The South Florida/Caribbean Network (SFCN) is a monitoring network across the National Park Service; its one of 32, actually. These networks have an inventory and monitoring program. Through this gathering of inventory and monitoring, the SFCN gives park rangers a better way to manage park resources. There are seven parks in the SFCN network including: Big Cypress National Preserve, Biscayne National Park, Buck Island Reef National Monument, Dry Tortugas National Park, Everglades National Park, Salt River Bay National Historical Park and Ecological Preserve, and Virgin Islands National Park.
Each one of these parks comes with its own challenges it has to face whether its water management, declining coral reefs, mercury toxicity, global warming, invasive species, weather concerns, sustainable fisheries, land use, rising sea levels, visitor usage, and more.
The SFCN staff is a team made up of biologists and ecologists. They monitor air quality, geology, soil, invasive species, landscape dynamics, marine communities, wildlife, terrestrial/freshwater vegetation and wildlife, threatened and rare species, visitor usage, water/hydrology, and water quality.
The SFCN believes in order to properly manage and care for these parks in the long term, there needs to be a knowledge of the resources in the parks. They do inventory to acquire a baseline of information.
The SFCN’s website is loaded with quality information sharing all inventories and things monitored. There are detailed lists, documents, and reports of everything happening in the park. If you’re interested in the current status of the Everglades, this site can give you some great insight. To learn more about the Everglades and the SFCN, click here.
Want to explore the Everglades for yourself? Take your own inventory of all the animals, birds, and plants you see on an airboat tour! If you’ve never been to the Everglades, an airboat tour is a great way to explore it. Captain Mitch’s Everglades Airboat Tours has been giving tours to people in this wetland for more than 30 years. To book a tour. Click here or call 800-368-0065.
