The Nature of the Everglades

Everglades

In this chapter the book talks all about the Everglades and in one section it talks about the Loxahatchee Slough and I find it very interesting that "Hatchee" means "river" in Indian terms and I know around Fort Myers there is the Caloosahatchee and before this class I did not know that "Hatchee" meant river (pg.117), so now I won't ever say river after the word because of this. I also found it helpful that right after the book explained what "Hatchee" meant it also explains what a "Slough" is because I did not know what it was (pg.117).

Loxahatchee Slough

I found the song by the fishermen to be very interesting on page 118; "June-too soon. July-stand by. August-look out you must. September-remember. October-all over." This is a very creative jingle to remember when you should be watching out for hurricanes and catchy too, so it can be remembered easily. I know from living in Florida all my life that hurricanes usually come around the end of summer and they are no fun. When I was younger Florida got hit by a big hurricane named Charlie and it was supposed to hit were I lived, but instead it went more south and it destroyed everything around the North Port, Port Charlotte and Punta Gorda area and they still have damage in those areas to this day.

Hurricane Charlie 

In the book it talks about the custard-apple tree (pg. 135) and I found it interesting that it was in this book because we just read about a custard-apple forest being in the A Land Remembered book. I liked learning more about this tree because now I can picture it in even more detail than what I thought it looked like by reading about it in A Land Remembered. It explains the look of the ground similar to in A Land Remembered, it is "rich black peat, denser than muck, two or three miles wide and six or eight feet deep (pg.135)." The custard-apple trees relate to this chapter because in the chapter it talks about sawgrass a lot and how it grows in the everglades and since it lives for a long time there had to be other things that grew around it and the custard-apple tress/ jungles they made were one of the things that saw grass has to fight for rocky ground. 

Saw Grass

Custard-Apple Tree

Sources:

Book: Excerpt from The Everglades: River of Grass, The Nature of the Everglades by Marjory Stoneman Douglas

Everglades Pic:http://thisisbeirut.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/everglades_16114.jpg

Loxahatchee Slough Pic: http://captainkimo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Storm-Brewing-Over-Loxahatchee-Slough-Wetlands-Palm-Beach-County.jpg

Hurricane Charlie Pic: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Hurricane_charley.jpg

Saw Grass Pic:https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigwaeBic4vfSD7VaMMzqfktbtbgi9VJXWTA6Ny068L3SNu7bafq7i9UDV-JJTppseXZAlwq9An9VaTuN-reOiXXbzXMI_0Q2sKpBIg85QJk-phtPkyNnc5mKKEB9ZXrNAwA5tc683EZ4c/s1600/Loxahatchee_-_Sawgrass.jpg

Custard-Apple Tree Pic: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/large/49166950.jpg