Everglades

Mr. Neudel's Upcoming Sabbatical to the Florida Everglades

"There are no other Everglades in the World. They are, they have always been, never wholly known. Nothing anywhere else is like them: their vast glittering openness, wider than the enormous visible round of the horizon, the racing free saltness and sweetness of their massive winds, under the dazzling blue height of space. They are unique also in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life they enclose....It is a river of grass." Douglass. The River of Grass. 1948. In the summer of 2001 I spent three weeks studying the Florida Everglades in search for 'the river of grass'. The pictures below are from this collection as well as several subsequent visits in the "dry season". A presentation of 'In Search of the River of Grass' has been given for the Mohawk Bird Club, The Science Teachers Association of New York State, and the National Science Teachers Association.

Thanks to a 2005 'Woody Rae Sabbatical', this March I will be revisiting the Everglades in the dry season to compare the changes. Stop by as I post my research and plans. In the coming months I will be posting more pictures of the rainy season as well as pictures taken in the dry season. I will also add important research topics for the survival of the Everglades, and perhaps, our wetlands. The Everglades is one of the most delicate and fragile wetland systems in the United States. If the Everglades ecosystems fails, what does that say for our remaining wetlands and biodiversity in our remaining habitats?

My revisit was to compare the Dry Season to my three week study of the Wet Season. Things never go as planned. With heavy destruction of the glades from the recent Hurricanes --- especially in the Flamingo area, our better understanding of the effects of global warming and rising costs of the Everglades Forever project, the Everglades survival has possibly never been as threatened.

Margarie Stoneman Douglas wrote that Hurricanes were important for the Everglades survival. They helped control the invasion of tropical species. With the increase of severe hurricanes, tropical storms, and possible warming, more polluted water is being released into the Everglades ecosystem bringing more evasive species into the area than the occasional hurricane may eliminate. What will the effect be if Hurricanes continue to batter the glades in coming years? As of 2/1/06 parts of the Everglades are still closed.

My adventure will start with a quick revisit to 'Corkscrew Swamp', home of the remaining Bald Cypress that grew before European settlers first reached North America. After this I will be staying in the heart of Cypress Swamp examining the North Western Everglades and the Swamps of the Everglades. I will next head toward the Eastern Entrance to the Park and make my way down towards Flamingo where much of the recent Hurricane damage occurred.


E1: Heron in Cypress Swamp The Everglades is the only National Park that's survival depends solely by humans. We control the water flow to imitate the natural Everglades habitat.	E3:Bald Cypress Cypress in Swamp Logging in the late 19th and early 20th century nearly wiped out Bald Cypress that were alive when Columbus set the ocean blue. Corkscrew Swamp is the only area left with the original Bald Cypress. http://www.audubon.org/local/sanctuary/corkscrew/


E-2 :The swamps: eerie but full of beauty!	E- 20 The sun setting in the Gulf....

NP1012 Anhinga at Flamingo (Everglades National Park)	Fl217 Anhinga and Painted Turtle: Dingo Darling Wildlife Preserve, Fl.


This quiet and beautiful spot in the wet season. The red mangrove leaves shed in the Fall leaving the area bare.	No study of the Everglades can go without looking at the Florida Alligator. Taken in the Cypress Swamp preserve in the wet season.


E30 Blue Heron Portrait	E31 Alligator early morning warms up for day's adventure.

E0 Slash Pine Prairie

All pictures copyright Bob Neudel Photography.