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Scientific expedition to study human impact on Florida Everglades

>>>A team of five that includes a female University of Florida professor as its lead scientist will embark Thursday on a dangerous trek across the Florida Everglades to assess the impact of humans on the world's largest subtropical wilderness. The group will retrace an 1897 canoe journey that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby.

Tracie Baker, an associate professor of environmental and global health in the UF College of Public Health and Health Professions, has joined the team of experienced explorers and guides in a mission to sample and test for the same water constituents that Willoughby did more than a century ago. Willoughby's charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, and his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades.

"This expedition is primarily focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet's most important watersheds. However, we also hope to inspire future generations of scientists, explorers and all citizens to be better stewards of our shared environment," said Baker, a member of the UF Water Institute. "My work focuses on multidisciplinary research that seeks to bridge and improve human, animal and environmental health. The Willoughby Expedition will provide critical primary research into that work."

https://news.ufl.edu/2022/10/willoughby-expedition/


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The Willoughby Expedition

An Over 130 Mile Coast to Coast Canoe Expedition Across the Largest Remaining Subtropical Wilderness in America
In recognition of the 125th Anniversary of Hugh Willoughby's daring Everglades crossing and the 75th Anniversary of the creation of Everglades National Park.


https://www.willoughbyexpedition.org/

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Florida teen wins top prize by capturing 28 pythons in annual competition
1,000 people participated in the annual challenge, which removed 231 unwanted pythons from the wild

A 19-year-old south Florida man captured 28 Burmese pythons in a 10-day competition created to increase awareness about the threat the invasive snakes pose to state ecology.

Matthew Concepcion was among the 1,000 people from 32 states, Canada and Latvia who participated in the annual challenge, which removed 231 of the unwanted pythons, the Florida fish and wildlife conservation commission said.

Concepcion was awarded the $10,000 Ultimate Grand Prize courtesy of the Bergeron Everglades Foundation. Dustin Crum won a $1,500 grand prize for removing the longest python, at just over 11ft.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/oct/26/florida-pythons-captured-competition-miami

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The Everglades, over the years and through your eyes - a Florida treasure turns 75
https://www.wlrn.org/environment/2022-12-09/the-everglades-over-the-years-and-through-your-eyes-a-florida-treasure-turns-75
The Everglades National Park celebrates its 75th anniversary this week. To mark the occasion, we take a look at stunning images that show the history of the park and its majestic beauty – including photographs from our readers and listeners.

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The Everglades needs more fresh water moving south. This new project will help

The latest step in righting the wrongs done to the Everglades centuries ago kicked off Thursday morning with shovelfuls of ceremonial dirt flung into the air. The South Florida Water Management District announced a new project to uncork the flow of much-needed freshwater south, into the thirsty Florida Bay, by cutting holes into a long abandoned highway winding through Everglades National Park. "For Florida Bay, being last in line means for decades and decades and decades water was diverted," Shannon Estenoz, assistant secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks for the U.S. Interior Department, told the crowd of federal, state and nonprofit Everglades restoration advocates gathered in the park. "You guys are bringing the Bay back to life, and that's an incredible human achievement."

Read more at: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article271605912.html#storylink=cpy

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Pythons are snacking on GPS-wearing opossums that give up their locations

After nearly five months of waiting, an alarm activated on Michael Cove's radio, a sign his study was working.

To hunt pythons, an invasive predator in the Florida Keys, Cove and fellow researchers have been strapping GPS collars to opossums and raccoons. When one was eaten by a python in September, researchers programmed the device to notify them from within the snake's stomach.

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https://wapo.st/3IdTzEv

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Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District break ground on the EAA Reservoir, a critical Everglades restoration project.

https://captainsforcleanwater.org/eaa-reservoir-groundbreaking/

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Python invasion has exploded out of the Everglades and into nearly all of southern Florida, new map shows

Burmese pythons are too good at what they do — they're nearly undetectable to both humans and their prey, they barely need to move and when they do they're deadly. On top of that, they have lots of babies.

As a result, according to an ambitious new paper produced by the U.S. Geological Survey, their population has exploded in only 20 years from a few snakes at the southern tip of Everglades National Park to an invasion that envelops the southern third of Florida.

The reptile's "invasion front" has recently rolled through Broward and Palm Beach counties and is moving up the state. The current front encompasses the southern end of Lake Okeechobee and is pushing westward north of Fort Myers.

The study, which meticulously synthesizes several decades' worth of findings from more than 250 research initiatives, assesses where we stand in the python invasion and how we might slow it.

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https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/environment/fl-ne-usgs-python-assessment-20230304-r6l6v73l4beprazqjlgysgukyy-story.html