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Water supply impact on everglades essay
Water supply impact on everglades essay
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The Everglades National Park is home to thousands of animals.Over the years, it has gone through some changes and difficulties including the water system. It is repeatedly been tried to be restored. Many projects have been tried and funded hoping to restore the national treasure. One of the biggest troubles this park has faced was its constant endangered water supply. Many projects are being enforced to save the Everglades. To begin with, ever since the beginning of settlement here in 1882 settlers have been thinking about draining the marshland. Ever Since 1905 settlers have been changing the land, they built railroads and dug canals, made storage facilities and altered the regulation of the water flow. A major impact has been made on this park and dramatic change of land. In passage 1 “Past and Present: The Florida Everglades” states, “ As a result, the quantity and diversity of the wetlands’ wildlife decreased and 50% …show more content…
The Everglades has been a common victim of droughts and water shortages. Over the past ten years the Everglades has experienced three droughts. Whenever the water supply gets contaminated or has a shortage the effects stagger. People can’t have clean water or if lucky have only a short amount of it. A main reason of these problems lies in sugarcane, a crop that grow really well in the Everglades environment. The problem with sugarcane is that it produces an excessive amount of nitrogen and phosphorus into the water system. In passage 2 “ Can We Fix the Water Supply?” Hughes says, “ These chemicals contaminate the often limited water supply found in the Everglades” ( 115). Still many projects particularly one decided by the Supreme Court has been invested to help resupply and get rid of the contaminated water. So now the struggle for clean, refreshing water is now a constant struggle and is constantly
Florida became a state in 1845 and almost immediately people began proposing to drain the Everglades. In 1848, a government report said that draining the Everglades would be easy, and there would be no bad effect. Canals and dams were dug to control seasonal flooding. Farmers grew vegetables in the rich soil of the drained land, Ranchers had their cattle graze on the dry land, and new railways lines were constructed to connect communities throughout south Florida; but the ecosystem of the Everglades was not suited for either farming or ranching. The natural cycle of dry and wet seasons brought a devastating series of droughts and floods. These had always been a p...
Currently, the United State’s Gulf of Mexico experiences an annual, seasonal “dead zone” as a result of hypoxia. Hypoxia is a low level of dissolved oxygen (<2mg/L) in an area of water. Hypoxia is typically temporary and seasonal, but the low oxygen levels can be devastating to aquatic organisms. Hypoxia occurs in many oceanic waters worldwide, but there is a growing area of concern in our Gulf of Mexico coast. Hypoxia is largely caused by nitrogen fertilizer application for agriculture, with heavy concentrations coming from the Midwestern US. Nitrogen mobilizes as nitrate, and is transported via surface water runoff. The runoff enters tile-drain supported ditches, enters streams and joins the Mississippi river, eventually reaching the gulf. Nitrate mobilization is a problem for human health, and ag. runoff is also often attributed to the contamination of surface and well-water sources in rural areas. High levels of nitrates restrict the ability of red blood cells to carry oxygen. This can harm humans, and is the major cause of infant methemoglobinemia, or “blue baby syndrome”. The safe drinking level standard is 10mg/L.
This is a very critical situation that needs to be fixed urgently. The habitats of the Everglades depend on an annual water cycle which has been hindered by the development construction which was imposed on the farmland. Back in the 19th century, developers were keen on draining all the swamps in the Everglades for developmental purposes. Their intention was to grow sugarcane plantations on the land yet sugarcanes are highly destructive to the Everglades. They too disrupt the water cycle to which the wildlife has adapted. The Florida sugar industry built on the southern Shore of Lake Okeechobee directly clocks the water source for the remaining Everglades hence destroying the habitats of the wildlife existing in the affected areas.
Fifty percent of the original wetlands doesn’t even exist today. The water supply in the Everglades is changing and that has affected the Everglades in many ways. For one, population is decreasing and mankind needs to restore it somehow. Next, the Everglades are in need of some money to do that restoration, but where will they get it from? Last, the water supply is poisoning the humanity around it with much bacteria and many bad and dangerous elements. The Everglades water supply affected it in fixing the Everglades and wildlife.
Committee on Senate Energy and National Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. 3 June 2003: ESBCO. Mission Viejo Library., Mission Viejo, CA. 31 July 2005. http://web31.epnet.com/citation.
...n, the Louisiana wetlands are an extremely valuable asset to the State of Louisiana and the United States. The continual loss of Louisiana wetlands has the potential to have an immensely negative effect on the economy at a state and national level. Over 2 million people live in the Louisiana coastal parishes (Field et al., 1991). The majority of people living on the Louisiana coast make their living from things that are directly related to the wetlands. The Louisiana wetlands make up the largest wetland community in America and is being lost at a rate greater than the other wetland communities in the country. The suggested strategies that are being taken into consideration could be helpful but it seems that the State of Louisiana is not as concerned as it should be given the future consequences and much like climate change coastal erosion is not being taken serious.
Admittedly, 2/3 of the world’s population living with water shortages is a scary enough statistic to send a shiver up the spine. Barlow doesn’t stop there, however; she goes on to say that only 2% of the U.S. rivers and wetlands remain untouched. What does that mean for the creatures that live there? Covered that too, “37% of freshwater fish are at risk of extinction, 40% of amphibians are imperiled and 67% of freshwater mussels are extinct or vulnerable to extinction”.... ...
...restore natural lands. The federal, state, and local governments are joining forces to bring these pristine natural lands back to their original splendor and beauty. "The question of why we should protect the Everglades has now evolved into how we should restore the Everglades," according to Suzie Unger. "Everglades National Park is the largest remaining sub-tropical wilderness in the continental United States and has extensive fresh and saltwater areas, open Everglades prairies, and mangrove forests. Abundant wildlife includes rare and colorful birds, and this is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles exist side by side. The park is 1,506,539 acres (606,688 hectares) in size. It is a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, and a Wetland of International Significance," according to the following website: http://nps.gov/ever
Within the state of Florida there are dozens of individualized, non-profit organizations making an effort to help the local wildlife. The local land and marine wildlife includes birds, geckos, frogs, snakes, panthers, manatees, sea turtles, fishes, sharks, corals, lizards and many, many more. Florida State is located on the Southeastern tip of the United States providing a unique opportunity for conservation of salt-water animals. While there are animal conservation efforts taking place all over the world, this essay will focus on two animal species that humans are specifically trying to save in Florida State. The two main animal species of focus are manatees and sea turtles.
Maintaining ecological diversity is necessary for the survival of a biological community. In the United States, American citizens are on the verge of irrevocably damaging one of the country's most unique and diverse treasures - the Florida Everglades. This national park is now the only remaining patch of a river that used to span 120 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Dikes and levees created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940's drained this river to reduce flooding and increase useable water for the development of the region. This major diversion of water lead to a trickle down effect causing the continual decline of the environmental state of the Everglades. Since then, debates over the Everglades' future have silently raged on for years about how, why, and when the restoration will begin. This ongoing, but virtually unproductive effort has cost taxpayers a great deal without any apparent benefits. Recently, this debate has been amplified by the voices of the sugar industry in Florida, which was attacked for its major contribution to pollution of the Everglades. Now debates rage on with a new effort called the Restudy. Backed by the Army Corps of Engineers, this effort would change the flow of the Everglades, potentially restoring it into the viable community of life that it used to be. The question now is, will this latest attempt to restore the Everglades ever be realized (thus ending the cyclic Everglades debate) or will it simply add up to one more notch on the bedpost of inadequate and failed attempts to save this national treasure. The world is watching to see how the United States will handle this unprecedented cleanup.
The water supply of Florida is important for a number of reasons. But it is crucial because it not only helped develop human society but it is also continually sustaining it. There are a number of phases and processes that take place to make this happen.
The Spanish had great expectations of Florida despite disastrous results from expeditions such as Ponce de Leon and Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon's. In a description of the panhandle region from Hernando de Soto's campaigns, Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo wrote, “The Province of Apalache is very fertile and abundantly provided with much corn, kidney beans, pumpkins, various fruits, much venison, many varieties of birds and excellent fishing near the sea.” Notwithstanding the environmental benefits, the Spanish were ultimately unsuccessful in establishing a plantation economy in Florida. Both the British and the proto-Seminoles achieved greater success in establishing a plantation economy after the failure of the Spanish. Many factors contributed to the success of the proto-Seminoles and British in Florida including increased population, choice of economy, and African presence in Florida.
This paper introduces the environmental concerns of the loss of coastal wetlands. The paper will discuss the significance of wetlands and the devastation that is occurring because of human activity. Wetlands are an essential element of our environment both ecological and societal; conservation will be essential for the preservation of these precious ecosystems.
The topic that I chose to discuss is one that every state has adopted due to the acts that have been taken to preserve and protect our environment, so I chose the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act prohibits activities affecting threatened and endangered species. There are many organizations in place to enforce the authorities of this act and a couple of the main groups are the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The National Oceans and Atmospheric National Marine Fisheries Services. In this assignment I will elaborate on the Parks and Wildlife efforts and policies on the Endangered Species Act. To put this Act or Law into order, there were strong actions that were threatening the environment for those that research and treat the animals. Since the 1960’s there have been motions to protect animals and in 1966 Congress passed the Endangered Species Preservation Act and bought its first endangered species habitat in Florida. Once again it was revised in 1969 and 1970, but in 1972, President Nixon declared that conservation efforts in the United States aim to prevent the extinction of species that brought together the 93rd Congress to develop comprehensive endangered species legislation. Congress responded and on December 28th the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973 was signed and put into order.
70% of this demand derives from agriculture which shows the influence of water on food supply globally as well as not just drinking water (Sawin “Water Scarcity could overwhelm the Next Generation”). But increasing water use is not just a matter of the greater number of people needing it to drink and eat; it also comes from pollution and misuse of water supplies, by either dumping or runoff of bacteria or chemicals into water. This also “causes other pollutions as well such as soil and air pollution, accelerating wetland damage and human-caused global warming” (Smith and Thomassey 25). According to a UN report, recent estimates suggest that climate change will account for about 20 percent of the increase in global water scarcity in coming decades. One of the main causes of water scarcity is water mismanagement worldwide.