It’s a swamp! It’s a marsh! It’s the Everglades!
This unique wetlands system stretches across most of the southern end of the Florida peninsula. It includes freshwater marshes, tree islands, cypress forests, shady tropical forests called hardwood hammocks, pinelands, mangroves, coastal prairies, tidal creeks and bays, and shallow coastal marine waters. It also includes sloughs, or shallow channels with flowing water.
Central to this watery world is a 50-mile-wide, 100-mile-long shallow waterway. Known as the “river of grass,” this channel is, on average, about six inches deep. Beginning at the south end of Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades stretches south and southwest toward Florida Bay.
The Everglades provides food, water, shelter, and space for a wide variety of wildlife, not to mention fresh water to more than 9 million people in South Florida.
Tourists from the world over visit the Everglades every year, contributing millions of dollars to the surrounding communities.
