Mangroves are one of the last true natives in Florida, with an estimated 469,000 acres of mangrove forests found throughout the southern coastal areas of Florida. Because they thrive in saltwater and brackish water environments, they have made a comfortable home here since prehistoric times, and today, though there are more than fifty species of […]
Good news for the Everglades this week, with President Obama having announced on Monday, February 2nd that he is proposing to spend $195 million on Everglades restoration projects starting in 2015. This is quite a jump from last year’s proposal, showing that Obama will support the Everglades restoration project throughout the remainder of his presidency. […]
The osprey goes by many names – fish hawk, sea hawk, fish eagle, and river hawk – but all names seem to call out one particular characteristic of this powerful hunting bird, the fact that its diet is comprised almost entirely of fish. While this is certainly not the only unique characteristic of the osprey, […]
If you’ve traveled around Southern Florida, chances are you’ve heard the term “brackish” used when describing some areas of water. But what is brackish water and what makes it characteristic of some bodies of water and not others? Brackish water is a cross between freshwater and saltwater – it has a higher salinity level than […]
Because about a third of Everglades National Park is covered in water, it should come as no surprise that the Everglades is not only a beautiful place to explore, but also an excellent place to fish. Fishermen come from all over the world to fish the freshwater, saltwater, and brackish waters of the Everglades, where […]
While the American black vulture is certainly not the most beautiful bird in the Everglades or the one with the best reputation, it might be one of the more interesting birds in not only the Everglades, but the entire world. Because the circling of vultures in the sky can often be a sign that something […]
American alligators and American crocodiles have a few things in common, the most important being that both creatures strike fear into the hearts of people and small dogs throughout Florida and the Southern United States. Both alligators and crocodiles are some of the most feared and respected predators on earth, both with coveted spots very […]
In January of this year, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that he would be adding $130 million to the annual budget request to continue work on restoring the Florida Everglades. The budget request is a $60 million increase over last year, and is merely the beginning of an $880 million plan for restoration approved by […]
Every visitor to the Everglades will see a few of the usual suspects – alligators, frogs, birds – as well as a few species that are relatively new to the area. Once such species is the Burmese python – a species of snake that was not present in South Florida at all previous to 1979, […]
If the National Parks Service in Homestead, Florida gets their way, private airboat tours of the Florida Everglades will become a thing of the past. Current airboat tour companies, such as Captain Mitch’s, will be among the last to offer tours of the mangroves and wetlands of South Florida. Over the next fifteen to twenty […]
