One of the United States' premier national parks and wetland systems, the Everglades ecosystem originally covered an area of approximately 4,000 square miles from Lake Okeechobee south to Florida Bay, located north of the Florida Keys. Fed by the Kissimmee River and other waterways, the fresh waters of shallow Lake Okeechobee during flood periods would overflow south in a shallow, continuous sheet through a vast, unbroken expanse of sawgrass (hence, the nickname "river of grass") interspersed with sloughs, tree islands, emergentÊmarshes, pine-forested uplands, hardwood hammocks, and cypress swamps.
However, beginning in the 1880s and continuing into the early 1970s, a series of state-authorized drainage and flood control districts, aided by the federal government, built a complex system of flood retention areas, gates, pumping stations, and approximately 1,400 miles of canals and levees that stretches from south of Orlando to Naples and the lower Miami area. Built for navigation, drainage, flood control, irrigation, and water supply, this system has interrupted the once-natural flow of water through the Everglades, resulting in the reduction of many native animals and birds and the introduction of exoticÊplants.
More recently, water managers and other experts representing a mix of federal, state, local, and private interests have begun to recognize the adverse effects of impounding, channelizing, and allowing the pollution of the waters that once nourished the Everglades. Although past efforts to address these problems have not been successful for many reasons, the federal government, the state, and the South Florida Water Management District are now cooperating in the planning and implementation of improvements needed to protect the Everglades National Park and the the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge. These include converting 35,000 acres of agricultural lands into a stormwater treatment area to reduce the amount of nutrients in agricultural runoff, restoring natural sheet flows, and providing adequate amounts of water for the refuge and the park.
