Pythons compete with native wildlife for food, which includes mammals, birds, and other reptiles. Severe mammal declines in Everglades National Park have been linked to Burmese pythons.

Burmese Pythons

The Burmese python is an invasive species to Florida’s Everglades, released by people who were not prepared to care for them as pets. The pythons are disrupting the natural ecosystem. The biodiversity in these areas has decreased rapidly and efforts to remove them have not been successful.

An American alligator in the Everglades. American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) are considered one of the largest reptilian species in the entire United States.

around 9 feet

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.

Without the Everglades as a buffer to hurricanes and as a source of drinking water, it’s the people living in South Florida who risk becoming the endangered species. And if rising seas turn more of the freshwater Everglades salty, then the water seeping into aquifers threatens to foul our inland drinking water wells.

High phosphorus causes impacts in the Everglades such as: loss of the natural communities of algae that are defining characteristics of the Everglades. loss of water dissolved oxygen that fish need. changes in the native plant communities that result in a loss of the open water areas where wading birds feed.

The two biggest threats to the Everglades ecosystem are water quality and water quantity. With rapid development on both coasts and an expanding agriculture industry, the human demand for water is increasing rapidly while the supply is not changing.

The Florida Everglades have been dealing with the growing threat of invasive species like Burmese pythons for some time now. The pythons are taking over the land and ultimately killing so many of the native species. This growing problem is of major concern for the preservation efforts of the historic wetlands.

Federally Listed Species and Critical Habitat in Everglades National Park

One major problem with draining water from Lake Okeechobee into the ocean is that the lake has high levels of the nutrient phosphorus, a key ingredient in fertilizers. Phosphorus overfeeds algae and can cause major algal blooms that harm the environment.

The Everglades is the largest subtropical wetland ecosystem in North America and the largest mangrove ecosystem in Western Hemisphere. The Everglades is often referred to as a “swamp”, but in reality it is a giant, slow moving river. Nearly 8 million Floridians rely on the Everglades for their daily water supply.

Florida Everglades

Marjory Stoneman Douglas

The Everglades

The film is set in Broward and Dade Counties in Florida, between Miami and the Everglades (nicknamed “the River of Grass”). A local couple is involved in a shooting incident and then try to leave South Florida but lack the money to do so.

When the early explorers first viewed the Everglades long ago, they saw large fields of grass. Ever from the word forever & Glades which is an old English word that means a grassy open place. The Native Americans who lived here named it Pa-hay-Okee which translates into “grassy waters.”

Water pollution is another reason some plants and animals are disappearing. Years ago, large areas of the Everglades were drained and turned into farmland. Today the fertilizers used on crops are polluting the water. The “river of grass” is slowly disappearing.

The Everglades is unique because fresh water in the Florida Bay meets the salt water of the Gulf of Mexico, creating a perfect ecosystem for both animals to live together.