I discovered my love
for the Everglades way back in 1982 . . . and ever since have been leading
expeditions of students into the fragile and critical ecosystem called by
Native Americans Payhayokee: the "grassy waters". Many
of these expeditions involved travel to south Florida by train, camping for a
week, fighting mosquitoes, canoeing in the wilderness, and snorkeling the
nearby coral reef! My eldest daughter Lillian graduated from this program
in 1997, my middle daughter Caroline made her expedition in 2000, and Hank made
his trip in 2012.
Today the expeditions
are a bit tamer: planes, hotels, and restaurants have become the
norm. It is a highly anticipated annual event for students. It
is a unique and powerful expedition that leaves none unchanged.
This is not a "field trip" designed to amuse
children with museum displays or trained animals or some other form of what is
vulgarly termed "edutainment"; it is a true field study. Already
familiar with the pine barrens and sand hills of our own region, our students do deep research in the vastly different ecosystem of
south Florida. Eventually they are awarded doctorates in their
field: Professor of Periphyton, Doctor of Dendrology, Lecturer
in Lizards, for example. Then, while in the estuarine wilderness,
they become teachers for each other while experiencing the ground-truth of
their areas of expertise. One day, perhaps in high school or college,
they will study yet a third ecosystem . . . and by vectoring their knowledge
they will understand the essential questions that must be addressed! This
is the real purpose of education.
B'wana in a cypress dome
The Everglades and the nearby coral reef (south of Key
Largo) are imperiled. It is our hope that our graduates will join the
hundreds of other students who have made this expedition and who now advocate
for conservation.
examining apple snails
“There are no other Everglades in the world. They are, they have always
been, one of the unique regions of the earth, remote, never wholly known.”
– From “The Everglades: River of Grass” by Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1947)