The Everglades Story, a video series examining the history of the River of Grass and explaining the former and current threats to the ecosystem, is being presented free online.
The nine-part special is being offered by Friends of the Everglades, a nonprofit environmental group founded in 1969 by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, famed author of the book The Everglades: River of Grass in 1947 when she was 56 years old.
Douglas, a journalist and author, transformed with words what most Floridians considered a useless swamp into what is now recognized worldwide as a unique and irreplaceable ecosystem.
Friends of the Everglades is a nonprofit that works to ensure government agencies comply with environmental laws, sometimes spars with the sugar industry in Florida over what it contends is excess use of chemical fertilizers that result in phosphorus pollution in the Everglades water system, and works to make people aware of the importance of the River of Grass to the overall South Florida ecosystem. It also runs youth education programs.
"The Everglades behold great value for Florida and those who call it home," the nonprofit writes online about theme of its nine-part special. "This unique ecosystem is a source of life: our clean drinking water. It is a respite for humans and habitat to some of the world's most imperiled species. To appreciate the Everglades, to protect them, we must first understand them."
Friends of the Everglades' overall goal, echoing the opening line in Douglas' opus, is "to protect, preserve, and restore the only Everglades in the world."
Former news anchor Michael Williams hosts The Everglades: River of Grass, which can be watched by clicking here.
Douglas started the organization to oppose the Everglades Jetport, which began construction in 1968. Fierce opposition by environmental activists — Douglas among them — stopped the project in 1970. Only one runway was ever completed, which became the Dade-Collier Training and Transition Airport.
Friends of the Everglades is once again fighting for the very land that was to be the jetport.
Now the South Florida Detention Facility, known colloquially as Alligator Alcatraz, is a highly controversial prison of sorts built in days last summer after President Donald J. Trump ordered the facility be created to hold up to 3,000 immigration detainees awaiting deportation proceedings.
Federal lawsuits by the nonprofit and similar environmental groups aiming to shut down Alligator Alcatraz are winding their way through court.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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