Introduction
Florida everglade is found in the southern part of United States, in a curtain state known as Florida. It is a subtropical marshland. The Florida Everglades area contains Loxahatchee National wildlife refuge, Everglades’s national park and finally it contains water conservation areas. All the above mentioned fall under one name this is the Florida Everglades. It is facing some threats such as pollution, death of the alligators, those being just a few examples. However there is much that have been done to conserve Florida Everglades and still more is being done, and the good side of it is that more is to be done.
What is conservation and what are the reasons behind conservation?
Conservation is the act of protecting something for future use or for future reference. It also means the act of preservation and good maintenance of natural resources plus the environment. In these case Florida everglades are conserved for various reasons: the first reason is similar the given definition, which is for future use and reference. In this case conserving is meant for both economic and social gain. On Economical gain the species found in the everglades attract tourists who pay them a visit and in these way the state gains economically, another economic reason is the use of water for agriculture. These agricultural products are sold hence making money. When it comes to social gain, the preserved water is used for domestic chores such as for drinking, cooking, washing and many others. Water is life and if any case it need to be conserved. Even if water is left to flow in the rivers it would finally go to the lake where most are salty waters thus creating minerals. Water conservation also saves money since no bill would be paid on waters; again we live in a desert that is almost three quarter part of the United States is a desert.
There is also need to conserve wild plants in their natural habitat; it is about more than plants, wildlife and ecosystem. Wild plants reduce flooding during the times of heavy rains. They also reduce soil erosion by holding the soil on the ground when it’s raining. This has contributed to fertility of land thus high production.
Conservation of the Florida Everglades
Half of the Everglades have been occupied by Agriculture. Part of it also was made a national park in 1947; however that did not stop drainage and diversion of water. Water was always diverted for agriculture and domestic purposes.
“Florida Everglades had saw grass, that is the saw grass had grown in it and it infact hindered its exploitation. Most of the white people who came across it were filled up with the desire to exploit it and make economical gain. Some even thought it would be more productive in terms of agriculture. But all their dreams were not realized since it was full of these kinds of shrubs which were thorny and so made it difficult for the white people to use the space. Conservation for the Florida Everglades begun with the Miccosukee {Seminoles Indianan, these are the people who had been misplaced by the white farmers when they occupied the South and North Florida. The Seminoles seek refuge around the Florida Everglades area which was by then a swamp. They have lived there since 1820s and nobody ever bothered to go after them, and they therefore assumed they had won and they hence lived in isolation with the white people. They knew nothing about the rest of the world.” {Hiaasen’s Carl 78}
Florida had lived for long without exploitation. The Engineers from the United States Army got interested with the swamps and therefore went further to control the floods. The Seminoles felt, that they owned the land and thus fought for it back. A conflict arose between them and the government. “The state of Florida and the army corps of Engineers are undertaking various projects costing billions of dollars under the comprehensive Everglades Restoration plan to help ensure the proper quantity, quality, timing and distribution of waters to the Everglades and all of South Florida. Numerous law suits affecting Everglades’s restoration are pending before the courts.” Wikipedia the free Encyclopedia. “Everglade” 20th Sep: 2006http://en.wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Everglade
Again some people including the politicians thought that Everglades should be eliminated to leave space for settlements and agriculture. At around 1905, during the reign of governor Broward, some digging machines and bulldozers were brought in the state. These were to be used in constructing canals, building dikes, huge levees, and also to put up pumping stations. All these methods were a way of controlling floods hence preserving water.
The government and other interested parties are also planning to build more dikes to prevent flooding. {Curl Joseph pg 45}
Benefits of Florida Everglades
Florida Everglades have positive benefits towards the state. It has been recognized to biologically wealth that is due to its good ecosystem. “The park is one of the only three sites in the world to be designated a world heritage site, an international Biosphere Reserve, and a Ramscar wetland of international importance” {Frankham James 3} Everglades supply the Miami residents with water for domestic purposes and also for irrigation to the farmers in South Florida. It also has got some outlets which include the Miami and New Rivers, which are both found in east and also in the south west there is an outlet known as Shark River.
It has contributed to the growth of economy in various ways. When it comes to tourism, it has brought foreign currency to the state. The waters have also enhanced agriculture hence high productivity. And finally it has created employment, meaning many people have got an opportunity to work in the Florida Everglades.
Threats that Florida Everglades is facing
Economists argue that if Florida bay would continue declining in its ecological health, then it would loose its tourists thus leading to economic backwardness, it would also reduce fish catches which serve for commercial purposes. If the industries and the population will continue to increase at such a high rate, then I am worried since in 30 years to come, these would lead to water shortages.
It is also less popular when it comes to swimming as compared to other beaches such as Miami, since there are a lot of alligators and due to the presence of the many waterways.
Another major problem is that the alligator’s population has greatly reduced due to effect from agricultural chemicals and also pollution caused by the many industries in the urban.
Conclusion
In every problem solving there must be a target and objectives to act as guidelines and to make the work easier. In the conservation of Florida Everglades is that after the waters pattern are restored as they were in the past, that is with no diversification, there would be more food, and the all the different species will increase. And by so doing everything will be back to normal as it was before the exploitation.
Work Cited
James Frankham “River of grass” 2006
Wikipedia the tree encyclopedia: http://en.wikipediaorg/wiki/everglade. 20th September 2007
Carl Hiaasen’s “Skinny Dip”. United States: Alfred A. Knopf 2004
Curl Joseph “Bush Increases Finding for Everglade Restoration. The Washington Times. June 5, 2001
