Many people mistake the landscape of Everglades National Park for a swamp, full of mosquitos and razor-sharp sawgrass. Technically it’s a wetland, home to a stunning array of wildlife and beloved by visitors and conservationists alike. But that view of the Everglades as a treacherous and hostile place informed more than a century of efforts to tame and transform the landscape in ways that are still playing out today.

In this episode of “Field Trip,” Washington Post reporter Lillian Cunningham tells the story of how the water flow through South Florida was radically altered to make the region more habitable for people. Then, how that unintentionally disrupted one of the country’s most important ecosystems. And finally, why we’re racing to unravel those mistakes today. 

We’ll meet Jerry Lorenz, an Audubon Society scientist who’s spent more than three decades trying to protect his beloved roseate spoonbills and other species of birds.  

We’ll journey by fan boat across the marshes with Houston Cypress, a member of the Otter Clan in the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and an advocate for Everglades restoration, and Durante Blais-Billie, an environmental and Indigenous rights advocate from the Seminole Tribe of Florida. 

We’ll learn about the legacy of environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas and how groups like the National Parks Conservation Association and the Captains for Clean Water are following in her footsteps today.

And we’ll hear from Eva Velez of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about what went wrong originally and what it now means to approach engineering “with nature.” 

We have incredible photos for this series. You can see them and find more on the National Parks here. 

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