Florida Bay and the Coastal Prairie
When you reach Flamingo, a former fishing village and now a center for visitor services and accommodations, you will be on the shore of Florida Bay. Here is an [environment] rich in variety of animal life, where porpoises play, the American crocodile makes its last stand, and the great white heron, once feared doomed to extinction, holds its own. The abundance of game fish in the bay has given it a reputation as one of the best sport-fishing grounds on the east coast.
The bay’s approximately 100 [keys] (low-lying islets) were built up by [mangroves] and provide foothold for other plants hardy enough to withstand the salty [environment] and the sometimes violent winds. The keys are also a breeding ground for water birds, ospreys, and bald eagles.
Florida Bay, larger than some of our States, is so shallow that at low tide some of it is out of water; its greatest depth is about 9 feet. The shallows and mudflats attract great numbers of wading birds, which feed upon the abundant life sheltered in the seaweeds—a plant-and-animal [community] nourished by nutrients carried in the waters flowing from the glades and [mangroves].
To the west beyond Flamingo is Cape Sable. This near-island includes the finest of the park’s beaches and much of the coastal prairie ecosystem. A fringe of coconut palms along the beach could be the remnants of early attempts at a plantation on the cape that did not survive the hurricanes; or it could be the result of the sprouting of coconuts carried by currents from Caribbean plantations and washed up on the cape. For a time, casuarina trees (called “Australian pines”), which became established on Cape Sable after Hurricane Donna, seemed to threaten the [ecology] of the beach. But these invaders were mostly removed in 1971, and now appear to be under control.
Examine the “sand” of this beach. You will discover that it is not quartz grains—but mostly minute shell fragments. Entire shells of the warm-water molluscs that live offshore also wash up on the beach. There are also artifacts that speak of Indian activity in this area in past centuries, curled centers of conch shells from which the pre-Columbian Indians fashioned tools, and numerous pieces of pottery (potsherds). Both shells and potsherds tempt the collector. Shelling—that is, the collecting of dead shells, for noncommercial purposes—is permitted. But Federal law prohibits the removal of even a fragment of pottery—for these are invaluable Indian relics, essential to continuing scientific investigation of the human history of the region.
FLORIDA BAY AND THE COASTAL PRAIRIE
(elevation: sea level to 2 feet above sea level)
FLORIDA BAY 1 RED-MANGROVE 2 BLACK-MANGROVE 3 WHITE-MANGROVE 4 BUTTONWOOD 5 CABBAGE PALMETTO 6 HURRICANE-KILLED BLACK-MANGROVES 7 FIG 8 POISONWOOD CROCODILE GREAT WHITE HERON REDDIS EGRET COCONUT PALM SUCCULENTS GRASSES SEDGES WATERWAY [MARL] PRAIRIE
Back from the narrow beach is a drier zone of grasses and other low-growing vegetation. Some of the plants of this zone, such as the railroad vine, are so salt-tolerant that in places they grow almost to the water’s edge. (No plant that is extremely sensitive to salty soil could survive on Cape Sable.) Beyond the grassy zone is a zone of hardwoods (buttonwood, gumbo-limbo, Jamaica dogwood), cactuses, yucca, and other plants forming a transition from beach to coastal prairie.
Birds provide much of the visual excitement of the beach [community], just as they do in other parts of the park. Sandpipers, pelicans, gulls, egrets, ospreys, and bald eagles use it and the bordering waters for feeding, nesting, and resting. Mammals, notably raccoons, stalk the beach in search of food. And the big loggerhead turtle depends on it for nesting. In late spring and early summer the female loggerhead hauls herself up on the beach and digs a hole above hightide mark. There she deposits about 100 ping-pong balls—which should hatch out into baby loggerheads. Unfortunately for this marine reptile, however, most of them meet another fate. Hardly has the female turtle covered the eggs with sand and started back toward the water, than they are dug up and devoured by raccoons and other [predators]. These conditions created such high mortality of the turtles that the National Park Service has adopted special protective measures—removing some of the raccoons and erecting wire barriers around turtle nests. These measures have been effective, but continued surveillance is required if the loggerhead is not to disappear from Florida.
THE FLAMINGO AREA
An abundance of raccoons and other [predators] is not the only threat to survival of the loggerhead turtle. A major factor in its decline is the serious depletion of its nesting [habitat]. Park visitors are prohibited from interfering with these reptiles. Cape Sable beach is today virtually the only wild beach in South Florida, thanks to its inclusion in [Everglades] National Park. At present, visitors can reach it only by boat. But it would be foolhardy to take it for granted that the beach will remain unspoiled. Its potential as an attraction is such that someone not ecologically aware might believe that access for motorists would be an improvement. Roads, however, would bring increased pressure on the ecosystem by large numbers of visitors, and demands for further development, for lodging, meals, and other services seem always to go with automobiles. With continued protection from such encroachments, Cape Sable Beach will remain a unique wilderness resource and will not become just another recreational facility.
Merging with the beach is the coastal prairie, an ecosystem supporting red and black [mangroves], grasses, and other plants tolerant of the very salty [environment]. Hardwood [hammocks] have developed here on Indian shell mounds, but the trees are stunted by the saline soils. Though there is no lack of water on the cape, much of the region appears arid because hurricane-lashed tides have deposited soils of [marl] and debris so salt-laden that only sparse vegetation develops.
Big Cypress [Swamp]
To the west of the great fresh-water [marsh] called the [everglades], lying almost entirely outside the park, is an ecosystem vitally linked to the park. Big Cypress [Swamp] is a vast, shallow basin that includes practically all of Collier County. It is commonly called “The Big Cypress”—not because of the size of its trees, but because of its extent. Most of the baldcypresses (which are not true cypresses) are small trees, growing in open to dense stands throughout the area. The swamp is watered by about 50 inches of annual rainfall, the runoff from which flows as a sheet and in [sloughs] south and west to meet the coastal strip of [mangroves] and low sand dunes.
Big Cypress is speckled with low [limestone] outcrops, cut with shallow [sloughs] 1 to 2 feet deep, and dotted with ponds and wet prairies. As in the [everglades], fire and water maintain the character of the plantlife in this swampy realm of sunlight and shadow. Also as in the everglades, a difference of a few inches in elevation creates different [communities]. Tropical hardwood [hammocks] grow on rocky outcrops. In the depressions arise bayheads and clumps of pond apple, pop ash, and willow. The larger baldcypress trees grow in shallow sloughs, which are usually surrounded by prairies of sawgrass and maiden cane growing on slightly higher land. Although the several different plant communities resemble those in the glades, they support slightly different plants, because of the sandy soil (there being more quartz in the limestone under Big Cypress than in the park).
These baldcypresses, many measuring 3 to 6 feet in diameter, were heavily lumbered from 1930 to 1950. Today, few giant trees survive, but a sizable stand exists on the Norris Tract—so named for its conservation-minded donor—which forms the nucleus of Corkscrew [Swamp] Sanctuary. Here, protected by the National Audubon Society, are baldcypresses 130 feet tall; some have a girth of 25 feet! A boardwalk more than one-half mile long enables you to enjoy the beauty of this wild preserve without getting your feet wet.
CYPRESS STRAND
WET PRAIRIE TROPICAL HARDWOOD [HAMMOCK] WET PRAIRIE 1 SOUTH FLORIDA SLASH PINE 2 BALDCYPRESS 3 POP ASH 4 ROYAL PALM AIR PLANT
Large stands of baldcypress, called “strands,” support small [communities] such as ponds, prairies, and tropical [hammocks]. One such hammock is famous for the finest stand of royal palms remaining in south Florida. The largest cypress strand—the Fakahatchee—extends some 23 miles north and south a few miles east of Naples.
Big Cypress [Swamp] is the home of wild turkey, bobcat, deer, and an occasional Florida panther. The fish-eating otter plays in its waterways. Most of the birds found in the [everglades] also are found in the trees and waterways of Big Cypress, because the swamp has an abundance of food. The area is so rich in wildlife and edible plants that the Seminole Indians formerly lived entirely off its products.
BOBCAT WHITE-TAILED DEER OTTER
The eastern edge of the big [swamp] and its importance to [Everglades] National Park came to worldwide attention in 1969 when it was selected as the site for the proposed Miami International Jetport. According to plans, this was to be the biggest airport in the world, covering 39 square miles and handling 65 million passengers a year. Millions of persons were expected to make their home in and around the jetport. Such a threat to the national park, into which the waters of Big Cypress partly drain, provoked protest letters from all over the world. Most writers objected on the grounds that Everglades belongs to all and that a jetport here would seal the doom of the park. Congress acted in 1974 by establishing Big Cypress National Preserve to help protect the water supply to Everglades National Park.
PLANT-AND-ANIMAL [COMMUNITIES]
To know [Everglades], you must become acquainted with some of its diverse [communities]. The physical conditions determining the existence of a particular community may seem subtle—just a few inches difference in elevation, or an accumulation of [peat] in a depression in the [limestone] bedrock, for example. But often, the change in your surroundings as you step from one community to another is startling—for it is abrupt and complete. In Everglades, the dividing line between two [habitats] may separate an almost entirely different association of plants and animals.
Use the trails that have been laid out to help you see the [communities]. They make access easy for you; the rest is up to you. Be observant: notice the stemlike root of a saw-palmetto in a damp pothole of the pineland; look closely at the periphyton that plays such an important role in the glades [food chain]. Note the difference in feeding methods of wading birds; each species has its own niche in the [habitat]. Most of all, get into the habit of thinking of each animal, each plant, as a member of the closely woven web of life that makes up an integrated community.
Tropical Hardwood [Hammock]
Generally, in south Florida, hardwood [hammocks] develop only in areas protected from fire, flood, and saline waters. The land must be high enough (1 to 3 feet above surrounding levels) to stand above the water that covers the glades much of the year. The roots of the trees must be out of the water and must have adequate aeration. In the park, these conditions prevail on the [limestone] “ridge” (elevation of which ranges from 3 to 7 feet above sea level) and some spots in the glades region. On the limestone ridge, in areas bypassed by fires for a long period, hammocks have developed. Pines grow in the surrounding areas, where repeated fires have held back the hardwoods.
The moats that tend to form around glades [hammocks], as acids from decaying plant materials dissolve the [limestone], hold water even during the dry season; the moats thus act as barriers protecting the hammock vegetation from glades fires.
When the white man took over southern Florida, these [hammocks] were luxuriant jungle islands dominated by towering tropical hardwoods and palms. Stumps and logs on the floors of some of the remaining hammocks, attesting to the enormous size of some of the earlier trees, are sad reminders of the former grandeur of the hammocks. While most of south Florida’s hammocks have been destroyed, you can still see some fine ones protected in the park. At Royal Palm Hammock, near park headquarters, Gumbo Limbo Trail winds through a dim, dense forest with welcome coolness on a hot day.
Stepping into a jungle [hammock] from either the sunbathed glades or the open pine forest is a sudden, dramatic change. The contrast when you enter Gumbo Limbo Trail immediately after walking the Anhinga Trail is striking. While the watery world of Anhinga is dominated by a noisy profusion of wildlife, the [environment] of Gumbo Limbo will seem to be a mere tangle of vegetation. But the jungle hammock, too, has its [community] of animals—even though you may notice none but mosquitoes. Many of its denizens are nocturnal in their habits, but if you remain alert you will observe birds, invertebrates, and perhaps a lizard.
TREE SNAILS
There are 52 color forms of Liguus fasciatus found in south Florida.
Liguus fasciatus pseudopictus
Liguus fasciatus pictus
Liguus fasciatus ornatus
The trees that envelop you as you walk on Gumbo Limbo Trail are mostly tropical species; of the dominant trees, only the live oak (which grows as far north as Virginia) can be considered non-tropical. Under oaks and tropical bustics, poisonwood, mastics, and gumbo-limbos grow small trees such as tetrazygia, rough-leaf velvetseed, and wild coffee, a multitude of mosses and ferns, and only a few species of shade-tolerant flowering plants. Orchids and air plants burst like sun stars from limbs, trunks, and fallen logs. Twining among them all, the woody vines called lianas enhance the jungle atmosphere. Adding a final touch are the royal palms that here and there tower over the hardwood canopy—occasionally reaching 125 feet.
TROPICAL HARDWOOD [HAMMOCK]
PINELAND SOUTH FLORIDA SLASH PINE BUSTIC GUMBO-LIMBO SOLUTION HOLE POND APPLE AIR PLANTS (ORCHIDS, [BROMELIADS]) ROYAL PALM LIVE OAK MASTIC VINES PINELAND SAW-PALMETTO
The [limestone] rock that underlies the entire park is porous and soluble; consequently the floor of the [hammock] is pitted with solution holes dissolved by the acid from decaying vegetation. Soil and [peat] accumulating in the water-filled bottom of one of these holes supports a plant [community] of its own: perhaps a pond apple, surrounded by ferns and mosses (including some varieties that seem to be limited to this pothole [environment]).
A dead, decaying log on the ground may support another miniature plant [community]—a carpet of mosses, ferns, and other small plants that thrive in such moist situations.
Strangest of the [hammock] plants is the strangler fig, which first gets a foothold in the rough bark of a live oak, cabbage palm, or other tree. It then sends roots down to the ground, entwining about the host tree as it grows, and eventually killing it. On the Gumbo Limbo Trail you will see a strangler fig that grew in this manner and was enmeshed by another strangler fig—which now is [threatened] by a third fig that already has gained a foothold in its branches.
Best known of the glades [hammocks] is Mahogany Hammock. A boardwalk trail in this lush, junglelike [tree island] leads past the giant mahogany tree for which the hammock was named—now, because of Hurricane Donna, a dismembered giant. This fine tree island was explored only after the park was established.
An array of large and small vertebrate animals, mostly representative of the Temperate Zone, populates these tropical hardwood jungles: raccoons and opossums, many varieties of birds, snakes and lizards, tree frogs, even bobcats and the rare Florida panther, or cougar. Not surprisingly, invertebrates—including insects and snails—abound in this luxuriant plant [community]. The tropical influence is evident in the presence of invertebrates such as tree snails of the genus Liguus, known outside of Florida only in Hispaniola and Cuba.