Essay On The Everglades

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The Florida Everglades is one of the most diverse wetland ecosystems in the United States. These tropical wetlands span an area of more than seven hundred square miles in southern Florida. The term Everglade means river of grass. The system starts in central Florida near Orlando and travels southwest to the tip of Florida. The Everglades has a wet season and a dry season which causes a great change in hydrology. During the wet season the system is a slow moving river that is sixty miles wide and over a hundred miles long. During the dry season water levels drop and some areas will completely dry up. The Everglades has many different aquatic environments all having interdependent ecosystems. The most important factor for all these environments is water. It helps shape the land, vegetation, and all the organism that live in each area. Each environment has particular needs for the organisms living in that area. Throughout the years humans have diverted the water to fit their varying needs. The state has built dikes and levees, dug canals, and have built locks to divert the water. This has all been done to keep areas completely dry for developing and agricultural needs. Today, The Everglades is half the size of its original size. Throughout the years many restoration acts have been created and updated. The Everglades restoration projects have been the most expensive environmental repairs in The United States. This is because The Everglades is one of the three most important wetland areas in the world. The Everglades National Park is the home of thirty six protected species including the West Indian Manatee, the American Crocodile, and the Florida Panther. The Everglades also homes hundreds of species of birds, fish, mammals, and repti...

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...overnment. This restoration plan is very controversial because it is the biggest environmental restoration plan in history. Many feel with a task this large many important ecological factors could be overlooked. The State of Florida has already spent billions of dollars on restoring various ecological problems in The Everglades, but it is not enough. The U.S. government has only given The State of Florida four hundred million dollars of the eight billion dollars due to them. Researchers say the quality and the hydrology of the water needs to be addressed now before it is too late. The expected completion of these fifty projects that will restore The Everglades is estimated to take around twenty more years. In 2012, twelve years after The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was created little progress was achieved restoring the core of The Everglades.

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