Issues: Wildlands

Located in southern Florida, EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK is the largest remaining subtropical wilderness in the lower forty-eight states. Established in 1947, it now covers 1.5 million acres and is the core of a complex of protected federal lands consisting also of Big Cypress National Preserve, Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, and Biscayne National Park. The best-known natural feature of Everglades National Park is the "River of Grass," so called because of the sawgrass that grows there in abundance, with its six-foot and longer leaves as sharp as saw blades.

The park also contains both fresh and saltwater areas, open prairies, tropical hardwood forests, offshore coral reefs, sloughs and swamps, lakes and ponds, and mangrove forests. A wide variety of wildlife lives there, including the endangered wood stork, egrets, spoonbills, and other aquatic birds as well as mammals like the endangered Florida panther and the endangered American crocodile.

Photo: Kirk Condyles