The Park Catalog is donating part of sales of recycled plastic benches and other products to the Everglades Foundation for Earth Da
Many people think the Everglades covering the southern half of Florida is nothing more than a massive swamp filled with alligators, mosquitoes and Burmese pythons. But it's so much more. And there are groups such as the Everglades Foundation doing their best to protect this precious and unique ecosystem.
Here are a few important and interesting facts about this unique land mass compiled by the Everglades Foundation and other sources:
- The Everglades are more than just Everglades National Park. The ecosystem actually covers millions of acres stretching from Orlando and the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee down to Florida Bay by the Florida Keys. Everglades National Park only makes up about 1.5 million acres, or 20% of the original Everglades area.
- Yes the Everglades is actually a river - a slow moving "River of Grass" as author Marjory Stoneman Douglas called it, about 60 miles wide and 100 miles long that flows over a limestone shelf.
- The fact that it is wet is a good thing. About One out of every Three Floridians depends on the Everglades for their supply of water. One year the Everglades experienced a wicked drought. When that happened, people in Miami started noticing their water was becoming higher in salinity. That's because the normally saturated Everglades supplies the groundwater that quenches the thirst of millions of Floridians.
- People might think that with the heat and the mosquitoes, that essentially the Everglades are uninhabitable. (In fact, when star adventurer Bear Grylls parachuted into the Everglades for one of his TV shows, he said, "I have never been this scared in my life."). However, scientists say people have carved out a living in the Everglades for the past 15,000 years.
- Some of the Native American tribes that called the Everglades home include the Calusa, Tequesta and Seminole tribes. The Seminoles referred to the region as the "Pahaokee" or "Grassy Waters."
- Want to live like Tarzan in the tropics for a while? No need to go to the Amazon. The Everglades is the LARGEST subtropical wetland ecosystem in North America.
- Know who else lives there? Some of the more prevalent creatures include alligators, Florida panthers, rabbits, raccoon, deer and yes, those pesky invasive pythons. There's also more than 67 threatened or endangered species.
- In fact, this is the only place in the world where both the American Alligator and the American Crocodile live together.
- There are lots of visiting species as well, such as the Burmese python. As a matter of fact, 26% of birds, fish, reptiles and animals in the Everglades are exotic and came from somewhere else. They actually tend to thrive in the Everglades environment. It is the largest collection of exotic species in America. As for plants, the Everglades hosts one of the most exotic displays in the world.
- Birds love to call the Everglades home. Once there were so many they would turn the sky black. But in the 1900s, birds there were hunted for their feathers, at the time worth more than the price of gold. It is estimated that five million birds there were killed to supply the demand.
- The Everglades are not just a swamp. In fact, there's a variety of land formations there - sawgrass marshes, sloughs, ponds, tropical hardwood hammocks, cypress tree swamps, mangrove forests and pine rockland.
- Another fact most people don't realize, but with a series of canals and drainage programs, about 50% of the original Everglades has been transformed into either farmland or urban areas. This ecosystem was literally twice the size it is now.
- Everglades National Park was created in 1934 and was officially dedicated by President Harry S.Truman on Dec. 6, 1947 (notice how he picked a winter month). The park covers nearly 2,400 square miles. In 2014, it was the 20th most popular national park in the US with more than 1 million visitors. It's also open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.
"Here are no lofty peaks seeking the sky, no mighty glaciers or rushing streams wearing away the uplifted land," said Truman. "Here is land, tranquil in its quiet beauty, serving not as the source of water, but as the last receiver of it. To its natural abundance we owe the spectacular plant and animal life that distinguishes this place from all others in our country."
The mission behind the Everglades Foundation
Sounds like a great place. Here's the problem. This massive ecosystem is constantly being challenged with pollution from areas around Florida. The Everglades is not a stagnant mass of water, but actually a slow moving river. A gigantic amount of water from the north flows down to the Everglades in the south and brings with it a whole slew of pollutants that are having a very negative impact on the water, plant life, birds, fish and animals.
For that reason the Everglades Foundation was formed. Their mission is to improve the water quality, provide water storage and restore the flow of water than once marked the original structure of the Everglades.
"We need to clean the water, take out the fertilizer and build marshes that are designed to clean the water as it flows south," said Dr. Tom Van Lent on the foundation's website. He is a senior scientist at the foundation.
This is a massive undertaking. But it will have a massive effect on the lives of people now living in the third most populous state in the country.
There are so many parties involved - environmentalists, farmers, Congress, ranchers, sugar growers, local and state politicians, fishermen, scientists and the public in general.
The foundation employs of team of scientists and awards fellowships and internships to help with research on hydrology, ecology, water quality, planning and other areas.
Involvement in restoration projects is also a key mission for the foundation. The group is heavily involved in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan enacted by Congress, the most expensive restoration program in America. Another project is helping to solve the problem of polluted water continually leaving Lake Okeechobee and flowing into canals and eventually the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, causing major damage to estuaries, lagoons, rivers and eventually the ocean along the way.
The organizers have also created a very interesting challenge to take on the problem of phosphorous pollution that not only affects the Everglades, but other regions around the world. It's called the George Barley Water Prize. The award offered is up to $10 million to scientists or entrepreneurs who can create a solution to this planet-threatening problem.
Another service provided by the Everglades Foundation is ongoing education about this amazing ecosystem. They provide Teacher Tool Kits for example, to educate students about this land mass and hopefully get them involved in its protection when they reach adulthood.
The foundation also organizes a large number of reports highlighting the many benefits of the Everglades. For example, they cite one study that indicates there is about $1.2 billion in annual economic activity generated for recreational and sport fishing in the 13-county Everglades region. That is one gigantic reason in itself to protect this precious ecosystem.
"Everglades restoration is like trying to assemble the world's largest, most complex, eco-oriented jigsaw puzzle," said Van Lent. "Just when you think you have all the pieces, you realize you need help identifying other pieces of the puzzle so you can complete the picture without missing something critical."
The Everglades Foundation certainly has the support of some heavy hitters. Jimmy Buffet, Jack Nicklaus are some of the more well-known Floridians who participate on their board of directors.
The Park Catalog makes donation from sale of recycled plastic benches
Recycled plastic bench and trash receptacle. A portion of sale from now until end of May goes to support the Everglades Foundation
Because the Everglades is such a valuable natural resource and because there is a great group of folks at the Everglades Foundation working to protect it, in celebration of Earth Day on April 22, The Park and Facilities Catalog plans to donate a portion of proceeds from the sale of their recycled plastic benches, recycled plastic picnic tables and recycled plastic trash receptacles to the Everglades Foundation.
"We're proud to be involved with such a dedicated effort by the foundation to preserving South Florida's natural resources and wildlife," said Andy Kowalczyk, The Park Catalog's Business Development Marketing Manager. "We also encourage other businesses to find a way to get involved or donate a portion of their sales to help their efforts in this vital undertaking."
When it comes to preserving the environment, purchasing products made from the reuse of plastic bottles and milk jugs helps completes the cycle that you see in the triangular recycling symbol with the arrows. That cycle starts with the Gathering of discarded plastic products. Then it moves to the Manufacturing of new products with those materials rather than use precious natural resources. Finally, the third step is the Purchase of recycled plastic products. This completes the recycling loop.
There's little benefit to collecting all those plastic bottles if people and businesses are not buying items made with recycled plastic. Now, when you purchase recycled plastic benches, picnic tables or trash cans from The Park Catalog until the end of May, you not only place those recycled products back in circulation, you are also helping out a great cause.
For more information about the fantastic work they are doing, click on the Everglades Foundation.
Click here for recycled plastic outdoor furniture and commercial site furnishings by The Park Catalog.