One Week Left! The Adventure Continues!
I type this while sitting in a motel in a small town named Everglades City. Home of a vast stone crab industry, more osprey per acre than anywhere else I have ever visited, and gateway to the Gulf side of Everglades National Park.
With exactly 1 week to go until the launch of Treasure of Biscayne Bay!!! (AHH!!!) I’m exploring another National Park. Two parks, in fact. (More on that later.) Everglades has the distinction of being the first park ever founded with the primary focus being to preserve the wildlife.
Not a bird, but another friend stopped by to say “hi!”
Parks like Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, and Devils Tower were all established to preserve magnificent natural features. (and wildlife to be sure, but that wasn’t the primary draw.) Parks like Fort Jefferson National Monument and Gettysburg were established to preserve areas, or structures of historical importance. But Everglades was different. The vast, meandering, River of Grass is beautiful in it’s own way. As are the towering Cypress swamps. But the impetus for pushing to preserve the Everglades didn’t come from a desire to save the swamp, but the creatures which live within and around it.
The idea for Everglades National Park was taking shape as a grander movement was becoming aware of the damage we could do, not just to beautiful features, but to the creatures which live within them. In Everglades, that was, primarily, birds. A common practice of bird feather hats had actually driven some birds, like the Ivory Billed woodpecker, to extinction. And pushed others, like the Flamingo, the white ibis, the white Pelican, and more, to the brink of extinction, along with the Florida Panther, and others. This wasn’t just bad for birders, it was also bad for the ecology, food webs, food chains, either analogy should make it clear that removing some parts can vastly affect the whole.
Of course, the more we learn, the more we realize how much was saved by places like the Everglades and Big Cypress. The natural flow of freshwater through the River of Grass is of vital importance to Southern Florida, and the fishing, tourism, and other industries that rely on a healthy and stable coastal ecosystem. The establishment of the parks has helped to preserve adventuresome practices as well, hiking, kayaking, fishing, and (in Big Cypress) even ATV-ing and hunting.
These places become awesome monuments to the wonders of nature, (not just the natural features but also the living wonders) but they also become opportunities to step outside of the everyday, to explore, and to find a bit of personal adventure. Of course, they can become everyday too. I was fortunate enough to live in several National Parks, and really they feel like home.
But whether you are a day visitor, a repeat visitor who has a favorite fishing spot, a ranger, or someone who hasn’t had the opportunity, yet, to visit some of the coolest places that the US has to offer, the whole point of the Junior Rangers Investigative Club is to share some of those places (through the lens of intrigue and mystery) with you.
Next week, a new chapter in the story of the Junior Rangers Investigative Club releases! I get to share another park, full of awesome history and nature with you! And there are more to come! I’m doing that research now!
So, Stay tuned, I’ll have all the links available to get Treasure of Biscayne Bay, available here next week. (and on the home page, and all of my social media, and probably in places I haven’t even planned yet.) But stay tuned beyond that, because I am not done yet! The adventures of the Junior Rangers Investigative Club is only just beginning!
