The Effect of Pesticide Runoffs on the Everglades

However, agriculture is the central issue. While pesticides are being used to keep crops alive, a benefit to farmers, the natural ecosystem is not exactly experiencing the same effect; the ecosystem is being destroyed. An effective way agriculturists can improve on decreasing the amount of pesticides is to use continuous production, where it is reusing the fields, without wasting and hurting them.

The Everglades National Park protects the largest wild life area east of the Mississippi River. The Everglades are the largest remaining sub-tropical wild life area in 48 states sitting on 1.5 million acres preserved at Florida’s tip off shore. The Everglades contain various ecosystems such as rivers, lakes ponds, marshes, etc. These wild life areas feature both fresh and saltwater areas, open prairies, pine rock lands, tropical hardwood forests, offshore coral reefs, and mangrove forests. This paper will summarize how humans contributed to the destruction of the Everglades and how man is working to save the Everglades. Since the Everglades is comprised of both fresh and saltwater areas the vast range of wildlife species in the Everglades include but not limited to reptiles, mammals, aquatic birds, etc. The vast spectrum of wildlife living in the Florida Everglades include but not limited to aquatic animals, mammals, reptiles, etc. Of this vast spectrum of wildlife living in the Florida Everglades there are 56+ species who are either endangered or are in jeopardy of being endangered. The Everglades are home to two National Parks, four National Wildlife Refuges, and one National Marine Sanctuary that bring almost 2 million visitors every year to experience this natural beauty located minutes from Miami Florida. The powerful environmental forces of sun, water, wind, and fire greatly affect the development and lifecycles of these

Maintaining ecological diversity is necessary for the survival of a biological community. In the United States, American citizens are on the verge of irrevocably damaging one of the country's most unique and diverse treasures - the Florida Everglades. This national park is now the only remaining patch of a river that used to span 120 miles from Lake Okeechobee to the Florida Bay. Dikes and levees created by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1940's drained this river to reduce flooding and increase useable water for the development of the region. This major diversion of water lead to a trickle down effect causing the continual decline of the environmental state of the Everglades. Since then, debates over the

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides (NCAP) (Winter 1992). Malathion Insecticide Factsheet. Journal of Pesticide Reform 12(4). Retrieved May 4, 2008, from

The beautiful of the Everglades is simply breathing all the creatures and different plant life is a joyous site to witness. The beauty of the Everglades that past generations has witness isn’t the same that the current generations witness. As the years progress we continue to do more harm to our beloved Everglades. We continue to push our animals to relocate and find new homes because we take away their land for our own personal developments. The population continues to increase and that calls for newer and better developments, more and more of the Everglades is being taking away from plants and animals. This land that is being taken away from the plant and animal species is being turned into communities, shopping plazas, and other new buildings. The Everglades once rumored to be 22,000 square feet has over time become no more than 11,000 square feet. This major drop over years and years is a result of land development. The continuation of taking land away from our animal and plant life in the Everglades can result in horrible consequences. Animals will eventually be forced to find homes somewhere else and we will lose valued plant

The United States is full of amazing habitats for numerous animal species. There are many examples of species that have been eliminated from the American landscape for economic benefit of a few individuals. There are many examples of species hunted and in some cases eradicated, but I believe there is no example that has had as many species affected in a single area as the Florida everglades. The number of available bird species in the everglades made it an ideal location for the mass slaughter of birds for their feathers. Now, and in the future, if people wish to preserve natural spaces, we need to understand how we interact with the environment and how our actions can impact these delicate ecosystems.

The Everglades in South Florida, home of 36 such endangered species such as the American Crocodile and the Florida Panther, slowly continues to diminish. According to the website of the National Wildlife Refuge Association (NWRA), the Everglades played “a crucial role in the lives of Florida’s human residents” (“Everglades”). Since the 1980s, the government established efforts to protect wildlife and vegetation. Organization groups continue planning on restoring the most well-known wetland on Florida soil. In other words, the development of urban communities and agriculture causes a mass increase in pollution and flood watches. The ongoing conservation of the Everglades preserves limited water quality, protect wildlife, and prevent urban development.

The director of the Florida Center for Environmental Studies at Florida Atlantic University, Leonard Berry, told PBS. "This is not a future problem. It’s a current

To assist with conversation, the Everglades have been divided by the government into two regions with two purposes. The northern area is reserved for agriculture, primarily sugarcane, and the lower portion has been turned into a historical national park (“Why Should I..”, 2013). The parts that are not included in the preservation constantly face battles against development and even more destruction; thousands of miles of the Everglades are not included in or protected by it’s natural park status. Only 22 of the 56 endangered species are protected in the national parks (Sart, 2015).

The Everglades is extremely delicate, so even if a rainstorm comes, that could lead to another problem with the water supply. The Everglades gets very contaminated from the fertilizer used to grow sugar cane. In “ Can We Fix the Water Supply, “ it states, “...crop introduces chemicals and excess amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus into the delicate ecosystem.” The amount of problems that are involved in trying to improve the Everglades has it’s costs. All of the problems cost about $8.4 billion! The problem with the water supply is that it is very low and affects many

Everglades, the largest subtropical wetland of North America, has encountered anthropogenic perturbation since the last quarter of 19th century when canals were built and peatlands were drained for economic gain (Godfrey and Catton, 2011). Since then, the system has been exploited, drained, polluted and changed from its natural setup to escalate and widen the potential services from it. The present state is a highly regulated system to buttress economic productivity and fulfill several regional demands. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, one of the world’s largest restoration initiative, aims to restore, protect and preserve the water resources of central and southern Florida (National Research Council, 2014). While the restoration program is built on a foundation of retrospective science backed by several years of sophisticated research on understanding the Everglades and similar ecosystem (Estenoz and Bush, 2015), the human dimension of restoration was not studied adequately(Clarke and Dalrymple, 2003; Kranzer, 2002; National Research Council, 2014). Particularly, the spatial extent of residents’ preference or the heterogeneity of their opinion is important for CERP as the plan aims to restore ecosystem without compromising the present services (e.g. flood control, water for agricultural, urban and industrial uses etc.), which are also spatially related.

The topic of this research paper will be the tree island communities in the Florida Everglades and the different conditions that affect them. While conducting preliminary research on the topic, my hypothesis is that the effect of flooding shortly after a fire will have a positive effect on the tree islands. I believe that the flooding will bring in other resources that have been carried with the current and provide the community with enough resources for healthy growth following the fire. I believe the communities could benefit from have a source of water, instead of having more droughts after the fire.

Human Development is the reason why Florida has water-supply problems. In the nineteenth century, the Everglades submerged more than half of Florida’s 36 million acres in clean, fresh water (43). Our water supply problems commenced when the SFWMD and the Army Corps of Engineers began draining and paving over the everglades in the early twentieth century. With concrete covering the ground, the 150 billion gallons of rainfall received has since been unable to filter down into the ground and replenish the aquifer. Instead that rainfall becomes run-off. The run-off does not return into natural watersheds,

This suggests that the roadsides was once beautiful and bloomed with healthy and lively vegetation; however, they are now destroyed due to the use of pesticides. From these examples, it can be shown that even though pesticide is beneficial, its deadly effects outweigh its benefits; in addition, it is a dangerous substances to the environment, organisms, and even human.

pesticides end up ruining the complete area and stripping it of the natural beauty of the land. The