In Persia there is a proverb about a bug in a rug. This bug spent his whole life scurrying around the rug, living off crumbs people dropped in it. If the bug had been able to rise above the rug he would have seen that his life did have a pattern. He was living in the most beautiful rug that had ever been woven. Sometimes, like the bug in the rug, we don’t stand back and see the overall picture. According to Tebeau in Man in the Everglades, "Everglades National Park is at once a limited and vast sampling of a region full of contrast.... This park, which is chiefly of biological interest, requires a different perspective on the part of the visitor" (NPS: Quotes).

The early movement to protect a segment of the Everglades coincided with the settlement and growth of South Florida, as people began to recognize the uniqueness of the wilderness (NPS: Park Establishment). People were lured by developers who transformed wetlands into dry lands. Some of these people had other ideas for development of the land, such as small farms and real estate development. There was an early emergence of conservationist versus developer, a part of Florida history that repeated itself during the rebuilding

of south Florida after Hurricane Andrew. Advocates for the post-hurricane expansion of the Miami airport felt it could bring the city thousands of jobs, and billions of dollars, without hurting the Everglades. Yet they opposed a proposed environmental impact study, fearing it could kill the development project (Vito).

The following year, the Florida legislature authorized the Tropical Everglades National Park Commission to take over the responsibilities of the association with the power to acquire land. Ernest Coe was the commission's executive chairman (NPS/Park Establishment). A subsequent meeting took place leading to legislation to create Everglades National Park as introduced by Senator Duncan B. Fletcher of Florida, in December of 1928. In 1929, the U.S. Congress authorized an investigation into the feasibility of the project. An inspection party came to Miami in 1930 to decide on areas for inclusion. A special committee of the National Parks Association toured the area by auto, boat, and Goodyear blimp, with local park advocates. An important participant in this venture was author Marjory Stoneman Douglas. Upon their return to Washington, D.C., the committee reported favorably to Congress on the proposed park (NPS/Park Establishment).

Remote and seldom visited, the Everglades National Park nonetheless had a rich human history: several Native American peoples, Spanish explorers, French and English pirates, runaway slaves, and Anglo trappers and fishermen all came to this limestone basin and made their lives among its slowly moving water and fast-growing saw grass (McNamee). The intermingling of plant and animal species from both the tropical and temperate zones, plus the merging of freshwater and saltwater habitats, provide the vast biological diversity that made Everglades National Park so unique. It was the first national park to be established to preserve purely biological resources. Its significant resources include the largest designated wilderness east of the Rocky Mountains, the largest continuous stand of sawgrass prairie in North America, the most significant breeding grounds for tropical wading birds in North America, the largest mangrove ecosystem in the western hemisphere, a nationally significant estuarine complex in Florida Bay, and significant ethnographic resources revealing 2,000 years of human occupation (NPS/Park Establishment).

The way he oversaw the development of a relatively young state like Florida showed that President Truman had tremendous insight and that he understood his countrymen well. Despite water mismanagement in the Everglades in the past, the dedication of the only subtropical preserve in North America the park still turned out to be an important legacy to all inhabitants of Earth worth saving.

In fact, the Everglades National Park is today considered one of the most endangered national parks in the United

Some topics in this essay:
National Park, NPS/Park Establishment, Florida Keys, North America, South Florida, French English, Grass Persia, national park, Florida December, Vito Besides, Establishment People, everglades national park, everglades national, nps/park establishment, south florida, park project, tropical everglades, president truman, north america, president truman’s, national park project, tropical everglades national, wilderness nps, superintendent everglades national, december 6 1947,