Dick Ring, Superintendent, Everglades National Park

On sultry summer nights, barred owls (Strix varia) shiver the moonlit tassels of bald cypress trees. On windy winter afternoons, the pink feet of wood storks (Mycteria americana) glint in the sun as they pass over the russet marsh. People come from all over the world to catch glimpses of these rare and beautiful birds - in a place that is like no other. Though these scenes still occur, they are becoming more rare. A vigil is being kept for the Everglades. Everglades National Park, which is dedicated to preserving the largest remaining sub-tropical wilderness in the continental United States, also is the most endangered national park in our nation. Its 1,506,539 acres encompass extensive fresh and saltwater areas, open Everglades prairies, and mangrove forests. Because of its unique values, the park is a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, and a Wetland of International Significance - the only U.S. site so recognized.

But national parks are not islands; events beyond their boundaries shape their fates. Everglades NP is part of the south Florida ecosystem that over the last century has been manipulated to suit the changing needs of people. The park has come to symbolize the region's ecosystem in the minds of many people, but south Florida also contains three other NPS units, ten national wildlife refuges, as well as the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary (NOAA). Once a single integrated ecosystem, it is now compartmentalized, degraded, and diminished. Its watershed begins in central Florida's Kissimmee River basin, which historically filled shallow Lake Okeechobee during the summer wet season, sending excess water over the southern rim of the lake and starting a wide, shallow river flowing southward to the Gulf of Mexico. Fifty miles wide in places, one to three feet deep in the sloughıs center but only six inches deep elsewhere, the river moved only hundreds of feet per day across saw grass toward mangrove estuaries on the Gulf Coast and Florida Bay. A six-month winter dry season followed.

Everglades plants and animals are adapted to alternating wet and dry seasons.

Everglades National Park is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles exist side by side. The range of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), above, extends from coastal swamps in the Carolinas to the tip of southern Florida, then west along the Gulf Coast to the mouth of the Rio Grande River. The weight of an alligator in relation to its length varies greatly. An 11 foot 6 inch alligator weighed 591 pounds, but another, measuring 12 feet 1 inch, weighed only 460 pounds. The largest alligator recorded in Florida was 17 feet 5 inches long. The largest recorded was 19 feet 2 inches - in Louisiana.

During the dry season (December to April), when water levels gradually drop, fish and reptiles migrate to deeper pools, where birds, alligators, and other predators concentrate to feed. This abundant food source is vital to many wading birds that nest in the dry season. Spring thunderstorms begin the wet season and as water covers the landscape, wildlife disperses throughout the park. Insects, fish, and alligators repopulate the 'glades, replenishing the food chain. But elaborate water controls now disrupt the natural flow and water cycle, ruining crucial feeding and nesting conditions. Nutrient-heavy runoff from urban and agricultural areas add polluted water to the system. Toxic mercury accumulates in fish. Sea grasses die off. Fewer and fewer wading birds and dwindling numbers of Florida panthers challenge south Floridaıs image of abundance. Short of clean water at critical seasons, and in the correct quantities, the Everglades will die. The question is no longer why we should protect the Everglades but how we should restore it.

Though a return to what flourished a hundred years ago is not possible, much can be done to restore the natural functioning of the greater Everglades watershed. What has been learned from observing the effects of altering the quantity, distribution, timing, and quality of its waters now instructs scientists, engineers, and managers on how to approach replumbing this unique ecosystem. And because restoration of a natural system on this scale has never been attempted, the lessons learned from this pioneering project can help to repair other endangered natural regions around the nation and the world.

The great champion of the Everglades, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, died in 1998 at the age of 108. In accordance with her wishes, her ashes were scattered within Everglades National Park. The 1.3-million acre wilderness area in the park that bears her name is a living memorial to her life and work. Words she wrote in 1948 remain prophetic: "There are no other Everglades in the world. It is a River of Grass."