Baldcypress Swamps
By Mark Swails
Native Plants
A few native plants that live inside of the swamps is the Baldcypress, Water Tupelo, Pond Cypress, and Black Gum Trees.
Native Animals
Yellow Throated Warblers, Bald Eagles, Turkey, Evening Grosbeaks, Squirrels, and Wood Ducks.
Non-native Plants and Animals which harm the environment
Non-native Animal: Burmese Python, a lot get released out into the wild and kill the wild life.
Non-native Plant: A fungus that attacks the heartwood of a tree from the crown to its base, only stopping after the tree has died.
What Do We Gain?
Humans gain peat, which is soil composed mainly of decaying plant matter which is really good when owning a farm or garden. Humans also gain freshwater from the swamp.
Human Impact
Negative Impact: Wastewater that gets discharged from people's home gets brought into the swamp in which this increases the volume of the water, causing it to flood and it increases the pollution which can kill off the wild life. The cypress trees is a source for wood so this causes flying animals and others who live inside the trees to lose their habitat.
Positive Impact: In 1991 the Big Cypress Land Protection Plan was passed which outlines the actions necessary to assure resource protection and provide essential public access. A major one would be in 1974 when Congress created the Big Cypress National Preserve, which stated that the swamps were preserved within the National Park System.
What do Humans Cause
Humans cause the swamp to flood whenever wastewater is dumped into the swamp and the flood is sometimes drained, but not so much anymore since it has became a National Park Preserve.