I've always thought that the characterization of Florida as being an uninhabitable, worthless swamp was bothersome. The Everglades are a genuinely unique habitat -- flooded acres of grasslands...
I've always thought that the characterization of Florida as being an uninhabitable, worthless swamp was bothersome. The Everglades are a genuinely unique habitat -- flooded acres of grasslands connected through vast, underground limestone formations -- that supported an extremely diverse amount of biodiversity. This youtuber (a biologist, iirc, with a focus on freshwater ecosystems) has been posting a bunch of his dives through the springs in the area, and it's an insight I'd never thought I'd have into a beautiful place that I'll likely never step foot on.
I noticed that you used the pasted tense when describing the extremely diverse biodiversity, and sadly I think that is pretty accurate even if you didn't intend it that way. The Florida government...
I noticed that you used the pasted tense when describing the extremely diverse biodiversity, and sadly I think that is pretty accurate even if you didn't intend it that way. The Florida government looked the other way on pollution that directly affected the Everglades for decades and it has wreaked havoc on the life there. It's not a barren wasteland or anything, but it is a far cry from what it used to be when I was a kid and it greatly saddens me. This applies to most of the waterways in Florida for the most part, but the Everglades were unique and I am furious that it was allowed to get to this point.
It was a happy accident! I noticed it after I posted, but it felt poignant, so I left it in. I’m sorry for everything that has been lost. It’s truly awful what harm can be done by the powerful and...
It was a happy accident! I noticed it after I posted, but it felt poignant, so I left it in. I’m sorry for everything that has been lost. It’s truly awful what harm can be done by the powerful and willfully ignorant.
May I ask what you recall of the Everglades of your childhood? The various nature docs I’ve seen make it look lovely (other than the mosquitos), but it’s admittedly a very curated vision.
I grew up in Florida, so it is hard to describe it fully because so much of it feels second nature (no pun intended), but I'll try. So a lot of what I recall from my trips into the everglades were...
I grew up in Florida, so it is hard to describe it fully because so much of it feels second nature (no pun intended), but I'll try. So a lot of what I recall from my trips into the everglades were on air boats, think small flat-ish haul boats with a giant fan on the back, because the water was very, very shallow in large sections. We would sometimes get out of the boats at specific familiar (to my dad and his friend) spot, but we mostly didn't want to go stomping around as it would be unpleasant for both us and the area. The thing that always stood out to me was not the mosquitos, since those were ever present in most of south and central FL, but the crazy variety of birds and semi-aquatic creatures. Every time we'd go there, I'd see some animal I hadn't seen before, maybe several. I imagine there were far more that were in the water that I didn't see as well.
From what I understand, the industrial farming run-off has wiped out most of this, much in the same way it caused the massive algae blooms along the coast.
I've always thought that the characterization of Florida as being an uninhabitable, worthless swamp was bothersome. The Everglades are a genuinely unique habitat -- flooded acres of grasslands connected through vast, underground limestone formations -- that supported an extremely diverse amount of biodiversity. This youtuber (a biologist, iirc, with a focus on freshwater ecosystems) has been posting a bunch of his dives through the springs in the area, and it's an insight I'd never thought I'd have into a beautiful place that I'll likely never step foot on.
I noticed that you used the pasted tense when describing the extremely diverse biodiversity, and sadly I think that is pretty accurate even if you didn't intend it that way. The Florida government looked the other way on pollution that directly affected the Everglades for decades and it has wreaked havoc on the life there. It's not a barren wasteland or anything, but it is a far cry from what it used to be when I was a kid and it greatly saddens me. This applies to most of the waterways in Florida for the most part, but the Everglades were unique and I am furious that it was allowed to get to this point.
It was a happy accident! I noticed it after I posted, but it felt poignant, so I left it in. I’m sorry for everything that has been lost. It’s truly awful what harm can be done by the powerful and willfully ignorant.
May I ask what you recall of the Everglades of your childhood? The various nature docs I’ve seen make it look lovely (other than the mosquitos), but it’s admittedly a very curated vision.
I grew up in Florida, so it is hard to describe it fully because so much of it feels second nature (no pun intended), but I'll try. So a lot of what I recall from my trips into the everglades were on air boats, think small flat-ish haul boats with a giant fan on the back, because the water was very, very shallow in large sections. We would sometimes get out of the boats at specific familiar (to my dad and his friend) spot, but we mostly didn't want to go stomping around as it would be unpleasant for both us and the area. The thing that always stood out to me was not the mosquitos, since those were ever present in most of south and central FL, but the crazy variety of birds and semi-aquatic creatures. Every time we'd go there, I'd see some animal I hadn't seen before, maybe several. I imagine there were far more that were in the water that I didn't see as well.
From what I understand, the industrial farming run-off has wiped out most of this, much in the same way it caused the massive algae blooms along the coast.