article_snippet.sent: The next time you take the kids on a pilgrimage to see the talking mouse or head down to South Beach for some sun/sin, get a window seat and spend the moments before landing contemplating the seemingly endless swamp below.
article_snippet.sent: Because there are few places that represent the folly of man -- and the cost of redemption -- like The Everglades.
article_snippet.sent: On approach into Miami or Orlando, it just looks like squishy wasteland full of things that want to hurt you: snakes and scorpions, rats and roaches, gators and mosquitoes.
article_snippet.sent: Too wet to farm, too dry to sail, too unpredictable to settle," as Michael Grunwald put it in Michael Grunwald definitive history, "The Swamp.
article_snippet.sent: And so, a century ago, some American dreamers decided to drain "The Swamp.
article_snippet.sent: some American dreamers decided to conquer that uninhabitable frontier known as Florida.
article_snippet.sent: But what the Army Corps of Engineers didn't know is that without "The Swamp, there can be no "good life" in Florida.
article_snippet.sent: After a century of development, half the Everglades is dead and the other half is on life support.
article_snippet.sent: This is a problem, not just for the gators and snakes.
article_snippet.sent: This is a problem for the eagles, panthers, snails, dolphins, hawks, manatees, flamingos, vase sponges, black bears and ghost orchids that make up the most unique, diverse wetlands in the world.
article_snippet.sent: Because most of the drinking water in South Florida comes from the aquifers beneath half the Everglades.
article_snippet.sent: This 2 million-acre river of grass is not only the best form of hurricane protection, This 2 million-acre river of grass also supports the multibillion-dollar fishing, shrimping and crabbing industries around the Florida Keys.
article_snippet.sent: What was once a slow-moving river of gin-clear water became so sluggish and toxic in the 1990s that most of the life in Florida Bay was wiped out -- and America woke up.
article_snippet.sent: Jeb Bush smiled as Bill Clinton signed the most ambitious wildlife reclamation plan in history, the same Army Corps of Engineers that was ordered to rip half the Everglades apart is now under orders to help Bill Clinton signed the most ambitious wildlife reclamation plan in history, the same Army Corps of Engineers that was ordered to rip the Everglades apart heal, to the tune of $13 billion as part of a larger congressional restoration plan.
article_snippet.sent: Nowhere else is the border between bustling civilization and untamed wilderness so narrow, which is why conservationists like to say that half the Everglades is a test.
highlights_snippet.sent: The Everglades were drained a century ago and are now being restored .
  