Young Friends of the Everglades was founded in 1994 by fourth and fifth graders at Howard Drive Elementary and their teachers, Marta Whitehouse and Connie Washburn. This student organization was initially formed in response to plans to build a sports entertainment theme park on a site needed for wetlands restoration. During the 1993-1994 school year, the founders created a variety of educational environmental projects to generate awareness of the need for protective buffer zones around the Everglades.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas, the pioneer Everglades advocate and celebrated author began her book, The Everglades: River of Grass, with the statement, "There are no other Everglades in the world." It is our endeavor as Floridians to promote the awareness and protection of this national treasure. The unusual features of climate, biology, and geography in the Everglades present a living laboratory for global studies of nearly every environmental problem evident in the world today.

     

The Everglades is home to a variety of unique ecosystems: freshwater marshes, wetland tree islands, cypress heads, tropical hardwood hammocks, pinelands, mangrove swamps and islands, coastal saline flats, prairie and forests, tidal creeks and bays, and shallow, coastal marine waters. These habitats provide a home for 1,650 species of plants and innumerable animals.

At the age of 104, Marjory was clearly ecstatic about the involvement of young people with her cause to save the Everglades! "Take the children into the Everglades. Let them see it!" she stated. "The children are our future and we can't do without that!"

Imagine you are a snail kite. You are hungry, but all you eat are applesnails. The flow of water in the Everglades has been controlled by man. No longer is there a natural wet and dry season. Man has not provided for the applesnail to reproduce... you must fight all your friends for those few applesnails remaining. This vital food chain has been broken. (Fewer than 900 snail kites remain in Florida, the only U.S. habitat of these birds!)

     

You have the opportunity as a young person to learn about and take action toward preserving a national treasure, the Everglades. Your contribution will provide funds for the development of a clearinghouse of information and educational materials to be used by students and teachers. Members of Young Friends of the Everglades will also benefit from newsletters with student articles and art work, with an opportunity to raise funds by promoting the sale of "Glade Saver" items such as pencils, t-shirts, bags, buttons, etc.