Latest news with #Everglades
Bloomberg
a day ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Trump Plans to Offload National Park Sites, But States Don't Want Them
Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve sprawls north from Everglades National Park over 729,000 acres of swamp, an ancient forest that protects the endangered Florida panther and the pristine waters of the Everglades — the source of drinking water for millions of south Floridians. About 2.2 million people visited last year, roughly three times the number at Everglades National Park, according to National Park Service data. The preserve and others like it are 'typically the places where the local people enjoy the most,' said Neal McAliley, an environmental lawyer at Carlton Fields in Miami and a former environmental litigator at the Justice Department.
The National
3 days ago
- Climate
- The National
Best photos of May 31: Tribute to Gaza's children in Portugal to protestor kicking riot police in Argentina
Tour boat operator Marshall Jones's dog, Scooby, lies on ground among tree roots and rubbish that is normally under water in the Florida Everglades. The region, which is the largest wetland in the United States, is experiencing severe drought. AP Photo
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
The Radfords jet off to Florida AGAIN - just four weeks after £52,000 Disney blowout for mum Sue's 50th
The Radford family are back in Florida - just a month after their lavish £52,000 getaway to the sunshine state to mark matriarch Sue's 50th birthday. Britain's biggest family, known from Channel 5 's 22 Kids and Counting, have returned to the US for another sun-soaked adventure and are sharing every moment with their fans on social media. Posting to Facebook, the Morecambe-based clan uploaded snaps from their visit to Alligator Farm in the Everglades, where they got up close with the wildlife. Both older and younger children looked thrilled, beaming in the sunshine, as they sat together on a wooden boat. Dad Noel got into the swing of things as he posed with a straw safari hat and even held up a giant cricket, with the family joking: 'Think Noel thinks he's turned into Indiana Jones with his new hat.' Elsewhere, the youngest Radfords were seen building sandcastles and playing on the beach while wearing adorable sun hats as the family made the most of their time away. The group also took in the sights at Disney World once again, with a front-row seat to the famous Epcot fireworks show. 'The Epcot fireworks display was pure Disney magic! Noel even got a front-row seat… From the pram! Bless him, it's been a LONG (but exciting!) day,' they captioned one video. This time, the Radfords were joined by their close friends, the Walkers - another supersized family who have 11 children of their own. Fans were quick to share their support, flooding the Radfords' comments with praise. One person wrote: 'I have so much respect for you all as a family. Really well behaved children and grandkids as well. A big pat on the back for you both. You've done a brilliant job.' Another added: 'I would love this. I have friends in Florida and sometimes alligators appear in their back garden - I wouldn't be so keen on that!' And a third noted: 'Lovely photos, looks like a great time, beautiful family x'. Another person commented on the children's big smiles, saying : 'The faces say enough.' Their latest trip comes just weeks after their headline-making £52,000 Florida holiday for Sue's milestone birthday. The family previously told The Mirror they had been 'feeling the pinch' financially but didn't hold back when it came to celebrating Sue's big 5-0. That trip featured visits to Disney parks, pool days at their luxury villa and plenty of sweet family moments, including a snap of Sue wearing Minnie Mouse ears and another of two of her daughters wearing matching outfits and backpacks, each with identical dolls tucked inside. One photo showed the whole family posing happily with Donald Duck, while another captured carefree moments by the villa pool. But the birthday trip wasn't entirely without its bumps. Sue shared her frustrations on Instagram over lengthy wait times at the theme park, particularly for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. '95 minute wait for Guardians of the Galaxy?' she posted. 'Not liking the fact they removed the virtual queuing system. Anyone else wish they'd kept that system?' The change meant park guests could no longer join a virtual queue from their phones and instead had to wait in person, often for well over an hour. Meanwhile, the family also made headlines this week for a very different reason - a personal update from the Radfords' eldest daughter, Sophie. Sophie Radford, 31, took to Instagram to reveal she is no longer with her husband, Joseph Broadley. The couple married in 2015 and share three children: Daisy Mae, 12, Ayprill Louise, 10, and Leo, nine. Adoring fans rushed to the Radfords' comments to express well wishes for their latest trip In a Q&A with fans, the TV personality, who has over 60,000 followers, gave quickfire answers to a series of personal questions, revealing her favourite food is pizza, her shoe size is four-to-five and her age is 31. But the question that caught most attention was: 'Are you single?' Sophie replied with an all-caps 'YES' and added: 'THAT'S ALL THAT WILL BE SAID ON IT.' She offered no further details on the split but made it clear she was not open to discussing the matter further. With their second Florida trip underway and their eldest daughter back in the headlines, it seems the Radfords are showing no signs of slowing down.
The Guardian
6 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
New eco-hotel at Everglades national park built for age of super hurricanes
A collection of repurposed shipping containers, welded together and fitted out to create an innovative new eco-hotel inside one of the country's most popular national parks, offers a vision of revival and resilience at the beginning of another potentially active Atlantic hurricane season. The containers exist as the elevated 24-room Flamingo Lodge at the exposed southern tip of Florida's Everglades national park. It was built to replace the 1960s-era cinderblock construction that was finally demolished in 2009, four years after back-to-back hurricanes, Katrina and Wilma, tore it apart. With the climate crisis fueling stronger and more frequent major hurricanes, which can push ahead of them devastating storm surges, many doubted if either the will or finance existed to bring a permanent lodging option back to the vulnerable area for the first time in almost 20 years. But the determination to build it weathered further storms that delayed construction, a redrawing of plans, labor shortages, supply chain complications and the coronavirus pandemic. National Park Service (NPS) managers say that, despite the challenges, it was unthinkable to not bring back moments denied to day-trippers making the 38-mile drive from the park entrance in Homestead. 'There were many reasons to rebuild Flamingo Lodge. We heard from visitors that generations of people who had come that this was a destination, the opportunity to spend the night inside a national park and expand and enhance their experience,' said Allyson Gant, the NPS ranger who is chief of communications for the wildlife-rich Everglades park. 'You're there to see the stars at night, see the sun rise, or hear the birds in the morning, or to encounter the mosquitoes at night, to see the difference from the daytime.' The absence of the lodge had become increasingly conspicuous as the outpost gradually built back from the devastation of the storms. While Flamingo's campsite, marina and general store slowly returned to functionality, officials wrestled with how to restore an enduring and more comfortable alternative to a sleeping bag on the ground. Replicating what was there before – a ground-level hotel with more than 100 rooms and a swimming pool – was out of the question because of the threat of another Katrina or Wilma, or 2017's Hurricane Irma, which destroyed the visitor center and swamped a chunk large of the 1.5m-acre park with a 12ft wall of water. 'Sustainability was hugely important and integrated into the design and the building of the lodge. It was finding that balance, just like we do with many things in the National Park Service, between what we have today and what we want to take into the future,' Gant said. 'In light of sea level rise predictions and climate change impacts, we sort of circled back to the drawing board to make sure we were doing our due diligence to use the right materials. 'And of course we're going to comply with building codes, but some of those were changing over that period of time too. And then we were looking for sustainable materials.' The end result is what Gant sees as the gold standard of building back stronger following a disaster. The fortified lodge, with the containers forming four individual clusters of six rooms plus a separate restaurant and bar, is designed to withstand hurricane-force winds and is built atop 13ft concrete pillars. They are layers of protection the builders of the original lodge more than half a century ago could never have imagined would be needed, but which the NPS considered essential to stand up to the fury of inevitable future storms – perhaps during the 2025 season that begins on 1 June. Sign up to Down to Earth The planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essential after newsletter promotion Memories are fresh in Florida of a succession of recent devastating storms. Forecasters say this summer, only the second full year of the lodge's operation, will be another above average season. To finance the new construction, the notoriously hard-up NPS, which has an estimated $12bn maintenance backlog and saw its budget and staff numbers slashed significantly after Donald Trump's second term began in January, entered into a public-private partnership with Flamingo Everglades Adventures, a subsidiary of Virginia's Guest Services Inc. Guest Services funded Flamingo's restoration at a cost far in excess of the 2008 estimate of $20m (the vice-president of hospitality, Laura Sherman, would say only it was 'much more than we thought'), and in return is the concessionaire to run all of Flamingo's commercial services, including boat tours, canoe rentals, camping, and food and beverage operations. Such collaborations with commercial partners are becoming increasingly common. In 2023, the NPS signed a new 15-year contract to outsource its north rim Grand Canyon lodge, allowing the NPS to concentrate on its core missions: the stewardship, preservation and protection of natural spaces. Sherman said her company, which has partnered with the NPS for more than a century, recognizes the responsibility of operating the only hotel inside the Everglades park and, equally important she says, ensuring it stands up to the ravages of stronger hurricanes and a changing climate. 'It never used to flood here, and now it floods every year,' she said. 'So we have the elevation, the reinforcement of the windows and the sliders and the back doors. 'When you think about the Everglades, you think about the wildlife, the fauna and the ecosystem that's the only one like it in the world. So to be able to develop and build something like this, where people can come and stay and experience it all, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience for some. It's really very special.'
Yahoo
18-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Scientists discover unexpected way alligators help the environment: 'Guardians of the Everglades'
They may look frightening, but alligators are great for the environment, which makes them great for us. Alligators are ancient creatures, with ancestors dating back 245 million years, according to National Geographic. Although these reptiles can grow up to 12 feet, per the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, and have a rather fearsome appearance, a new study suggests that they are a vital part of Florida's ecosystem, the BBC reported. When it comes to animals and the environment, much of the debate covers the effects of methane from farming or the destruction of habitats impacting various species. However, what may be lesser known is that some animals have a positive impact on the environment around them, and alligators are one example. The BBC report focused on members of the Miccosukee Tribe in the north of Florida's Everglades who live in harmony with a 60-year-old alligator playfully dubbed Mama Gator. This new research shows that alligators are "guardians of the Everglades" and help protect ecosystems. These reptiles carry around nutrients that enrich ecosystems by traveling from marshes into freshwater, per the study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Their habitats and nests also provide shelter for frogs and fish and encourage plant growth, meaning that the area's biodiversity flourishes. Alligators have faced near-extinction due to hunting and the fashion industry's penchant for leather, but conservationists helped save the species from being wiped out. Today, over 3 million alligators live in Florida and Louisiana, according to the BBC. Saving a species from endangerment is a massive win for animals and humans alike. Now, more protections can be put in place to protect the species. With more knowledge of alligators' importance to ecosystems, people will be less likely to hunt them or cause damage to their habitats. Conservation of land and the creatures that live there is vital for the planet's biodiversity. It not only helps prevent the extinction of animals but also provides natural beauty for people to enjoy and protects those who rely on these natural environments for food or employment. From conserving forests and wetlands to eradicating invasive species, many scientists are working tirelessly to protect the flora and fauna that the planet relies on to survive. For members of the Miccosukee Tribe, living in harmony with local animals is a way of life. Kendall Osceola, a staff member at the Miccosukee Indian Village cultural center, said: "We were always told if there's a body of water in Florida, there's going to be an alligator in there. … Yet Miccosukee stories depict them as 'benevolent creatures.'" Should the government be paying people to hunt invasive species? Definitely Depends on the animal No way Just let people do it for free Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. Biologist Christopher Murray also hopes that humans and alligators can live in close proximity in peace: "Do they command respect? Yes. But are they monsters? Are they to be feared? No." Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
