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Visiting the Everglades

Visiting the Everglades

The Everglades (or Pa-hay-okee) are a natural region of tropical wetlands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin. The system begins near Orlando with the Kissimmee River, which discharges into the vast but shallow Lake Okeechobee. Water leaving the lake in the wet season forms a slow-moving river 60 miles (97 km) wide and over 100 miles (160 km) long, flowing southward across a limestone shelf to Florida Bay at the southern end of the state. The Everglades experience a wide range of weather patterns, from frequent flooding in the wet season to drought in the dry season. Writer Marjory Stoneman Douglas popularized the term &quot;River of Grass&quot; to describe the sawgrass marshes, part of a complex system of interdependent ecosystems that include cypress swamps, the estuarine mangrove forests of the Ten Thousand Islands, tropical hardwood hammocks, pine rockland, and the marine environment of Florida Bay.<br/> <br/> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades" rel="nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades</a>