Florida Keys: Home

Significant beyond tragic oil spills and hurricanes, the Gulf has historically been one of the world's most bounteous marine environments, supporting human life for millennia. Based on the premise that nature lies at the center of human existence, Davis takes readers on a compelling and, at times, wrenching journey from the Florida Keys to the Texas Rio Grande, along marshy shorelines and majestic estuarine bays, both beautiful and life-giving, though fated to exploitation by esurient oil men and real-estate developers.

In December 2000, President Clinton signed into law a $7.8 billion restoration plan for the Everglades that garnered national attention and has since become America's touchstone for environmental issues. Enter W. Hodding Carter, a man already bemused by the state of Florida and determined to see what, if any, progress has been made with the Everglades. For reasons unclear even to him, this amazing, remote, mosquito-infested, hard-to-love region has captured Carter's imagination and won't let go. So, for the past few years, Carter has examined the Everglades from all angles -- social, political, cultural, environmental -- culminating in an ungodly canoe trip through the heart of the Everglades.

This important work for general readers and environmentalists alike offers the first major discussion of the formation, development, and history of the Everglades, considered by many to be the most endangered ecosystem in North America. Comprehensive in scope, it begins with South Florida's geologic origins--before the Everglades became wetlands--and continues through the 20th century, when sugar reigned as king of the Everglades Agricultural Area.

"A plague is spreading throughout the Florida Everglades. Nonnative Burmese pythons--one of the largest snakes on the planet--are now known to be reproducing freely in the shallow waters of the famed River of Grass. Over the past decade, thousands of pythons have made themselves at home across the landscape. And though scientists work feverishly to learn as much as possible about this unprecedented invader, methods of control remain elusive. Many questions remain in the wake of this troubling discovery. How far north might the Burmese python venture from the Everglades wilderness?

Includes sections on Florida's Everglades