MARJORY STONEMAN

DOUGLAS:

VISIONARY OF THE EVERGLADES

Marjory Stoneman Douglas was a force to be reckoned with. Called the "mother of the

Everglades," she was an environmentalist, activist, feminist, and independent thinker longer than many of

us have been around. (She died in 1998 at 108 years old.) Her name is synonymous with the Everglades

for her tireless, ground-breaking efforts to protect this watery region - a region her adversaries considered a

worthless swamp.

Douglas was perhaps most known for her best-selling book, The Everglades: River of Grass. First

published in 1947, River of Grass awakened residents and visitors to the notion of the Everglades

as a vast, flowing river. Her descriptive, fluid prose portrays the strange beauty of the region and diversity

of its wildlife; recounts the history of the native peoples, explorers, and conquerors who traveled

here; explains its importance as the region's watershed; and addresses modern civilization's

impact on this fragile ecosystem.

Douglas lived in South Florida from 1915 until her death and, through the decades, wrote extensively

about the region. Twenty years afterpublishing River of Grass, when she was 78, Douglas became

absorbed in the movement to preserve the Everglades. She served on the committees to create

Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, formed the Friends of the Everglades, and spearheaded

legislation to protect the parks and their wildlife. To defend this fragile ecosystem, she wrote and spoke

out about it. And, whenever necessary, she went head-to-head with government authorities with her

respected, straightforward approach to dealing with conservation issues.

In her 1987 autobiography written with John Rothchild, Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Voice of

the River, Douglas summarizes the Everglades' role as the major watershed for South Florida: "Much of

the rainfall on which South Florida depends comes from evaporation in the Everglades. The Everglades

evaporate, the moisture goes up into the clouds, the clouds are blown to the north, and the rain comes

down over the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee, especially, is fed

by these rains. When the lake gets filled, some of the excess drains down the Caloosahatchee River into

the Gulf of Mexico, or throug hthe St. Lucie River and into the Atlantic Ocean. The rest of the excess -

the most useful part - spills over the southern rim of the lake into the great arc of the Everglades."

Douglas fused a fiery commitment to the Everglades with her renowned tell-it-like-it-is approach. "Since

1972, I've been going around making speeches on the Everglades. No matter how poor my eyes are I

can still talk. I'll talk about the Everglades at the drop of a hat. Whoever wants me to talk, I'll come over

and tell them about the necessity of preserving the Everglades," she reveals in her autobiography.

"Sometimes, I tell them more than they wanted to know." She will be greatly missed.