Ready to visit the beautiful Everglades National Park? There’s so much to see and do here! We highly recommend exploring this National Park and, of course, going on a private airboat tour with us at Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours.

For this article, we wanted to share with you some basics about the Park:

• The Park was established on December 6, 1947
• It is 1,542,526 acres
• About 1 million people visit the Park each year.
• The Park has three visitor centers: Ernest F. Coe, Flamingo, Shark Valley, Gulf Coast
• It costs $25 for you to enter with a vehicle and $8 per person to enter
• It is the third largest national park in the lower states
• The main purpose of the Park is to preserve wilderness
• It is the nation’s slowest, widest river that is 60 miles wide
• The water moves at about 2.5 miles per day
• The Seminole people called the area “River of Grass”
• You can explore the entire Everglades’ coast by water vessels
• You can enter the Park by land through Flamingo, Shark Valley or Gulf Coast.
• The dry season, which is between December and March is when most guided tours, programs and park concessions are available. This is also the best time to see wading birds.

Want explore a national treasure? Jump on an Everglades airboat tour for a chance to see wildlife and other beautiful sights. An airboat ride is the best way to get around the Everglades/

For a private, guided tour through Everglades, book an airboat tour with Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours.

To book an airboat ride, call  800-368-0065  or visit our Private Everglades Airboat Tours page. We are open seven days a week 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If paying by cash, adults cost $40 (plus tax) and children 12 and under cost $20 (plus tax. If paying by credit card, adults cost $45 (plus tax) and children cost $25 (plus tax).

Twenty to 40 years ago, there were plenty of ducks and other waterfowl swimming around the Everglades, and hunters would go hunting. But these days, not as many ducks show up as they once used to in the past.

Migratory ducks have been coming to the Everglades in lower number in recent years. It is believe that weather trends and the Everglades’ current ecosystem is why their numbers have dropped. Many of these ducks don’t migrate as far as they used to. There is also less habitat for these ducks to settle in due to farming and housing developments.

Lake Okeechobee used to be a big spot for ducks, but the low water levels and the algae blooms have kept the ducks away. The algae blooms kill aquatic vegetation that the ducks eat, which reduces ducks’ food sources. Phosphorous has also ended up in the Everglades from fertilizer from yard and farms which help feed the algae blooms and red tide, which has killed about 367 tons of marine life in the Gulf.

However, current restoration efforts to bring the waterflow back to its original state has seen positive results for bringing ducks back to the Everglades. For example: the Kissimmee River restoration project has allowed the natural river channel to be restored so water overflows the banks. Pre-restoration there was about one bird per four square kilometers and now there is about 40 birds per square kilometer.
The Central Everglades Project, which will restore habitat of 10,000 acres of degraded wetlands south of Lake Okeechobee, is said to help bring ducks back. Part of this project included the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, which is a 240,000-acre-foot holding tank similar to other stormwater treatment areas in the Park. These treatment areas are known to be good places to hunt ducks because they are filled with aquatic vegetation.

With more and more spots restoring to natural flows, the response has been positive for ducks and other waterfowl to return.

If you’re a fan of ducks or other birds, you can catch a glimpse of them on an airboat tour. Jump on an Everglades airboat tour for a chance to see ducks and other beautiful wildlife. An airboat ride is the best way to get around the Everglades.

For a private, guided tour through Everglades, book an airboat tour with Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours.

To book an airboat ride, call  800-368-0065  or visit our Private Everglades Airboat Tours page. We are open seven days a week 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If paying by cash, adults cost $40 (plus tax) and children 12 and under cost $20 (plus tax. If paying by credit card, adults cost $45 (plus tax) and children cost $25 (plus tax).

As the Earth warms, sea levels have risen, which has pushed the freshwater-saltwater barrier inland in the Everglades, as well as destroyed marshes and killed off mangroves – both of which are habitats to many creatures and threatened species. This large subtropical wilderness also is a protective barrier against hurricanes but between climate change, development, and draining, the Everglades isn’t functioning properly.

As sea levels rise, the mangroves keep retreating and many drown. According to research done by Florida International University, mangroves will likely all be submerged by water in 30 years as there is nowhere else for them to go. A geologist at FIU believe mangroves will be replaced by open water and the outlook isn’t good.

Mangroves are not just important to the Park, they are important for humans and life itself. They buffer storms and saltwater. They give many marine creatures a home.

The FIU research showed mangroves are migrating west over marshland at about 100 feet a year but they have been halted by a levee (flood barrier) in Miami-Dade county.

With mangroves moving inward, south Florida will become more vulnerable to storms.

The rising sea levels are also causing land loss to occur.

The ecosystem of the Everglades continues to shrink. Although there are restoration efforts in place, sea level rising is still a critical problem as its occurring at a rapid rate. In the south Florida coastline, the sea level is rising three times faster than the world average. Now, saltwater is entering the Everglades.

The Everglades is currently unhealthy, despite restoration efforts. It’s up against a lot of threats. It’s’ essential to do everything we ca to restore the Everglades so it can put up a fight against sea level rising and mangrove collapse.

Want to support the Everglades? Click Everglades National Park support.

At Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours, we love this Park, and we are lucky to show people its beauty and importance on a daily basis.

Come on down to the Everglades and ride with us on an Everglades airboat tour to truly experience this wetland. An airboat ride is the best way to get around the Everglades.

For a private, guided tour through Everglades, book an airboat tour with Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours.

To book an airboat ride, call  800-368-0065  or visit our Private Everglades Airboat Tours page. We are open seven days a week 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If paying by cash, adults cost $40 (plus tax) and children 12 and under cost $20 (plus tax. If paying by credit card, adults cost $45 (plus tax) and children cost $25 (plus tax).

Marjory Stoneman Douglas and the Everglades are forever intertwined. In fact, the National Park Service refers to her as the “Defender of the Everglades.”

She nicknamed the Everglades the River of Grass in 1947 to reflect the area’s slow movement of shallow sheet flow through the marshes.

In 1947, she wrote the book, The Everglades: River of Grass, which is the same year the Everglades National Park was established. She fought hard to protect the Everglades. After several reprints, there was a revised edition was published in 1987, to draw attention to the continuing unresolved threats to the Everglades.

She was one of the first people to bring attention to the Everglades and the south Florida ecosystem being in trouble due to construction programs in the 1950s by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. She felt this organization was destroying the wetland, eliminating the sheet flow of water, and disturbing/changing the natural cycles of the ecosystem.

She knew the Everglades depended on the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee into the Park and upon the Kissimmee River that feeds into the lake.

In 1970, she formed the Friends of the Everglades and was actively involved. She was against the Everglades being drained and developed.

Douglas was an American journalist, author, and women’s suffrage advocate.

In her book, she spent five years researching the Park and south Florida. The book sold out in a month.

The Christian Science Monitor wrote of the book, “Today her book is not only a classic of environmental literature, it also reads like a blueprint for what conservationists are hailing as the most extensive environmental restoration project ever undertaken anywhere in the world.”

Come down and explore this beautiful wetland that Douglas loved and fought to protect.

At Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours, we love this Park, and we are lucky to show people its beauty and importance daily.

Come on down to the Everglades and ride with us on an Everglades airboat tour to truly experience this wetland. An airboat ride is a great  way to get around the Everglades.

For a private, guided tour through Everglades, book an airboat tour with Captain Mitch’s Airboat Tours.

To book an airboat ride, call  800-368-0065  or visit our Private Everglades Airboat Tours page. We are open seven days a week 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If paying by cash, adults cost $40 (plus tax) and children 12 and under cost $20 (plus tax. If paying by credit card, adults cost $45 (plus tax) and children cost $25 (plus tax).

Want to safely explore the Everglades? There’s so many different ways to explore it, including an airboat tour. A ride on an airboat gives you an up-close-and-personal view of the Everglades; it’s a trip you’ll never forget.

To book an airboat trip, call 800-368-0065  or visit our Everglades Airboat Tours page. We are open seven days a week 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. If paying by cash, adults cost $40 (plus tax) and children 12 and under cost $20 (plus tax. If paying by credit card, adults cost $45 (plus tax) and children cost $25 (plus tax).