Editing Everglades (section)

===Flood control===
[[File:Army CoE sign Hoover Dike.jpg|thumb|A sign advertising the completion of the Herbert Hoover Dike]]
Two catastrophic hurricanes in [[1926 Miami Hurricane|1926]] and [[1928 Okeechobee Hurricane|1928]] caused Lake Okeechobee to breach its levees, killing thousands of people. The government began to focus on the control of floods rather than drainage. The Okeechobee Flood Control District was created in 1929, financed by both state and federal funds. President [[Herbert Hoover]] toured the towns affected by the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane and ordered the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|Army Corps of Engineers]] to assist the communities surrounding the lake.<ref>Grunwald, pp.&nbsp;198–199.</ref> Between 1930 and 1937 a dike {{convert|66|mi|km}} long was built around the southern edge of the lake. Control of the [[Hoover Dike]] and the waters of [[Lake Okeechobee]] was delegated to federal powers: the United States declared legal limits of the lake to between {{convert|14|and|17|ft|m}}.<ref name="stephan"/> A massive canal was also constructed {{convert|80|ft|m}} wide and {{convert|6|ft|m}} deep through the [[Caloosahatchee River]]; whenever the lake rose too high, the excess water left through the canal.<ref name="stephan"/> More than $20&nbsp;million was spent on the entire project. Sugarcane production soared after the dike and canal were built. The populations of the small towns surrounding the lake jumped from 3,000 to 9,000 after [[World War II]].<ref>Grunwald, pp.&nbsp;199–200.</ref>

Immediately, the effects of the Hoover Dike were seen. An extended drought occurred in the 1930s; with the wall preventing water from leaving Lake Okeechobee and canals and ditches removing other water, the Everglades became parched. Peat turned to dust. Salt ocean water intruded into Miami's wells; when the city brought in an expert to explain why, he discovered that the water in the Everglades was the area's [[groundwater]]—here, it appeared on the surface.<ref>McCally, p.&nbsp;9.</ref> In 1939, a million acres (4,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>) of Everglades burned, and the black clouds of peat and sawgrass fires hung over Miami.<ref>McCally, p.&nbsp;142.</ref> Scientists who took soil samples before draining did not take into account that the organic composition of peat and muck in the Everglades make it prone to soil [[subsidence]] when it becomes dry. Naturally occurring bacteria in Everglades peat and muck assist with the process of decomposition under water, which is generally very slow, partially due to the low levels of [[dissolved oxygen]]. When water levels became so low that peat and muck were at the surface, the bacteria interacted with much higher levels of oxygen in the air, rapidly breaking down the soil. In some places, homes had to be moved to stilts and {{convert|8|ft|m}} of soil was lost.<ref name="Lodge, p. 38"/>

====Everglades National Park====
[[File:Harry Truman at Everglades National Park.jpg|thumb|President [[Harry Truman]] dedicating [[Everglades National Park]] on December 6, 1947]]
{{Main|Everglades National Park}}

The idea of a national park for the Everglades was pitched in 1928, when a Miami land developer named [[Ernest F. Coe]] established the Everglades Tropical National Park Association. It had enough support to be declared a national park by Congress in 1934. It took another 13&nbsp;years to be dedicated on December 6, 1947.<ref name="enpsite">{{cite web| title = Conservation efforts| publisher = National Park Service| work = Everglades National Park| date = September 17, 2007| url = http://www.nps.gov/ever/historyculture/consefforts.htm| access-date = 2008-05-10}}</ref> One month before the dedication of the park, a former editor from ''[[The Miami Herald]]'' and freelance writer named [[Marjory Stoneman Douglas]] released her first book titled ''[[The Everglades: River of Grass]]''. After researching the region for five years, she described the history and ecology of South Florida in great detail. She characterized the Everglades as a river instead of a stagnant swamp.<ref name="davis">{{cite journal | last1 = Davis | first1 = Jack | year = 2001 | title = Green Awakening: Social activism and the evolution of Marjory Stoneman Douglas's Environmental Consciousness | journal = The Florida Historical Quarterly | volume = 80 | issue = 1| pages = 43–77 }}</ref> The last chapter was titled "The Eleventh Hour" and warned that the Everglades were dying, although it could be reversed.<ref>Douglas, p.&nbsp;349.</ref>

====Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project====

The same year the park was dedicated, two hurricanes and the wet season caused {{convert|100|in|cm}} to fall on South Florida. Although there were no human casualties, agricultural interests lost approximately $59&nbsp;million (equivalent to ${{Inflation|US|59|1949|r=0}}&nbsp;million in {{Inflation/year|US}}).<ref>Grunwald, p.&nbsp;219.</ref> In 1948, Congress approved the Central and Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and Other Purposes (C&SF), which divided the Everglades into basins. In the northern Everglades were Water Conservation Areas (WCAs), and the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) bordering to the south of Lake Okeechobee. In the southern Everglades was Everglades National Park. Levees and pumping stations bordered each WCA, and released water in dryer times or removed it and pumped it to the ocean in times of flood. The WCAs took up approximately 37&nbsp;percent of the original Everglades.<ref>Lodge, p.&nbsp;224.</ref> The C&SF constructed over {{convert|1000|mi|km}} of canals, and hundreds of pumping stations and levees within three decades. During the 1950s and 1960s the Miami metropolitan area grew four times as fast as the rest of the nation. Between 1940 and 1965, 6&nbsp;million people moved to South Florida: 1,000&nbsp;people moved to Miami every week.<ref>Grunwald, p.&nbsp;229.</ref> Developed areas between the mid-1950s and the late 1960s quadrupled. Much of the water reclaimed from the Everglades was sent to newly developed areas.<ref>Caulfield, p.&nbsp;55.</ref>

====Everglades Agricultural Area====
{{See also|Draining and development of the Everglades#Everglades Agricultural Area}}
[[File:Everglades canal.jpg|thumb|A 2003 U.S. Geological Survey photo showing the border between Water Conservation Area 3 (bottom) with water, and [[Everglades National Park]], dry (top)]]

The C&SF established {{convert|470000|acre|km2}} for the Everglades Agricultural Area—27&nbsp;percent of the Everglades prior to development.<ref>Lodge, p.&nbsp;223.</ref> In the late 1920s, agricultural experiments indicated that adding large amounts of [[manganese sulfate]] to Everglades muck produced a profitable harvest for vegetables.<ref>McCally, pp.&nbsp;159–160.</ref> The primary cash crop in the EAA is sugarcane, though [[sod]], beans, lettuce, celery, and rice are also grown. Fields in the EAA are typically {{convert|40|acre|m2}}, bordered by canals on two sides, that are connected to larger canals where water is pumped in or out depending on the needs of the crops.<ref>Lodge, pp.&nbsp;225–226.</ref> The fertilizers used on vegetables, along with high concentrations of [[nitrogen]] and [[phosphorus]] that are the byproduct of decayed soil necessary for sugarcane production, were pumped into WCAs south of the EAA. The introduction of large amounts of these chemicals provided opportunities for exotic plants to take hold in the Everglades.<ref>McCally, pp.&nbsp;172–173.</ref> One of the defining characteristics of natural Everglades ecology is its ability to support itself in a nutrient-poor environment, and the introduction of fertilizers began to alter the plant life in the region.<ref>Grunwald, pp.&nbsp;283–284.</ref>

====Jetport proposition====
A turning point came for development in the Everglades at the proposal in the late 1960s for an expanded airport, after [[Miami International Airport]] outgrew its capacities. The new jetport was planned to be larger than [[O'Hare International Airport|O'Hare]], [[Dulles International Airport|Dulles]], [[John F. Kennedy International Airport|JFK]], and [[Los Angeles International Airport|LAX]] airports combined,{{citation needed|date=February 2018}} and the chosen location was {{convert|6|mi|km}} north of Everglades National Park. The first sentence of the [[U.S. Department of Interior]] study of the [[Environmental Impact of the Big Cypress Swamp Jetport|environmental impact of the jetport]] read, "Development of the proposed jetport and its attendant facilities&nbsp;... will inexorably destroy the south Florida ecosystem and thus the Everglades National Park".<ref>Grunwald,&nbsp;p. 257.</ref> When studies indicated the proposed jetport would create {{convert|4000000|USgal|L}} of raw sewage a day and {{convert|10000|ST|MT}} of jet engine pollutants a year, the project met staunch opposition. ''[[The New York Times]]'' called it a "blueprint for disaster",<ref>{{cite news| last = Brooks| first = Paul| title = Topics: Everglades Jetport — A Blueprint for Disaster| newspaper = The New York Times| date = July 12, 1969| page = 26}}</ref> and [[Wisconsin]] senator [[Gaylord Nelson]] wrote to President [[Richard Nixon]] voicing his opposition: "It is a test of whether or not we are really committed in this country to protecting our environment."<ref name="timejets">{{cite magazine| title = Jets v. Everglades| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date = August 22, 1969| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898538-2,00.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080925141017/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,898538-2,00.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = September 25, 2008| access-date = 2008-05-10}}</ref> Governor [[Claude Kirk]] withdrew his support for the project, and [[Marjory Stoneman Douglas]] was persuaded at 79&nbsp;years old to go on tour to give hundreds of speeches against it. Nixon instead proposed [[Big Cypress National Preserve]], announcing it in the Special Message to the Congress Outlining the 1972 Environmental Program.<ref>{{cite web| last = Nixon| first = Richard| title = 51 – Special Message to the Congress Outlining the 1972 Environmental Program| work = The American Presidency Project| date = February 8, 1972| url = http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=3731| access-date = 2008-05-10}}</ref> Although construction of only one runway was completed, the remains of the Everglades Jetport was later opened as the [[Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport]] and is sometimes used as an aviation training facility.