What are some threats to the florida everglades?
People (lack of knowledge re:ecosystem) // Everglades National Park Water in south Florida once flowed freely from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee and southward over low-lying lands to the estuaries of Biscayne Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands, and Florida Bay. Early colonial settlers and land developers viewed the Everglades as a worthless swamp in need of reclamation. The dream of draining the swampland took hold in the first half of the 1800s. By the 1880s developers started digging drainage canals, which took place without an understanding of the dynamics of the ecosystem and were generally inadequate for the task. They caused localized silting problems, but overall the ecosystem was resilient enough to sustain itself. Today 50% of south Florida’s original wetland areas no longer exist. The numbers of wading birds, such as egrets, herons, and ibises, have been reduced by 90%. The harmful side effects of dredging and draining were apparent early in this century. In 1928 landscap
