ABSTRACT
The foregoing pages have dealt primarily with natural history, confining references to human impact on the region’s environments to the introductory pages and the chapters on the Big Cypress and Lake Okeechobee. At this point, we are ready to explore the degradation of the Everglades-how it happened and the plans to fix it. Because the Everglades itself is linked to many other South Florida landscapes, the interrelated Everglades region (or “South Florida Ecosystem” as it is often called) is the framework of this examination. The impacts on southern Florida’s natural systems are evident everywhere. They range from deliberate removal of plants and wildlife to the introduction of exotic plants and animals to the effects of pollutants and toxins to the extensive alterations of the region’s natural hydrology.
