A Tour Guide’s View of The Everglades

By: Glenn Wilsey, Sr.

The Everglades is a river about 50 miles wide and about 110 miles long. The water moves just like any river would, only at a very slow pace, about � mile per 24 hour period.

Everglade’s water is pure, sweet and fresh. If you drank water today, anywhere south of Lake Okeechobee, The Everglades refreshed you. The water in your coffee or morning glass of juice was the watery domain of an alligator yesterday. All water begins in The Everglades.

To know the depth of the water depends on the time of year. January is high water in The Everglades, two feet, maybe a few inches more is just fine. May is the low point of the year, the water level runs about two to three inches which is just fine. June and July begin the rainy season and the cycle begins again, The water level will return to normal.

As Everglades’ folklore goes, every four to seven years the glades will go dry which actually gives life back to the region. The water will go away completely by the end of May and the drought will last about seven weeks. During these dry times, aquatic plants, fish and algae will die, thus providing fertilizer for the next four to seven years or until the next drought befalls the area.

Flash fires will sporadically race through the glades, burning everything in their path but the islands containing green trees. However, a fire is Mother Nature’s lawn mower. It devours the grass but produces ashes that contain essential minerals for the rejuvenation of the next generation. So, when you hear that The Everglades is drying up and burning, rejoice, for life is about to begin again. Fresh new growth will spring up from the ashes, nourishing all life that inhabits the glades.

The ground (for lack of a better word) of the glades is a thick, black muck comprised of nothing more than decomposing plants, animals, reptiles and fish. The muck can be as shallow as one inch and as deep as eight feet. When walking through The Everglades, you could sink up to your ankles or your knees depending on the density of the muck. You will not disappear. There is no quick sand in the glades, just deep muck which makes travel by foot slow and exhausting. A mile trek through The Everglades’ muck takes two to three hours, unless, you are being followed by a gator. We all kid around about the alligators but they really pose no threat. If you had to walk through the glades, you probably wouldn’t even see an alligator.

Gators are cowardly creatures who avoid beings that are bigger than they are. Alligators seek small game, which they can easily overpower and eat. An alligator can feel vibrations in the water that tells him how far away and how big something is. Since humans are usually bigger than most gators, chances are you will not encounter the reptile. As a matter of opinion, walking through the glades all day without a weapon is considerably safer than walking through most major cities, for just an hour, with one.

All of the creatures of The Everglades had to learn to walk through the water. From Lake Okeechobee, south to Florida Bay and all areas east to west are, for the most part, under water. Creatures that inhabit the glades include white tailed deer, wild hogs, turkey, bob cats, black bear, the Florida panther, opossums, armadillos, raccoons and rabbits. The smaller animals may have to swim now and then, but when they reach the tall grass, they climb up it. The grass falls and the animals walk on it without getting wet. Everyone always asks, “where are all the animals today?” The critters that inhabit The Everglades are mostly nocturnal. They come out at night to feed, move around and play. During the day, they hide on the tree islands and sleep.

Ok, now for everyone’s favorite subject … Snakes! The Everglades is home to twenty-eight species of snakes, five of which are venomous: The pygmy rattler, eastern diamondback rattler, water moccasins, coral snakes and the copperhead.

The islands of trees are called hammocks. “Hammock” is an Indian word that means either “land above water,” or “garden spot.” All of the major trees grow on hammocks. Some of the main varieties are: The Jamaican dogwood, the red bay, live oak, coco plum, pond apple, gumbo limbo and cabbage palm. About four percent of the hammock is sticking out of the water on the north side, and all of the hammocks are arranged north to south. The high side faces north and the low side faces south. The Everglades is beautiful. Especially as seen up close from an airboat. However, the ecologists and the Park Service personnel will tell you the airboat destroys The Everglades. Nothing could be further from the truth. An airboat trail that crosses the grass plain in the morning can not be detected by mid-afternoon. The grass that was pushed into the water as the boat went over it in the morning, springs back up, glistening with water that evaporates by afternoon, removing the only evidence that an airboat was there. Additionally, during the dry season when the grass is all dried up, an airboat that goes over it will push the grass back into the swamp stimulating new growth, just like when a farmer plows his existing growth back into the soil.

As we all know, the vegetation that is plowed under fertilizes the next generation. This concept was mentioned earlier as fires and the decomposing remains of animals rejuvenating the swamp. In fact, the deer herds are always found feeding in the airboat trails during the dry season. That’s where the tender new growth can be found. If the airboats were destroying The Everglades, the big commercial tour boats would have cut down all of the grass by now. Of all the vehicles that traverse the glades, the airboat has the least impact (if any) on the environment. NATURE RULES!
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