly from rainfall. Since Big Cypress is higher, some of this water will flow through the Everglades to Florida Bay.

Although under Park Service Administration, Big Cypress is a Preserve not a Park – and this almost didn’t happen. Back in the 1960s, Dade County Aviation officials planned to build a gigantic jetport to take stress off of Miami International Airport. Of course, highways and railways would crisscross the area. But, the airport people did have some concerns over the environmental impact. In fact, at a public hearing an airport proponent told concerned environmentalists “Don’t worry, we’ll set aside some land for you guys with the butterfly nets.”

The End Of The Airport

The madman thinks this was probably not the smartest thing to say as it united environmental groups, sports enthusiasts and members of the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes. End result – they blocked the plan. This victory marked the end of what the madman calls the “drain the swamp” era. People began to realize that the vast wetlands of southern Florida were unique and vital to maintaining the ecosystem of the area.

Big Cypress was established as a National Preserve in 1974. The designation as a preserve instead of a park allowed land to be used as it always had been. During our visit, much of the preserve was under water. Since we hadn’t scheduled any guided tours, we didn’t go deeply into the preserve. Typical of the madman, we left something to return for, and headed out to Biscayne National Park.

Coral Reefs

The story of the creation of Biscayne is very similar to that of Big Cypress. However, instead of an air threat, it was a water threat. Developers envisioned an industrial seaport and oil refinery in the area. Making it a reality would involve dredging the shallow lagoon and destroying the coral reef barrier protecting the area. Fortunately for us, environmentalists got fired up and in 1968 this area was protected as Biscayne National Monument. In 1980, the protected area was expanded and became Biscayne National Park.

Roughly 90% of the park is under water and the barrier islands and reefs are only accessible by boat. Due to time constraints (planting season is almost underway at home), the only part we explored was the mangrove forest near the visitors’ center.

A Bad Actor

This park also struggles with invasive species. In the water, the most destructive of these is the invasive Lionfish (Pterois volitans) from the Indo-Pacific Ocean. These nasty creatures eat the native fish – and they eat lots of them. But, more concerning, they are destroying the reefs and are multiplying in incredible numbers. On land, this park is dealing with the same invasives facing the other Florida parks.

For this road trip, we planned a quick visit to experience the wonders of the south Florida wetlands. We accomplished this, but we also learned how close we came to losing this incredible area. And how important it is to protect what we have by maintaining the ecosystem. We can’t restore everything lost in south Florida, but the creation of Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Biscayne National Park and a variety of state parks represents a good start.

It makes us think about other places we have visited where man has tried to control or change Mother Nature. As a whole, man has a habit of trying to develop the wrong places or trying to change those places to suit our wants. Conservation is really important. And, along with it, planting native species is crucial to maintaining the ecosystem. On the final day of our trip, a chance encounter truly brought home the importance of native species. But we’ll have to tell you about it in another blog.

The madman has planting to do – the forsythia is blooming; time to plant the peas. But first, a cup of hot cocoa.