III.

Population and Economy

The Everglades have been inhabited by native peoples for several thousand years. During much of the 19th century, the marsh was a sanctuary for the Seminole people during their conflicts with United States troops. Today, the Miccosukee people constitute most of the region’s residents. They are concentrated in reservations near the center of the Everglades; much of their income is now derived from gambling profits in large bingo halls, which attract large numbers of retirees from the urbanized coastal areas to the east.

Agriculture, the leading economic activity in the region, is confined to the northern segment of the Everglades in the area south of Lake Okeechobee. Here, on rich, drained lands, farmers have raised sugarcane, fruit, and vegetables since the 1920s. In the wilderness to the south and west, tourism dominates, with most of the swamp’s visitors drawn to certain sites where the natural processes of the Everglades can be closely observed. Approximately 1 million people per year visit Everglades National Park, which covers 5,661 sq km (2,186 sq mi) in the southern Everglades.

A.

Environmental Threats

During the 20th century, human interference altered the Everglades ecosystem. Shortly after 1900, large drainage projects were launched. Soon many canals were built, which lowered the level of Lake Okeechobee and inhibited its natural tendency to overflow into the Everglades. As urban growth along the Atlantic coastal strip accelerated after World War I (1914-1918), more and more water was diverted from the Everglades. Simultaneously, an agricultural zone was developed south of Lake Okeechobee, and farming soon consumed huge quantities of water. Meanwhile, the farms’ phosphorus-rich fertilizer wastes and pesticide residues were dumped into water that made its way southward across the swamp. At the same time, two major east-west highways were built across the region, enhancing the accessibility of wilderness areas.

In addition, the introduction of exotic vegetation with no natural local enemies, notably melaleuca trees and Brazilian pepper plants, has upset the traditional biological balance in the Everglades. Melaleuca trees (see bottlebrush) were imported from Australia early in the 20th century in an attempt to launch a timber industry and to drain the region. The wood proved too difficult to harvest, and the new trees spread quickly, overwhelming many other plant communities and consuming much of the marsh’s dwindling water supply. Brazilian pepper was initially imported as an ornamental shrub for landscaping, but it, too, spread out of control.

The federal government tried to preserve the Everglades ecosystem by designating the southwestern segment of the swamp as the Everglades National Park in 1947. Although wildlife protection was thereby enhanced, the park was too small (covering only 20 percent of the Everglades) to counter the negative environmental forces plaguing the region. Later, during the 1960s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers thought it could help by converting the Kissimmee River, the source of Lake Okeechobee’s water, from a meandering subtropical stream into a straightened concrete-lined channel. However, this channel has wreaked further environmental havoc in the northern part of the Everglades watershed.

In the 1980s and 1990s the environmental problems of the Everglades received national attention, and a number of restoration efforts were initiated. In 1989 the federal government approved the expansion of the Everglades National Park in order to control more of the area’s water resources. The state of Florida also worked to attack the chemical pollution problems in the Lake Okeechobee farming sector. In 1996 the federal government passed an act to protect and restore the Everglades. The act allowed the federal government to acquire farmland in order to let it revert back to marsh. The act also appropriated money to help restore the Kissimmee River to its original channel.

That same year the Congress of the United States formally established the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force, which included federal and state agencies responsible for developing policies and plans to restore the ecosystem. In 2000 Congress passed the Everglades Restoration Act as part of the Water Resources Development Act. The 30-year plan was designed to return the natural flow of water to the Everglades by removing levees. It also included plans to restore the quality and quantity of water flowing into the Everglades.

In June 2008 the United States Sugar Company announced a tentative agreement to sell all of its land holdings in the Everglades, amounting to 800 sq km (300 sq mi), to the state of Florida for $1.75 billion. Environmentalists hailed the agreement as the largest ecosystem restoration effort in U.S. history. Under the agreement U.S. Sugar would cease sugarcane production after six years and go out of business, returning the land to its original marshy condition. About 2,000 workers were expected to lose their jobs but would be compensated under terms of the sale.

U.S. Sugar’s land parcels lie just south of Lake Okeechobee in the northern part of the Everglades. Because the land slopes downward from north to south, the agreement was expected to help restore the natural flow of water from the northern part of the Everglades to the southern part. The disruption of this flow accounted for drought conditions, frequent fires, and other problems in the southern part of the Everglades ecosystem. Restoring the natural flow of water was also expected to ease the cost of the Everglades Restoration Act passed by Congress in 2000, which was estimated as high as $8 billion. Elaborate plans to pump water to the south would no longer be necessary if the natural flow was restored.