Title: Can you save my Backyard?
Source: Scholastic News
Source: Pennies for the Planet
Source: http://www.worldwildlife.org/windows/pennies/save_backyard.html
Date: October 11, 2002
Author: Sara St. Antoine and Mona Chiang
Topic: Other
Pick: Yes
Fourteen-year-old Aaron Carter is a pop sensation with best-selling CDs like Oh Aaron and Another Earthquake! But he also helps conservationists spread the word to protect one of Earth's most invaluable resources.
When Aaron Carter roams around his neighborhood, he sees houses, restaurants, and shopping malls. But part of the view also includes mangrove trees crowding the coast, tiny Key deer hiding among trees, and roseate terns wheeling overhead. Aaron lives in one of Earth's most diverse ecoregions - large geographical areas defined by features like type of soil, climate, and plant and animal communities: the Everglades and Florida Keys. "My family moved to the Keys because of its spectacular beauty," Aaron says.
Scientists would agree. "There's no system like this in the world," says biologist Tom Armentano of the Everglades National Park. "It's a wilderness despite the fact it shares common boundaries with densely populated areas." But this proximity between humans and nature has exacted a harsh toll on the once pristine environment: "I went on a research trip to a remote island in Florida Bay to check out the health of this really cool bird called a roseate spoonbill," says Aaron. "There used to be thousands of them in the Keys and Florida Bay, but huge changes in how water flows through the Everglades have really messed up their survival rate."
For thousands of years, South Florida was a 4-million-acre subtropical wetland (waterlogged area) teeming with dense flocks of wading birds, sea turtles, and crocodiles. Then pioneers flocked to the region in the 1800s, clearing it for farmlands. And in the late 1940s, to keep pace with the demands of a booming population, the U.S. government built levees (flood walls) and canal systems, which diverted water and drained marshes to create drier soils for farming. "But these changes disturbed the whole system and endangered its wildlife," says Debbie Harrison of World Wildlife Fund.
Today, the Everglades is one third of its historical size. And 600 of South Florida's plants and animal species are rare or threatened, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In addition, 68 species, including the Florida panther, snail kite, and Key deer are endangered (at risk of extinction). Today, conservationists are striving to devise strategies to deal with a growing environmental crisis. "This is a really special place in the world," says Aaron. "We need to make sure it's taken care of."
RIVER OF GRASS
Historically, during the rainy season from June to November, heavy rainwater would gush down the Kissimmee River to fill Lake Okeechobee. Water overflowed the southern rim to flood wide flat grassland. Known as the "river of grass," the Everglades?rarely more than 61 centimeters (2 feet) deep?slinked south. Its water drained up to 800 meters (0.5 mile) per day into the Florida Bay.
Along the way, the river filled sloughs, or deep marshes, submerged sawgrass prairies, and surrounded raised hammocks (hardwood islands). Under natural conditions, the season of flooding alternated with a long, dry spell. Water levels receded and wading birds, raccoons, and alligators clamored to remaining pools of water to feast on trapped fish.
Today, most rainfall on the system's northern edge barely flows into the remaining patch of the Everglades. "It's pumped into canals, carried into developed areas and reservoirs, or dumped into the ocean," says Armentano. This deprives many species of the pools of water they depend on for food?especially critical during dry months.
The limited amount of freshwater that still flows through the Everglades and trickles into Florida Bay?an estuary (place where freshwater mixes with saltwater)?has caused an imbalance in the bay's salinity (salt levels). "One of the world's major shrimping grounds is in the Gulf of Mexico?it's a major food source for humans," says Armentano. Pink shrimp, for example, spend their post-larval stage, an immature phase of life, off the tip of the Everglades. "And they require the right conditions to live."
In addition, agricultural and industrial pollutants like mercury, phosphorous, and nitrogen have been found in water draining from the Everglades, causing many fish populations and sea grasses?a vital food source for the endangered manatee?to die off. The polluted runoff continues to flow south from Florida Bay into the Florida Keys.
Aaron Carter knows this water well. "I have always loved oceans and the marine environment," he says. And when he's not touring in concerts, he swims, kayaks, and snorkels in the Keys. "The Keys are home to the world's third largest coral barrier reef and some of the world's greatest sunsets!" Many fish species live in this reef ecosystem. "My favorite is the blacktip reef shark," says Aaron. "It's fast, sleek, only takes what it needs, and rules the reef!" But water pollution is threatening the entire coral reef ecosystem.
RESCUE CALL
One critical piece in this complex survival puzzle is humans. South Florida's soaring population depends on rain collected south of the Kissimmee River basin?including the Everglades?for drinking water. Of the estimated 100 to 165 cm (40 to 65 inches) that falls each year, nearly 100 percent evaporates, transpires (evaporates through plants), or is lost to run-off. More troubling, the current water systems direct billions of tons of freshwater into the ocean each day. "A huge amount of that wasted water needs to be restored back into the Everglades, where it belongs?or we'll run out of water for humans too," says Harrison.
Is the Everglades' future beyond rescue? No. Two years ago, the state and federal government appropriated $8 billion for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. "It's a massive plan and actually involves 64 individual engineering projects that will change how water is managed from Lake Okeechobee all the way down to Florida Bay," says Armentano.
The undertaking will take decades to complete. In their attempt to figure out the delicate balance of human, animal, and environmental needs, scientists are using computer models to project figures like human population and water supply requirements by the year 2050. At the same time, they're doing fieldwork to gain clues about how the complex ecoregion once operated. "Hopefully, we'll be able to restore the Everglades closer to its natural pattern," Armentano says.
Saving the Everglades and South Florida ecoregion means a lot to Aaron Carter. "I'm always talking to my friends and family about how important it is to take care of it," he says. "Now I'm talking to kids across America: Let's take care of our waters and oceans."
[Photo: Aaron Carter / photo: Bill Keogh Photography]
