![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() All that was needed was to remake the place entirely-drain the swamps, build vast canals and railroads, divide it into cozy lots. Yet huge quantities of freshwater slowly roll down the Everglades as Grunwald writes, “a raindrop that fell in its headwaters in central Florida could have taken an entire year to dribble down to its estuaries at the tip of the peninsula.” Nineteenth-century white explorers damned the “Sea of Grass” for its heat, mosquitoes, vast store of reptiles, renegade Indians and runaway slaves, but speculators and capitalists came along who recognized a couple of salient facts: Rich in organic peat, the Everglades could be an agricultural paradise, and it could sustain whole cities. The natural Everglades encompasses an area twice the size of New Jersey, and it lacks both immediately spectacular features and elevation: One “pass” there is marked at a mere three feet above sea level. A lively appreciation of the Everglades as an ecosystem worthy of care and protection-quite a turnaround in attitude, as Washington Post reporter Grunwald reveals. ![]()
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