'Mans Impact on the Everglades Essay\r'

'Man has never been content to generate the natural preserved in the state in which it was ascertained. Likewise, the Everglades eco agreement has been bombarded by this pressure as man seeks to â€Å"redesign” the surroundings to suit the needs of the ever move on human population. This has brought about profound changes in this system and the way it operates. Collectors were among the first to extract a price on this area because of its exotic indigenous creatures. Species which today face liquidation hold: several varieties of peculiar Orchids and ferns, Florida tree snails, and the indigo snake.\r\nBut the impact of collectors is non merely limited to the disappearance of species. For ex angstromle, collectors burned Hardwood Hammocks to urge on collecting tree snails. The towering demand for feathers as the plumes of ladies’ hats besides endangered the Snowy Egret at cardinalness time. A nonher source of destruction includes off pathway vehicles such as air boats and sw adenosine monophosphate buggies employ to negotiate the difficult terrain. These vehicles create ever getup do master(prenominal) ruts because the tracks are slippery and subsequent vehicles subjugate them.\r\nBecause hydroperiod plays a powerful role in home ground determination, even a slight change in piddle depth can profoundly erect the composition of the ecosystem. Channels interrupting sheet flow declare oneself an alternate route for the water. Vegetation is uprooted and lost, as a result, enhancing the likelihood of invasion by opportunistic species such as cattails. In some areas, off path vehicles corroborate resulted in the ill-use of tree is agricultures. Melaleuca, an Australian tree, poses a different kind of the curse: that of introduced species.\r\nThe trees charm Sawgrass marshes and Cypress imbrues in areas reduced by drainage. Their gross profit of fire further enhances their spread. Eventually, dense forests form which preter mit the natural vegetation and dry up the environment. Brazilian pepper began its stay in the Florida area as an ornamental. Like the Melaleuca, it forms a closed forest, destroying feeding areas of many an(prenominal) water birds. Brazilian pepper primarily overtakes shoreal lowlands and pinelands. Over 200 plant species hurt been introduced â€Å"successfully” into the Everglades environment. syllabusts are not the only successful invaders.\r\nThe aristocratical Tilapia, an animal intruder, grows too large to be eaten by the walk birds, while creating a devastating tack together on the aquatic plant biography. By uttermost the most serious effect of man on the environment remains the alterations of water flow phases for plain and metropolitan purposes. The direct channeling of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee to the coast alters sheet flow, create undercoat fires and saltwater backflow. confront by these ever worsening scenarios, the primal and grey Florida P roject for Flood Control and other(a) Purposes (C& angstrom;SF) took over the project in 1948.\r\nFirst, the C&SF built a perimeter to prevent onslaught of the sheet flow on developing metropolitan areas. Second, agriculture reclaimed the Okeechobee by draining the Lake swamp and rerouting the water to the Water Conservation fertile land directly south of Areas to the south. Total, Water Conservation Areas, which perplex water flow toprevent flood and drought, now agree 32 % of the original Everglades ecosystem. Everglades National Park, established in 1947, only contains 25% of the historic freshwater system. Other problems facing this ecosystem include the loss of wild life species diversity.\r\nLike the Snowy Egret, gators, hunted for their hides, almost reached extinction until their sale was prohibited by practice of law. Since that time, populations rebounded, however, bird populations liquid face intense reducing pressures. Wading birds companion the drying front d uring the drydown as the water flow concentrates course at its b graze. Wading birds, therefore, only need grow minor adjustments to nail down the position of food daily. Consequently, larger rookeries and breeding oceansons coordinate with the water flow so the drydown approaches the nest, allowing the parents to fly less distance every nonparallel day.\r\nThe intrusion of the Water Conservation Areas though places this pattern in serious jeopardy. The levee system interrupts the drydown as conditions on one side may not correlative with conditions on the other. For example, birds following a drydown front may reach a levee only to discover that the across the embankment, the water is too deep or the drydown in that area may have already occurred. The birds indeed must search other areas for other mark concentrations which may not exist, seriously impairing successful reproduction.\r\n use of the conservation areas for flood control and unnatural releasing of water also a dversely effects these communities. very much this reverses the drydown fronts. Changes in the dry/wet season cycle, likewise, tinct alligator reproduction, interrupting courtship and often drowning their eggs. Alteration of alligator nesting patterns adversely affects the wading bird population because their holes customarily congregate prey during the low water season. Although, the duct construction provides alligators a substituted habitat, these canals are sufficiently deeper and abrupt than traditional gator nesting holes.\r\nConsequently, wading birds can not effectively harvest prey. Nutrient rich rude water released from the land reclaimed below Lake Okeechobee has change magnitude the proliferation of cattails. Cattail encroached areas do not encourage food supplies for wading birds, essentially removing this wetland area from use. However, the South Florida Water focus District has begun an experimental program using peat soil beds to remove this phosphorus from th e water supply ledger entry the Everglades region. Methyl quicksilver, a highly toxic form of mercury, of late has been found in regional fauna in unusually high levels.\r\nThe food web concentrates this chemical in the system’s top predators, causation mutations, abnormal growth and neurological disorders. Although, agriculture was in the first place blamed for this elevation, historical evidence provides a more accepted theory. According to this hypothesis, soil formations naturally peg down small amounts of mercury. Recent drainage and oxidation of the soil caused its release. Sugarcane burning, and incineration of other products including fossil fuel have also received blame for this phenomenon. Interestingly though, an rearward relationship appears to exist between phosphorous and mercury levels.\r\nThe diversion of freshwater directly to the ocean from Lake Okeechobee also adversely affects Florida Bay. The lack of water cycling by dint of the bay caused a seve re increase in hypersalinity, killing seagrass beds, mangroves, fish, sponges, and birds. The hypersalinity level approximately doubles that of sea water. However, projects undertaken to remediation this situation appear to at least(prenominal) initially effective. Other reasons for this salinity increase include the lack of major storm systems recently in this area. Accumulation of sediments and shoaling prevent the bay from flushing out naturally, causing stagnation.\r\nAlso the construction of Highway 1 and the overseas Railroad may have contributed to the problem, hampering further the circulation of water. any(prenominal) attempt by man to undo the damage perpetrated must come from a comprehensive taste of the function and operation of the original ecosystem in order to prevent further â€Å"well intentioned” catastrophes. Wading birds, because of their high position on the food chain, serve as trustworthy indicators of change on this fragile environment. However, t he main problem to be address is not one of abuse of the Everglades in particular, but mankind’s underlying philosophy concerning our environment.\r\nWe must realize that our choice remains closely linked with that of our surroundings. Any threat to our biosphere will eventually cycle through and pass on to affect us. The restoration of the Everglades is an ongoing effort to remedy damage inflicted on the environment of southern Florida during the twentieth century. It is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental mitigate attempt in history. [1][2] The degradation of the Everglades became an issue in the United States in the early 1970s by and by a proposal to construct a jetport in the Big Cypress Swamp.\r\nStudies indicated the airport would have destruct the ecosystem in South Florida and Everglades National Park. [3] After decades of cataclysmal practices, both state and federal agencies are smell for ways to balance the needs of the natural environment in South Florida with urban and agricultural centers that have recently and cursorily grown in and heartfelt the Everglades. In response to floods caused by hurricanes in 1947, the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project (C&SF) was established to construct flood control devices in the Everglades.\r\nThe C&SF built 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals and levees between the mid-fifties and 1971 throughout South Florida. Their last venture was the C-38 canal, which straightened the Kissimmee River and caused harmful damage to animal habitats, adversely poignant water quality in the region. The canal became the first C&SF project to be reverted when the 22-mile (35 km) canal began to be backfilled, or refilled with the material excavated from it, in the 1980s. The restoration of the Kissimmee River is project to continue until 2011.\r\nWhen high levels of phosphorus and mercury were discovered in the waterways in 1986, water quality became a focus for water manageme nt agencies. Costly and prolonged court battles were waged between various government entities to determine who was responsible for monitoring and enforcing water quality standards. regulator Lawton Chiles proposed a bill that determined which agencies would have that responsibility, and clan deadlines for pollutant levels to decrease in water. Initially the bill was criticized by conservation groups for not being strict large on polluters, but the Everglades Forever Act was passed in 1994.\r\nSince then, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the U. S. army Corps of Engineers have surpassed expectations for achieving lower phosphorus levels. A commission appointed by Governor Chiles make a fib in 1995 stating that South Florida was inefficient to sustain its growth, and the deterioration of the environment was negatively affecting daily life for residents in South Florida. The environmental decline was predicted to harm tourism and commercial interests if no actions were taken to halt current trends.\r\nResults of an eight-year study that evaluated the C&SF were submitted to the United States Congress in 1999. The report warned that if no action was taken the region would rapidly deteriorate. A strategy called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was enacted to restore portions of the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee River, and Florida Bay to undo the damage of the early(prenominal) 50 years. It would take 30 years and woo $7. 8 billion to complete. Though the plan was passed into law in 2000, it has been compromised by politics and funding problems.\r\n'