Importance of Everglades in Florida Politics

Florida Politics
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Florida Politics
The Everglades is an aquatic wetland based in southern Florida and emerged almost 5000 years ago when Lake Okeechobee's surging waters and its surrounding assisted deposition of aquatic soils via erstwhile uplands with bare bedrock. The development happened under the control of Native Americans, their presence having predated the wetland by many years. Before the regional drainage, which started around the 1880s, the area enveloped about 4000 square miles. Currently, almost half of the Everglades encompasses water-conservation confinements managed by waterways and leaves, with the National Park still free-flowing. Some points of the Everglades, such as Pristine, are lagoonal, comprising swamps rich in epilithic. The marshlands and epilithic are swiftly degenerated by phosphorous refinement (Grunwald, 2006). The marshlands are dominated by tree islands that are unevenly distributed. The Everglades also encompass small ponds referred to as alligator holes that entail several origins but are sustained by alligators and are ecologically critical. Other plant families in the area's vicinity, predominantly forests, and most drainages of water from the area go through vast and productive tidal mangrove marsh forests before penetrating shallow marine waters.
The introduction of plants and animals into this ecosystem has stressed the natural ecology, which aids sixty-eight endangered and threatened species. Efforts to restore the Everglades ecosystem are on-going, and the initiative to reduce Phosphorous, which started in the 1990s, has been fruitful but short of conformity goals. The restoration is in progress but slow, and it encompasses revising the South Florida water-management-plan to ensure timing, good quality, and water distribution.
How Developers of Florida Viewed Everglades
The Everglades was soggy disorientation of water and land, according to Florida developers. It was an extensive sheet of shallow water extending across boundless saw-edged grass and liquid of dull browns and greens that looked lonely and wild. According to Grunwald's (2006) book, The Swamp, Florida land developers and early settlers viewed the Everglades as a worthless marsh that required reclamation (Grunwald, 2006). They viewed the land as laden with miserable animals and a few insignificant inhabitants who were Indians. The land also looked like a flooded desert or a wheat farm, except that it was wild. Florida developers described the Everglades as an unattended yard after heavy rains, although the yard was more extensive than Connecticut. The area was majestic and unique to some people because it was a land that appeared to be a massive sea packed with green trees and grass.
According to Grunwald (2006), the land was steadily and exceptionally flat because it did not have superb canyons, rolling hills, and rocky cliffs. This region also lacked dry and high ground, shade, and shelter because it was an unparalleled resilient slog. Those who walked through the deep muck assert that it felt like moving through quicksand, while people who entered the dense bushes of grass felt like they were taking a bath in broken glass. Further, the book contends that the area was infested with snakes, rats, spiders, worms, and vicious mosquitoes that would fly up peoples' nostrils. Nonetheless, the Everglades contained more than slithering snakes and gashing annoyances. The area's ecosphere was a watery web of lagoons and lakes, ponds, bays, and hard and Flatwoods beds. Although the sawgrass was unappealing to people and wildlife, it aided several lives, such as bears, zebra butterflies, barracudas, and turkey vultures.
The developers claim that the area was the only place on earth crocodiles and alligators co-existed. It was a place of peculiarity, discrete, and apart from things well known to humans. Far away from its monotony and secrecy, the area's ecosphere had good natural attractions such as royal palms. The Everglades was more about originality and less about beauty, and there was more to this area than met the eye (Grunwald, 2006). According to Grunwald, this region was a compound drama, and everything in it had a function. Many developers in Florida never thought anything good could come out of the Everglades because they viewed the area as a worthless marshland filled with unpleasant creatures, death, and disease.
Attempts to Conquer the Everglades
Although many agreed that the Everglades was an extensive and worthless swamp, others believed that it would not remain that way for long. Some people, such as Governor William Bloxham, believed that capitalists would drain it in the future. The Everglades was home to a host of animals and plants which could not be found anywhere else in North America. The area was a vast wetland covering the southern part of Florida. Many progressive Americans thought that the watershed was a worthless area infested with deadly reptiles and illnesses. But politicians and entrepreneurs saw a great opportunity in draining the wetland and turning it into a profitable venture. Hamilton Disston, a Philadelphia industrialist, was among the first people to attempt to drain the area. He purchased millions of acres of marshland from the state in 1881 (Grunwald, 2006). Disston also dug canals that would later open up dry land and attract people into the Everglades. He saw an opportunity, and he thought he could drain the water and save millions of acres for sugar plantations.
Reclaiming the lost land was more than a business opportunity for Disston but a chance to design something new and succeed away from his father's shadow. Many...