2010-2011 Edition U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Journey Through the Everglades – An American Treasure Table of Contents Web sites and Acknowledgements ....................................2 Everglades: An American Treasure Teacher Training Workshops Where to Experience the Everglades ..................................3 Understanding the System .................................................4 Learn about current issues impacting the Everglades & earn In-Service credits Journey Through the KOE Watershed .................................5 A Training Workshop for secondary teachers developed to focus on skills students need to succeed with FCAT. The Florida Water Story ........................................................6 • Full Day Workshops at the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Water from Rock or Sand Aquifers ......................................7 Boynton Beach The Everglades of Yesterday ................................................8 Find out about upcoming workshops and register at: www.ces.fau.edu/education/teachers Restoring a Troubled Ecosystem .........................................8 Bring the Everglades into your classroom! Florida’s Water Timeline 1881-2004 .....................................8-9 For more information contact: Rebecca Stanek at (561) 682-2865 or [email protected] Biological Diversity ...............................................................10 This workshop is coordinated by Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Environmental Studies Hydrophytic Plants ...............................................................11 and is sponsored by the South Florida Water Management District. A Changing Population - and a Changing Everglades ......12 What’s It Worth?/Reduction of Wetlands ............................13 Everglades on the Road to Recovery The Web of Life ....................................................................14 Endangered Species ............................................................15 The Florida Everglades was once a vibrant, free-flowing wetland. Known as the River of Grass, it covered 4,000 square miles in Central and South Florida, stretching from the Introduction of Non-Native Species ...................................15 Kissimmee Chain of Lakes to Florida Bay. Restoration Works! ...............................................................16 Over the last century, drainage and development reduced the Everglades to half its size. Careers Related to the Everglades ......................................16 Birds, wildlife and native plants lost vital habitat, and freshwater no longer flowed across much of the wetland. Acknowledgements The remaining Everglades is a national treasure – yet this natural resource is still at risk. Everglades – An American Treasure is the result But thanks to federal, state and local organizations, the famed River of Grass is on the of the collaboration of a number of community road to recovery. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is an $10.9 billion partners in education: partnership that will restore freshwater flow and provide for ecosystem recovery. 6 The School District of Palm Beach County 6 The Palm Beach Post Florida has already invested 1.8 billion in water quality improvements alone and is 6 South Florida Water Management District expediting other key restoration projects to benefit the Everglades ecosystem. Progress is 6 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers well under way! We invite you to turn the pages and learn more. 6 The Watercourse/Montana State University 6 Earth Echo International 6 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Excellent Everglades Web Sites 6 U.S. Geological Survey 6 Academy of Environmental Science and Technology 6 SFWMD and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers www.evergladesplan.org at Forest Hill High School Special Thanks to: 6 South Florida Water Management District www.sfwmd.gov 6 The School District of Palm Beach County 6 Everglades National Park www.nps.gov/ever ~ Arthur C. Johnson, Ph.D., Superintendent 6 Big Cypress National Preserve www.nps.gov/bicy ~ Ann Killets, Chief Learning Officer ~ Dr. Constance Tuman-Rugg, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum 6 Florida Earth Foundation www.floridaearth.org ~ Edmund Capitano, Secondary Science Administrator 6 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service www.fws.gov ~ Fred Barch, Pine Jog Elementary Principal 6 USFWS – South Florida Ecological Services www.fws.gov/verobeach ~ Shelley Vana, County Commissioner – District 3 6 ~ Donna Taylor, Bak Middle School of the Arts U.S. Geological Survey www.usgs.gov ~ Lynn Slygh, Lake Worth High School 6 A.R.M. Loxahatchee NWR www.fws.gov/loxahatchee ~ Erin Nocera, Forest Hill High School 6 South Florida Information Access www.sofia.usgs.gov ~ Shawn McCall, Forest Hill High School ~ Florida Atlantic University’s Center for Environmental Studies ~ Rick Tully, Cindy Bear, Charles O’Connor; Environmental Education Program of the Sch ool District of Lee County Copyright © 2010, The School District of Palm Beach County, South Florida Water Management District and 2 6 Everglades Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. Where to Experience the Everglades 1 ORANGE A 2 OSCEOLA t l a n 3 t i c O 4 c e POLK a n HIGHLANDS 5 Fort OKEECHOBEE Pierce G 6 ST. LUCIE u 7 lf o f MARTIN M 8 e Lake x GLADES 9 CHARLOTTE Okeechobee 10 i c 11 12 o West 13 Palm 1. Vera Carter Env. Edu. Ctr. (Tibet-Butler Preserve) PALM 14 LEE HENDRY Beach 2. Osceola Cty. Env. Edu. Ctr. (Lake Russell Site) BEACH 16 3. Disney Wildlife Preserve Fort 15 4. Lake Kissimmee State Park Myers 5. Kissimmee Prairie State Preserve 17 6. Ordway-Whittell Kissimmee Prairie Sanctuary 7. Oxbow Ecological Center (North Fork, St. Lucie River) 18 8. Jonathan Dickinson State Park and Loxahatchee River 9. Hungryland Slough Water Management Area Naples COLLIER BROWARD Fort 10. DuPuis Reserve 19 Lauderdale 11. J.W. Corbett Water Management Area 12. Grassy Waters Preserve 20 13. Okeeheelee Nature Center Miami 14. Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge 15. Wakodahatchee Wetlands/Green Cay Wetlands 16. Six-Mile Cypress Slough 21 MIAMI-DADE Homestead 17. Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed Marsh Management Area MONROE 24 18. Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary 22 19. Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve 20. Big Cypress National Preserve 23 21. Everglades National Park 22. Shark Valley Slough, Everglades National Park 23. Southern Glades Wildlife and Environmental Area 25 24. Biscayne Bay National Park 25. Cape Sable Ecosystem Enhancement Program Florida 26 26. John Pennekamp State Park Bay South Florida Environmental FLORIDA KEYS Areas of Interest Key West Everglades 6 3 Understanding the System The Everglades is a place, a marsh, a region, a watershed, an ecosystem. It is the mirrored glint of sunlight on shallow water that is moving slowly, below a great sweep of sawgrass, toward the sea. Alligator The Everglades is a “river of grass.” The Everglades is much more than the nature preserve at the tip of the Florida peninsula. Before any people lived here, the land had already been carved out by nature. There were droughts and fires, hurricanes and floods, and each played its role in modifying the land that was here when the first people arrived. South Florida is flat. The land along both coasts and most of the land south of White ibis Lake Okeechobee is less than 25 feet above sea level, and elevations throughout South Florida at the highest point are no more than 50 feet above sea level. Consequently, much of the area was a combination of part land and part seawater or freshwater that flowed very, very slowly. Before people arrived, and even still today, there were three major features to South Florida’s water picture. The upper portion of the South Florida ecosystem is made up of a number of lakes and the Kissimmee River. In the middle is Lake Okeechobee. The lower portion is the Everglades. Florida panther The landscape of the Everglades system used to store water naturally. An eastern coastal ridge and a western inland ridge together form a broad, shallow valley, sloping ever so slightly from north to south. South Florida has always been a naturally wet place, and the valley retained most rainfall within the Everglades. We know that the three major characteristics that defined the historic Everglades were: how the water flowed, its large size, and the variety of habitats. White water lily Water connected the system from top to bottom. The pace at which the sheet- Read About It • Look through the newspaper for different kinds of like flow of water moved across the historic Everglades varied, from months to freshwater environments, either pictured or mentioned. years. Water that moved down the flat and level landscape flowed so slowly that, in effect, it was stored during one season for use in another. The Everglades’ Think About It • Why are wetlands important to an environment? all-important long periods of natural flooding depended more on the ability to Read About It • Find examples in the newspaper of actions taken during the process of development. This includes building roads, store water, and on its slow movement, than on the immediate effects of rainfall. cutting trees, constructing new homes, etc. Because of the storage and slow flow in the natural system, summer rains kept wetlands flooded and maintained freshwater flows to coastal estuaries well into Think About It • Discuss the consequences