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Everglades:
Spanning the southern tip of the Florida peninsula and most of Florida
Bay, Everglades National Park is the only subtropical preserve in North
America. It contains both temperate and tropical plant communities,
including sawgrass prairies, mangrove and cypress swamps, pinelands, and
hardwood hammocks, as well as marine and estuarine environments. The
park is known for its rich bird life, particularly large wading birds,
such as the roseate spoonbill, wood stork, great blue heron and a
variety of egrets. It is also the only place in the world where
alligators and crocodiles exist side by side. Everglades National Park
has been designated a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere
Reserve, and a Wetland of International Importance.
Biscayne
National Park: Some days, Biscayne
Bay's shallow waters are glassy smooth, a window on another world. Other
times, the wind whistles and whips, creating white waves that bite like
teeth at an angry sky. Some days are quiet
and still, the silence broken only by the sound of ocean ripples lapping
at the mangrove-fringed shoreline, the exhalation of a manatee, or a
crab scuttling across the leaf-strewn forest floor. On weekends, the
laughter of children, the sizzle of burgers on a grill, or the "woosh"
of water being cleared from a snorkel takes over. Some
days, the water over the reef is so clear that every detail on the
bottom is visible, and zooming across it on a boat can seem like flying
on air. Then there are blustery days when it is milky with mud stirred
up by wind and wave. Even the 10,000 year
human history of the place reflects its temperamental nature. Idyllic
vignettes of a Tequesta Indian man free-diving for conch from a dugout
canoe, or a Bahamian woman watching the sunset across a tidal creek
after a hard day's work contrast with violent shipwrecks, acts of
piracy, and a long, hard struggle for environmental protection. We
invite you to use this website as a way to test the waters, and hope
that you will plan a visit to immerse yourself in the many moods of
Biscayne National Park.
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