"An exquisitely tragic portrait of one of the United States' most unique living systems. Belanger has captured both the unique beauty of the Everglades and the damage that has been visited upon those grassy waters. Her focus on the boundary between that which is outside and within the lands designated as a national park is poignantly imaged in a direct and perceptive vision."
—Martha A. Strawn, author of Alligators, Prehistoric Presence in the American Landscape

Description

The Everglades is the largest subtropical wilderness left in the continental United States. It was established as a national park in 1934 when the National Park Service set aside approximately 2,354 of the estimated 5,000 square miles comprising the original Everglades. Today, the national park is a World Heritage Site, an International Biosphere Reserve, and a Wetland of International Importance. The park even includes a Nike Missile Site that is on the U.S. Registry of Historic Places.

More than one million people visit the park annually, but vast changes have drastically altered the natural landscape they see. Few visitors realize that, for more than a century, the state and federal governments have constructed drainage canals and ditches to redirect some 1.7 billion gallons of water per day toward the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in order to support agricultural pursuits and large-scale urban and suburban development. The ensuing conflicts over water and…

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