Markham County Park, Sunrise, Florida
As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. ~ I Samuel 12:23
Do you ever wonder how many really important people you’ve never heard of? People who’ve made significant contributions to our world of one kind or another? This is what God does. He uses these people, whether they know it or not. Whether we know it or not.
Do you have any idea who led the cause for change in the Everglades?
It was a woman and her name was Marjory Stoneman Douglas.
Ever heard of her? We never had, and in fact, I didn’t know until I was actually reading the Everglades National Park brochure. You know the one. They give it to you when you enter the parks and it has maps on it, and a bunch of writing about the flora and fauna, etc. But most of us never read anything but the map. Well, this time I was looking for some information, and I happened to notice her name in tiny letters on a corner of the map. Who’s that and why is her name on a National Park map?
Turns out, she was quite a force in this world during her 108 years. Here’s what I found out from various sources:
Marjory Stoneman Douglas’s 1947 best seller, The Everglades: River of Grass, raised America’s consciousness and transformed the Florida Everglades from an area that was looked upon as a useless swamp – to be drained and developed commercially – to a national park that is seen as a valuable environmental resource to be protected and preserved. After this successful campaign to preserve the Everglades as a national park, Douglas continued her work by founding the Friends of the Everglades, a conservation organization still active today.
Always ahead of her time, Douglas graduated from Wellesley College as an English major in 1912. A few years later, Douglas went to Miami to be a reporter for her father’s newspaper, which later became The Miami Herald. During World War I, she served with the American Red Cross in Europe. After the war, she launched her career as a newspaper editor at her father’s paper. Many of her editorials focused on what she perceived to be Florida’s increasing problem of rapid commercial development. In the 1920s, she left the newspaper to launch a second career as an author. Over the years she published many books and short stories, both fiction and non-fiction – most for adults but several for children – especially focusing on women, the history and life in southern Florida and environmental issues. She also engaged in a number of other campaigns and charity work to improve society: campaigns against slum-lords and for improved housing conditions, for free milk for babies whose parents needed aid, and for the ratification of the Women’s Suffrage Amendment.
Most important, she dedicated her life to preserving and restoring the Everglades. She lived long enough to witness great successes. In 1996, for example, Florida voters passed a constitutional amendment that held polluters primarily responsible for cleaning up the Everglades. And the Florida and federal governments have authorized multimillion-dollar projects to restore and expand the Everglades. In recognition of her tireless and successful struggle, the state of Florida named the headquarters of its Department of Natural Resources after her.
Awarding Mrs. Douglas the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993, President Clinton recognized her achievements. Upon her death in 1998 at the age of 108, President Clinton said: “Long before there was an Earth Day, Mrs. Douglas was a passionate steward of our nation’s natural resources, and particularly her Florida Everglades.”
Her lifetime achievements include work as a civil rights activist, a crusader for women’s rights, a journalist and playwright, and the first Florida woman in the U.S. Naval Reserves. Her book “The Everglades: River of Grass” served to bring public attention at a time when people looked upon the Everglades as little more than a swamp. The book took five years to research, but as she later wrote, it was “an idea that would consume me for the rest of my life.” Mrs. Douglas was one of America’s greatest conservationists and the first editor of Fairchild’s magazine. The existence of the Everglades Nation Park is largely due to her efforts.
That’s all I could find out about this picture.
I’m not sure I even want to know . . . . : )
A life-size sculpture of Mrs. Douglas took over a year to create by sculptor and Fairchild volunteer, Freda Tschumy and was unveiled in April, 2005. Tschumy says that her idea was to “create a teaching device to show that even if you’re not big and strong, even if you’re not young, if you have devotion to an idea, you can make a wonderful difference in the world.”
I noticed that all the information I came across about her never mentioned a husband, yet she was usually called “Mrs. Douglas”. It didn’t take me long to find out why he was never mentioned.
Marjory Stoneman met Kenneth Douglas in 1914. She was so impressed with his manners and surprised at the attention he showed her that she married him within three months. He portrayed himself as a newspaper editor, and was 30 years her senior, but the marriage quickly failed when it became apparent he was a con artist. The true extent of his duplicity Marjory did not entirely reveal, despite her honesty in all other matters. Douglas was married to Marjory while already married to another woman. While he spent six months in jail for passing a bad check, she remained faithful to him. His scheme to scam her absent father out of money worked in Marjory’s favor when it attracted her father’s attention. He convinced her to divorce the man and move to Florida to be near her father.
The article on the brochure that caught my eye?
South Florida is one of the nation’s fastest growing urban areas with six million residents. It is also home to a remarkable wilderness. The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness Area.
More recently, a high school in Florida that was named after her, was the victim of a school shooting on Valentine’s Day 2018 in which 17 died and another 17 were wounded. Know where this school is? Parkland. And now students at Marjory’s namesake are waging their own campaign for change. What a legacy she left behind!
We went off the grid today. Once you get past the Visitor Center at the Main Entrance to Everglades National Park, there is absolutely no service available. I don’t know what you do if you need help. Same thing they used to do 20 years ago – figure it out, or rely on someone else to help or get help.
Best to not get yourself into that kind of situation in the first place. 😊
We started out early again, but this time, we tried avoiding the turnpike. Didn’t work out so well today either. It also turned out to be a 1 ½ hour stressful drive. There was lots of traffic zipping between lanes and lots of stop lights! And according to our gps, the longer we drove, the further away our destination became . . . .
We made it eventually.
The Park has several paddle trails, and I had researched two of them. One in particular – Nine Mile Pond Canoe Trail – seemed to be a favorite, and after speaking with a Park Ranger, he confirmed that if he could only choose one, he’d choose this one. So, map in hand (which also included some points of interest), off we went.
Even though it’s called “9-mile”, the trail is only 4.5 if you do the entire thing. There’s a shortcut you can take that takes off 1 ½ miles, but since we’d easily accomplished a 3.2 miler yesterday at Pennekamp, we didn’t expect any problems adding another mile today.
Boy were we wrong!
The first part – up to the shortcut – was wonderful and exciting . . . .
The video data size was too large, so I had to cut it in half.
This was a little scary. He wasn’t moving away. We did sit for a bit, expecting him to disappear, but he didn’t. Then we thought, once we moved toward him he would move, but he still didn’t! Not until the last second! Whew!
Quite an adventure! We certainly didn’t want to get lost out here and it would be very easy to do!
. . . . and much like we expected. (Well, except for the gator!) In fact, we did well, right up until we came to the “Sea of Breadsticks”. This was a beige colored algae mat, periphyton, surrounds many of the rushes, creating a rich supply of food for apple snails, small fish, and tadpoles. During droughts, the “breadstick” algae can store water and provide refuge to the eggs and larvae of a new generation of Everglades dwellers.
The other thing the Ranger should have warned us about, was the tiny fine print on the side of the map that says, low water levels in late February through May can make the trail difficult or impassable. Check with a Ranger.
Well, I sorta thought I did that when I asked him about the trails we were considering!
Apparently, they were experiencing low water levels, because for the additional 1 ½ miles, we fought harder than we’ve ever paddled in order to get through it. Unfortunately, the Breadsticks and lower water level didn’t occur until well after the shortcut, and unfortunately we didn’t know how big the Sea actually was. Had we known it was as big as an actual sea (or seemed like it!), we’d’ve turned around!
Oh. My. Gosh. There was soooooooooo much drag on us, it was all we could do to move forward! As Blaine so eloquently worded it, “This is like paddling through pudding!” And not only that, but it was full, blazing sun with no hope of shade and the temperature was in the upper 80’s! Our entire bodies ached. Every stitch of clothing (both layers) was soaking wet. Fortunately, we’d packed plenty of water.
Not fun! Since I was the first, I got to knock down all the morning webs! At least I didn’t actually see any spiders, but truthfully, I was doing my best not to look. Just in case . . . Ugh!!
He did. : )
We were sooo excited when we saw the Jeep!!!
I now understand kissing the ground, but I was too tired to bend over. . .
As we packed up the boat and then climbed into the air-conditioned Jeep, moaning and groaning and sighing and thoroughly exhausted – even to the point of not being hungry! -, Blaine made another note-worthy statement, “The memories will outlast the pain.” Amen! Thanks for the reminder!
And we pleasantly realized that despite our trials and tribulations, we still managed to do the 4-5 hour trek in only 3 ½ hours! Maybe we should’ve slowed down? But no. As it is, Blaine’s lips are sunburned and I also took on too much sun – even though we slathered on a second coat of sunscreen about halfway along, donned long sleeves over our tees and wore hats.
Blaine then drove us to the far south border of the Park – Flamingo – where we plopped down on a shaded sea wall at a dock and watched manatees play while we ate our lunch. Now that’s a good memory! 😊
It’s 38 miles from Flamingo back to where we entered the Park this morning. Along the way, there are several stops you can make – various trails, kayak launching sites, etc. We chose a few and stopped to walk around. It’s so nice they have a sign at each one telling you how long the trails are! We didn’t have the wherewithal to do much walking. They were all either .2 or .4 mile loops with mostly shade, otherwise we would have left. It felt good to walk though.
I will say – it’s pretty. : )
So how come I look so much thinner in the previous picture???
There was one thing we missed that we really wanted to do. They have a Nike Missile Site HM-69 here that’s a Ranger-led-only tour. The Park preserve houses one of the best preserved relics of the Cold War in Florida. The missile base remains virtually the same as it was when official use of the site was terminated in 1979. That would’ve been really cool to see! I suppose it’s possible we’ll return before we leave, and if we do, I’m sure I’ll have much more to say about it. 😊
Here’s some information about The Everglades for those of you who are like me and enjoy learning new stuff.
From the Park brochure:
The Everglades are the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. Everglades National Park protects an unparalleled landscape that provides important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species like the manatee, American crocodile, and the elusive Florida panther.
It’s an international treasure as well; being designated as a World Heritage Site, International Biosphere Reserve, a Wetland of International Importance, and a specially protected area under the Cartagena Treaty.
When the early explorers first viewed the Everglades long ago, they saw large fields of grass. So they began to call it the Ever-Glades: Ever from the word forever & Glades which is an old English word that means a grassy open place.
For over 100 years people dredged, dammed, and drained the landscape, controlling the ebb and flow of this life-giving force. In the 1800s and early 1900s, non-Indians moved to the area and viewed this wetland as a worthless swamp. Dams, floodgates, canals, levees, and roads were built, diverting precious water from natural wetlands, reducing freshwater flow to productive estuaries, creating land for agriculture, growing communities and setting the state for ecological problems. The National Park was created in 1947, but outside its boundaries people were waging war on the wetland. It seems that Florida is now recognizing the importance of this wetland area and they’re making changes to help return it to the valuable resource it once was.
Now let’s talk pythons.
I couldn’t find anything official, but I suspect they’re named after the country of Burma (aka Myanmar) which is in SE Asia. Once again, my information comes from a variety of sources that I put together.
Burmese pythons, with their beautifully patterned skin, rapid growth rate, and generally docile disposition, may be best known as the large snake of choice among reptile owners. Unfortunately these potentially huge constrictors are often poorly cared for and are frequently released into the wild. Attacks on handlers, sometimes deadly, are not uncommon.
Size and Behavior
Native to the jungles and grassy marshes of Southeast Asia, Burmese pythons are among the largest snakes on Earth. They are capable of reaching 23 feet or more in length and weighing up to 200 pounds with a girth as big as a telephone pole. When young, they will spend much of their time in the trees. However, as they mature and their size and weight make tree climbing unwieldy, they transition to mainly ground-dwelling. They are also excellent swimmers, and can stay submerged for up to 30 minutes before surfacing for air.
Diet and Hunting
Burmese pythons are carnivores, surviving primarily on small mammals and birds. They have poor eyesight, and stalk prey using chemical receptors in their tongues and heat-sensors along the jaws. They kill by constriction, grasping a victim with their sharp teeth, coiling their bodies around the animal, and squeezing until it suffocates. They have stretchy ligaments in their jaws that allow them to swallow all their food whole and can stretch as much as five times as wide as it’s own head. They move relatively slowly with a top speed of only about 1 mph.
Reproduction and Conservation
Burmese pythons are solitary animals and are generally only seen together during spring mating. Females lay clutches of up to 100 eggs, which they incubate for two to three months. To keep their eggs warm, they continually contract, or shiver, their muscles.
And when they hatch, the babies are already about 2-feet long. Once hatched, the mother leaves and the baby is on it’s own. They can grow to 6-feet within 6 months.
COMMON NAME: Burmese Python
SCIENTIFIC NAME: Python bivitattus
TYPE: Reptiles
DIET: Carnivores
AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IN THE WILD: 20 to 25 years
SIZE: 16 to 23 ft
WEIGHT: Up to 200 lbs
SIZE RELATIVE TO A 6-FT MAN:
Pythons are not venomous. Instead, they kill their prey by locking it in their jaws, which boast powerful, backward-facing teeth, then crushing it in their coils. They then swallow it whole.
Their success is due to their ability to gorge on huge meals – and then go without food for months.
After a big kill, the snake’s insides remodel themselves to cope with such a feast. Their heart grows in size to produce more blood for digestion, extra stomach acid is produced and the intestines rearrange themselves.
They’re native to Southeast Asia where their numbers are near threatened due to exportation. U.S. Fish and Wildlife records show 99,000 Burmese Pythons were imported between 1996-2006 (there were only 17,000 between 1970-1995).
Plus they’re being captive bred here and sold young as pets. Many people who buy them, don’t realize the responsibility they’ve taken on, so they sell them or release them illegally into the wild.
Speculation as to the start of the Burmese population in the Everglades is either illegal release and/or escape following Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
How bad is the infestation of Burmese Pythons? The South Florida Water Management District Governing Board has taken aggressive action to protect the Everglades and eliminate invasive pythons from its public lands. Starting in March 2017, the Python Elimination Program incentivized a limited number of public-spirited individuals to humanely euthanize these destructive snakes, which have become an apex predator in the Everglades. The program provides access to python removal agents on designated SFWMD lands in Miami-Dade, Broward, Collier and Palm Beach counties.
This is what happens when the weather prohibits us from spending much time outdoors. I start to work on the blog and end up spending hours researching. At the time I was writing, it was blistering hot down here with temperatures in the upper eighties, so we were voluntarily confined to quarters. Especially since Blaine’s lips are really bad. No time in the sun for a while! Poor thing!