- Provides drinking water for more than 8 million Floridians
- Protects communities from hurricanes and floods
- Supports Florida’s $1.2 billion fishing industry
- Generates $150 million of direct spending annually just in Everglades National Park
What are the benefits of the Everglades to humans?
Its wetlands and wildlife draw large numbers of birders, anglers, boaters, and other outdoor enthusiasts. The Everglades also provides critical, and often undervalued, benefits to people, called ecosystem services.
Why Restore America's Everglades?
Restoring America's Everglades. Recognized worldwide as a unique and treasured landscape, the Everglades is a one-of-a-kind network of natural resources that makes up the largest wilderness east of the Mississippi River, and the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. The Everglades ecosystem: has helped shape the natural heritage,...
What happens if we pass the Everglades?
If we pass it, we may get to keep the planet. Once spanning nearly 11 million acres, the Everglades has been whittled down through land conversion and drainage. What remains is a heavily altered landscape, one out of sync with Florida’s larger ecology.
How much money does Everglades National Park bring to local economy?
That spending supported 1,552 jobs in the local area and had a cumulative benefit to the local economy of $155,544,700. “Everglades National Park welcomes visitors from across the country and around the world,” said Superintendent Pedro Ramos. “We are delighted to share the story of this place and the experiences it provides.
How do humans benefit from the Everglades?
The Everglades also provides critical, and often undervalued, benefits to people, called ecosystem services. For example, the Everglades ecosystem provides drinking water for one-third of Floridians and irrigation for much of the state's agriculture.
Why is Everglades special?
The Everglades is a unique landscape, unlike any other in the world. Only the Everglades combines a subtropical climate, numerous distinct habitat types and an extraordinary array of species in such a diverse, yet vulnerable ecosystem.
Why are the Everglades important to wildlife?
The Everglades provides crucial habitat for numerous species like the manatee, American crocodile, and the elusive Florida panther. The park has long been a birder's paradise -- it is the winter home of more than 360 different species of birds. But this unique ecosystem is essential to humans, too.
What are the economic advantages of the Everglades National Park?
The report shows $15.7 billion of direct spending by 292.8 million park visitors in communities within 60 miles of a national park. This spending supported 277,000 jobs nationally; 235,600 of those jobs are found in these gateway communities. The cumulative benefit to the U.S. economy was $29.7 billion.
What would happen if the Everglades disappeared?
But if the rising sea turns the Everglades into an inland sea, then climate change damage will get even closer to home for Southeast Florida. Without the Everglades to play hurricane defense for us, the storm-surge flooding we already worry about along the Atlantic Coast also becomes a greater risk from the west.
Why are the Florida Everglades environmentally significant?
Why are the Florida Everglades environmentally significant? The region is home to many threatened and endangered bird, mammal, reptile, and plant species that would not be able to survive in another ecosystem.
What are two natural resources found in the Florida Everglades?
Hardwood Hammock.Pinelands.Mangrove.Coastal Lowlands.Freshwater Slough.Freshwater Marl Prairie.Cypress.Marine & Estuarine.
How did draining the Everglades affect its wildlife?
The water was deposited on land that was reserved for wildlife and home to much of south Florida's deer population. Hundreds of deer drowned and smaller animals like wild hogs and raccoons died because high water covered their food supply.
Why are wetlands important?
Wetlands and People Far from being useless, disease-ridden places, wetlands provide values that no other ecosystem can. These include natural water quality improvement, flood protection, shoreline erosion control, opportunities for recreation and aesthetic appreciation and natural products for our use at no cost.
How does the Everglades make money?
Tourism, the largest industry in Florida, is negatively impacted by environmental degradation. Boating & fishing contribute billions of dollars to Florida's economy each year. The Everglades provides the drinking water supply for over 8 million Floridians and millions of tourists each year.
How much money does the Everglades make a year?
fiscal year 2019 report (PDF 452kb) Port Everglades generates more than $32 billion worth of business activity and 219,072 jobs statewide, according to a study produced by nationally recognized maritime research company Martin Associates.
How have humans impacted the Everglades?
Water diversions and flood control structures restrict the flow of water across the sensitive landscape. Combined with agricultural and urban development , the size of the Everglades has decreased dramatically, affecting the quality of habitats in the area.
Why are the Everglades threatened?
The Everglades is being threatened by numerous plants and animals that were introduced both on purpose and by accident. Some introduced species become a small part of the landscape, while others thrive at the expense of native plants and wildlife.
What are the birds that live in the Everglades National Park?
More than 360 bird species can be found in Everglades National Park alone. The Everglades is known for its many wading birds, such as white and glossy ibises, roseate spoonbills, egrets, herons, and wood storks.
How many acres of the Everglades have been invaded by non-native plants?
Once they've become established, these invaders are hard to stop. About 1.7 million acres of the Everglades have been invaded by non-native plants, such as the Brazilian peppertree, Chinese privet, the broad-leaved paperbark tree or "melaleuca", and Old World climbing fern.
How do wetlands improve water quality?
The wetlands improve water quality by filtering out pollutants and absorbing excess nutrients, replenish aquifers, and reduce flood ing.
What is the water flow in the Everglades?
The water flows southward, passing through diverse habitats, including cypress swamps, wet prairie, and mangroves, until it reaches Everglades National Park and eventually Florida Bay. Originally the Greater Everglades ecosystem had a large diversity of habitats connected by wetlands and water bodies. Since the 1800s, humans have been altering the ...
What are the endangered species in the Everglades?
The Everglades' most endangered animal, a mammal, is the Florida panther. Fewer than 100 individuals now survive.
What is the restoration plan for the Everglades?
The restoration plan seeks to restore some of the Everglades' natural water flow. Models increasingly confirm that it is possible to effectively rehydrate all of the Everglades, including the National Park.
Where are the Everglades?
The Everglades drainage area stretches over 200 miles, starting near Orlando and reaching south to the Gulf of Mexico. At least 100 miles of it is made up of the wide-open grasslands called the Everglades. Nearly 83 percent of the Everglades lies outside of the national park, mostly on agricultural or state-protected lands.#N#The Everglades landscape is flatter than a billiard table, and water tends to pool on it. Florida has huge swings in annual rainfall, which can vary by as much as 82 percent from average levels year to year, and water evaporates very rapidly during dry seasons.
What is the phosphorus level in the Everglades?
Under natural conditions water flowing into the Everglades would contain 8-10 parts per billion (ppb) of phosphorus. Current levels range between 100 and 300 ppb.
Is there progress in the Everglades?
Still, progress is possible. In a 2015 report, the University of Florida’s Water Institute concluded that nearly all uncertainties and problems associated with Everglades restoration could be markedly improved by building more ponds and impoundments to store water.
What are the threats to the Everglades?
In addition to the consequences of years of ditching and diking, the Everglades faces ever-increasing threats from the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise, reduced precipitation and higher temperatures. But there’s hope for the Everglades.
How many acres are there in the Everglades?
Once spanning nearly 11 million acres, the Everglades has been whittled down through land conversion and drainage. What remains is a heavily altered landscape, one out of sync with Florida’s larger ecology.
What is the last great grassland in America?
One of America's Last Great Grasslands. There are precious few landscapes in America as impressive as the Everglades, and none as definitively iconic to its home state. The Everglades is to Florida what the Rocky Mountains are to Colorado or the Finger Lakes are to New York. Though contained entirely in Florida, ...
How does the Everglades help the Florida economy?
The Everglades are essential for fish and wildlife, but the system also provides enormous benefits to people, as it: Provides drinking water for more than 8 million Floridians. Protects communities from hurricanes and floods. Supports Florida’s $1.2 billion fishing industry. Generates $150 million of direct spending annually just in Everglades ...
What has happened to the Everglades?
Since the 1800s, water diversions and flood-control projects have severed the flow of water between different parts of the Everglades, while large areas of its lands were converted to agricultural or residential areas. The re-plumbing of the Everglades has resulted in a system where the health of critical coastal estuaries are at risk.
What is the Everglades Agricultural Area?
A critical piece of restoring the Everglades is to construct a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. The Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir is a part of CERP that is designed to relieve the pressure on the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries by taking up water ...
What is the result of the re-plumbing of the Everglades?
The re-plumbing of the Everglades has resulted in a system where the health of critical coastal estuaries are at risk. At times, too much polluted water is pumped to both coasts from Lake Okeechobee, while too little freshwater flows south to the Everglades and Florida Bay.
How many acres are there in the Everglades?
There is no place in the world quite like America’s Everglades. These subtropical wetlands once encompassed more than three million acres, from Orlando to the Florida Keys. But today less than half of this unique ecosystem remains.
When was the Everglades Restoration Plan approved?
Ensure the implementation of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was approved by Congress in 2000. It includes a suite of 68 individual components that collectively will restore, protect and preserve the resiliency of America’s Everglades for future generations.
What is the importance of the Everglades?
He notes that in addition to its importance to recreation and tourism, the Everglades are the primary drinking source for South Floridians. Perhaps the greatest contribution the alligator makes to the ecosystem and its inhabitants are ‘gator holes’ that adults create and expand year by year.
Why are alligators endangered?
The American alligator was first listed as endangered in 1967, due to poorly regulated hunting and habitat loss.
What are the animals that live in submerged depressions?
These submerged depressions tend to stay full of water throughout the dry season and even extended droughts, providing critical sustenance for fish, insects, snakes, turtles, birds and other wildlife that inhabits the ecosystem.
