Canoeists Study “Environmental Kidneys” of Florida 

As reported by Expedition News, a team led by a University of Florida scientist recently completed a 130-mile canoe expedition across the Florida Everglades to assess the impact of humans on the world’s largest subtropical wilderness. The group retraced an 1897 canoe journey that was first completed by explorer and scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby (1856-1939)

In 1897, the explorer and amateur scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby climbed into a canoe and embarked on a coast-to-coast expedition through the Florida Everglades, a wilderness then almost as vast as the peninsula itself and as unknown, he wrote, as the “heart of Africa.”

Willoughby and his guide were the first non-Indians to cross the Everglades from the Gulf of Mexico to the Atlantic Ocean, and Willoughby’s meticulous notes, maps, and water samples would form the basis of scientists’ historical understanding of the fabled “river of grass.” . .”

Last year’s expedition followed his journey, aiming to measure the impact of modern humanity on a watershed that is today among the most altered on Earth and responsible for the drinking water of some 12 million Floridians. The expedition also commemorated the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park, which was dedicated on December 6, 1947.

“We saw the full spectrum, from one of the most remote parts of the continental United States to one of the most urbanized parts of the United States — all in one basin, all in one trip,” said Harvey Oyer, co-leader of the four-man expedition and author of a series of children’s books about Florida’s historic frontier. “That, I think more than anything else, illustrates the impact of humanity from the time of Willoughby to today.”

Focused on applying modern scientific investigations to one of the planet’s most important watersheds, the team sampled and tested for the same water constituents that Willoughby did 125 years ago to compare water chemistry changes that have occurred since the human impact on the Everglades ecosystem commenced in the late 19th Century.  Most importantly, the 2022 Willoughby Expedition also tested for microplastics, a pollutant that Willoughby could not have foreseen and one that is adversely affecting plant and animal species globally. Willoughby’s charts aided in creating the first accurate maps of the region, and his water sampling provided the baseline water chemistry for the Everglades.

The coast-to-coast expedition also commemorated the 75th anniversary of Everglades National Park. It traversed the saltwater of the Gulf of Mexico, the brackish water of inland rivers, pristine freshwater sawgrass, canals in suburban Miami, and ultimately, through a maze of skyscrapers to Biscayne Bay. The Florida Everglades is one of the world’s best-known and most visited watersheds, serving as the “environmental kidneys” of Florida by filtering and cleaning water from the central and southern part of the state. Its water quality directly impacts more than 12 million people and thousands of plant and animal species. Today, the Everglades has been reduced to approximately one-third its original size to make way for the modern cities of South Florida and their millions of residents.

Learn more at: willoughbyexpedition.org.