The Everglades Is Not Disney World
By Sylvia Cunningham
There are no fences along the Anhinga Trail in Everglades National Park and birds, turtles and even alligators pass freely from one side of the path to the other, treading on the very same pavement that visitors do.
Recently, one alligator began the short trek across the 12-foot stretch of pavement when a woman scooped up her child, plopped him on the alligator and readied her camera.
Candace Forsyth, a former Youth Educator for the Audubon Florida, is incredulous when told about the incident. “They should stay at Disney where the alligators won’t hurt them,” Forsyth said.
Everglades National Park is not like other such parks, and some of its biggest defenders say those who fail to understand it should stay far away.
Over 250 miles north of the Everglades National Park lies the most visited theme park in the world: the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. The park welcomed 17.5 million visitors in 2012 alone, according to reports compiled by the Themed Entertainment Association. Although the Everglades National Park has seen a positive bump in attendance, it simply cannot compete. In 2012, the Everglades National Park drew a little over 1.1 million visitors.
Linda Friar, the park’s public information officer, said when people think “national parks,” they think of sweeping vistas, more akin to the Grand Canyon or Yosemite.
“The Everglades is more subtle,” Friar said. “It takes a little more energy to experience.”
Those who do not have time for the subtleties might find the instant gratification they seek at a place like Disney World, said Candace Forsyth.
“If you take the jungle cruise at Disney, it’s pretty authentic. It feels like being on a swamp buggy at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary,” Forsyth said. “And maybe it’s better that people are contained and not just out here tromping around, screwing things up.”
Park officials sometimes consider a policy they call “Disney-fication.” One example: Friar said the park might be looking at putting in some fences to prevent tourists from putting themselves in harm’s way when enjoying the Anhinga Trail.
Due to its easy accessibility and the close-up look it offers of egrets, anhinga birds and alligators, the Anhinga Trail is one of the most popular destinations in the park.
Stan Weisman, a Toronto resident, has been making the drive from Canada for over 15 years. He thinks people should visit the Everglades because it is crucial for them to understand how quickly ecosystems can collapse. Weisman said he loves the drive down from Miami Beach, but passing the farmland along the way makes him remember the havoc humans are wreaking on the environment. Sulfates that leech off into the water disturb the vegetation, Weisman said, and the Everglades has some features that one just cannot find elsewhere in the world.
“People should know that what’s happening just outside here is not good. And large areas like this have been lost,” said Weisman.
People can walk the Anhinga Trail in under 15 minutes, but Linda Friar explained it is the wet walks or “slough slogs” that give visitors the opportunity to truly experience some of the sacred silence in the Everglades.
Fifteen minutes down the road from the Anhinga Trail, a park ranger instructs a group of visitors to each grab a walking stick. Some people in the group trade skeptical glances as they delicately stick a foot in the thick mud.
“Oh no,” one tourist says. “My socks are going to get wet.”
When the group emerges with water-filled shoes and mud-stained pants over an hour later, most realize that the socks were the least of their concerns.
One tourist from Wisconsin loses her footing on the hike and falls backwards. She stares down at her cell phone—which she now regrets stowing in the back pocket of her jeans. It is caked with mud and refuses to turn on. Yet she smiles after the walk is over.
Bleu Waters, a park ranger, leads tour groups through the slough slog regularly. She said before departing on every walk, she implores visitors to touch their surroundings and use their imaginations throughout the journey.
“The Everglades does all the work. I provide a connection—the translation—but you have to be willing to open your eyes,” Waters said. “Doing the slough slog makes you finally listen and watch.”
Waters said she often encounters married couples where only one person in the pair is enthusiastic about the walk. The wife will pull Waters aside at the beginning of the tour and express her discontent about being dragged along by her husband, but without fail, Waters said, the feeling does not last. Waters said it often turns out that the person who dreads the walk most vehemently will be the one who is the most excited and enlightened by the end.
“They come up to me and say, ‘I did not expect to enjoy this, but this was the best part of my trip.’”
Waters said she has taken tourists of all ages out to the slough—from middle school students to retirees and has not once encountered a person who hated the experience.
She said she encourages all visitors to develop their own relationship with the Everglades, and as a park ranger, she just helps to open the door and facilitate the adventure. To many tourists who experience the walk, those moments of silence in the cypress dome make up for the shoes and pants that will still smell of swamp after two or three times through the washing machine.
For Waters, it is the tourists who shape the program. She said she might give the same spiel slog after slog, but it is the visitors who make the experience for her.
“On my own, it’s beautiful. But beauty and joy doesn’t exist if you don’t have others to share it with,” Waters said. “I love it when someone comes in and they were afraid—they had fears—and they get through it and they come out smiling.”