My first trip to Florida and I needed to take a few days to explore. First stop the Everglades.The Everglades are a natural region of subtropical wetlands in the southern of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large watershed. The Everglades are shaped by water and fire, experiencing frequent flooding in the wet season and drought in the dry season. Writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas popularized the term "River of Grass" to describe the sawgrass marshes, part of a complex system of interdependent ecosystems that include cypress swamps, the estuarine mangrove forests of the Ten Thousand Islands, tropical hardwood hammocks, pine rockland, and the marine environment of Florida Bay.
This seemingly endless sea of grass and "swamp" is occupied by the American alligator and crocodile, otters, the magnificent Florida panther, bobcats, roseate spoonbills, ospreys, snowy egrets, great blue herons, dozens of species of reptiles, and many mammal species. Hundreds of kinds of fish and over three hundred varieties of birds also make the Everglades their home. Small hammocks of raised vegetation that frequently include palms, pine, live oaks, gumbo-limbo trees, and cypress are like little islands in this sea of grass.