The Everglades

Everglades National Park's mangrove ecosystem, extending over 230,000 acres of south Florida, is the most expansive in the western hemisphere and the largest continuous system of mangroves in the world. Most of this mangrove area is remote, accessible only by boat, complex and difficult to navigate. In The Everglades: Stories of Grit and Spirit from the Mangrove Wilderness we hear 21 stories from people who have ventured into this wilderness--for scientific work, artistic work, search-and-rescue missions, for personal renewal, or for the pure adventure of it. They tell stories of manatee rescue, shark encounters, storms and strandings, stories of environmental value and threat, wild beauty, personal enchantment and spirit. Together these stories reveal a world beyond the reach of most travelers. They also offer support and offer enticement to the intrepid few who may venture "out there" and return with stories of their own.
About the Author: Anne McCrary Sullivan grew up on the coast of North Carolina and has lived in Florida for more than thirty years. A Florida master naturalist with an MFA in poetry, she has been artist in residence in Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and at the Hambidge Center in Georgia. She has articles, chapters, and poems in many literary and academic publications and is author of Ecology II: Throat Song from the Everglades (poems), coauthor of Paddling the Everglades Wilderness Waterway. She holds a PhD in English education from the University of Florida, has been poetry editor of the EnglishJournal and a Fulbright Scholar in Nigeria. She lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida and spends as much time as possible in the Everglades. Holly Genzen is a Florida master naturalist and an outdoor education specialist. She has a masters in outdoor education and a PhD in educational administration. She has completed a solo thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail and has paddled more than a thousand miles in Central and South Florida. She is coauthor of the guidebook, Paddling the Everglades Wilderness Waterway, an effort that required extensive research into the social and natural history of the area. Her experiences in natural Florida have been the inspiration for her artwork, both in paintings and in her daily nature sketchbook. She has also been a volunteer at Shenandoah National Park. Central Florida is currently her home base for adventures in all directions.